Intelligence

Syria sold weapons to Saddam

Scotsman.com News - Top Stories - Syria sold weapons to Saddam

JASON BEATTIE

SYRIA repeatedly breached United Nations embargoes to supply Iraq with arms and military hardware in the run-up to the coalition's invasion in March, it was reported yesterday.

A Syrian company with close connections to the ruling regime in Damascus funnelled illicit components for surface-to-air missiles, telecommunications equipment and small arms to Saddam Hussein between 2002 and 2003, the Los Angeles Times has revealed.
The private firm SES International was the main channel for the movement of illegal arms to Baghdad.
The company signed contracts to supply millions of dollars in equipment to the Iraqi military, including machine guns and other light weaponry now being used in insurgent action against United States and British forces overseeing reconstruction work.

Last night, the Foreign Office gave warning that it was examining the evidence documented by the Los Angeles Times and was prepared to raise concerns with Syria if appropriate.
The documents unearthed in Iraq also reveal that senior officials in the Syrian government assisted SES in importing a ship full of hardware destined for the Iraqi military.
At the height of the Iraq war, Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, accused the Syrian regime of allowing the shipment of night-vision goggles and other military supplies to Iraq.
At the time, the Syrians said Mr Rumsfeld’s remarks were unfounded and irresponsible. But files unearthed in the Baghdad office of the Al Bashair Trading Company reveal SES signed more than 50 contracts with Baghdad firms as Saddam desperately tried to reinforce his military operation ahead of the invasion.
Among the successful deals were the delivery of 1,000 heavy machine guns and up to 20 million bullets for assault rifles. The documents – 800 pages of signed contracts, export papers, bank deposits and minutes of meetings – offer proof for the first time of the relationship between several states and
the illegal arms trade.

Although there is no evidence of dealings in weapons of mass destruction,
the documents show how Syria, North Korea and Iraq were involved to differing extents in the illegal arms trade. Tony Blair argued that one of the main justifications for action in Iraq was the potentially catastrophic consequences of an alliance between rogue states with weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism.
The newspaper found that a Polish company signed four contracts with Iraq and successfully shipped hundreds of surface-to-air Volga/SA-2 missile engines to Baghdad through Syria.
In addition, a Russian company signed a £4.96 million contract in September 2002 to supply mostly US-made communications and surveillance gear to Iraq’s intelligence service.
The company’s general manager in Moscow later wrote to suggest "the preparation of a sham contract" to deceive weapons inspectors, documents show. And a Slovenian state owned company shipped 20 large battle-tank barrels identified as "steel tubes" to SES in February 2002. Overall, its secret contract called for delivering 175 tank barrels to Iraq. Two North Korean officials also met the head of Al Bashair at SES offices in Damascus month before the war to discuss Iraq’s payment of £5.63 million for "major components" for ballistic missiles. These revelations and others like them could place a question mark over Mr Blair’s approach to Syria. The Prime Minister has attempted to win round the Syrian president, Bashir Assad, through diplomacy, in contrast to the White House, which has taken a more aggressive approach. No-one from the Syrian embassy in London was available to comment.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said any provision of military equipment to Iraq would be a serious breach of the sanctions regime. Syria should take seriously its responsibility that sanctions are not violated, the spokeswoman added, saying:
"We have raised previous violations of sanctions with the countries concerned and we will consider any evidence presented in this respect and raise concerns again if appropriate."
Sir Timothy Garden, from the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, said the revelations of the illicit trading fitted with previous intelligence about the Syrian-Iraq axis.
"I would have expected there to have been trading relations [between Iraq and Syria] which were covert. There were both pariah regimes and they tend to operate together," he said. "It may be things were going without the Syrian government being directly involved but without it trying that much to stop it."

December 31, 2003 at 02:59 AM in Iraq, Syria | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home