MPs question the Government further on Arms Exports to Syria
19 July 2012
In its July 13 Report (HC419), the Committees on Arms Export Controls published the 9 arms exports to Syria for which the Government had approved export licences and that were still extant. These licences were for chemicals subject to export licensing, hydrophone sensors, cryptographic equipment, vehicles with ballistic protection, industrial components subject to export licensing and personal protective equipment.
In the attached letter to the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, the Chairman of the Committees, Sir John Stanley has requested 48 items of additional information about these approved arms export licences to Syria.
Sir John Stanley said:
"The grim situation in Syria makes it imperative for Parliament to have much more detailed information about the existing UK arms export licences to that country.
Britain still has existing arms export licences to Syria more than a year after the Arab Spring uprising against the Syrian regime began. This underlines the importance of the Committees’ recommendation in their Report last week that the Government should apply significantly more cautious judgements when considering arms export licence applications for goods to authoritarian regimes which might be used to facilitate internal repression in contravention of British Government policy."