For the first time the UK Government admitted that sodium fluoride was delivered to Syria by British companies; a clear breach of international protocol on the trade of dangerous substances that has been condemned as ‘grossly irresponsible’.
The UK firms delivered sodium fluoride to a Syrian cosmetics company for what they claim were legitimate purposes but intelligence experts believe Syria uses such companies to divert chemicals into its weapons programme.
Thomas Docherty MP, a member of the Commons Arms Export Controls Committee, said: "These are very disturbing revelations uncovered by The Mail on Sunday regarding the provision of sodium fluoride to Syria. Previously we thought that while export licences had been granted, no chemicals were actually delivered. Now we know that, in the build-up to the Syrian civil war, UK companies, with the backing of our Government, were supplying this potentially lethal substance. While the last export licence was issued in May 2010, these licences are obtained prior to manufacture and the industry standard is for four to five months to pass before the chemicals are delivered. So we are looking at late 2010 for the British supplies of sodium fluoride reaching Syria. The Government has some very serious questions to answer".
Last night a senior scientist condemned the sale, as Syria is one of just five countries to have refused to sign protocols against the use of chemical weapons.
The other nations not to have signed up to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) accords are North Korea, South Sudan, Egypt and Angola.
Professor Alastair Hay, a toxicology expert at Leeds University, said: "The Government’s approval of sodium fluoride sales to Syria during a period when it was widely suspected the regime was stockpiling dangerous substances is deeply disturbing. This was a serious mistake on BIS’s part as, while sodium fluoride has a multitude of benign uses, such as toothpaste, it remains a key ingredient in the manufacture of sarin. Quite simply, you need fluoride to make sarin. Given Syria’s refusal to sign up to the OPCW’s regulations I cannot see any justification for these sales. Have we learned nothing since the 1990s? Back then sodium fluoride was sold by the UK to intermediaries buying the chemical for Iraq where Saddam Hussein gassed his own people".
Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind also condemned the sale. He said: "When you have a dual-use chemical and one of the uses is for the construction of chemical weapons, as a general policy that should not be permitted for sale to any regime that is either known to have or might be interested in constructing chemical weapons or to a country that has failed to sign up to the international accords on the trade in restricted substances. So in the case of these licences being awarded to sell sodium fluoride to Syria it sounds as if some serious errors were made".
Last week it was also revealed that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) had granted export licences in 2012 but they were not used to send sodium fluoride to Syria.
The European Union subsequently banned exports outright.
 Daily Mail,VOR
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