UK in broil over supply of chemical to syria

The Daily Mail reported on Sunday that UK companies sold deadly poisonous chemicals to the Bashar al-Assad-led Syrian government that could have been used in the alleged chemical weapons attack in Damascus, killing around 1,400 people.

$14.69 Gas masks

In the period between July 2004 – May 2010, the British government had issued five licences to two companies that allowed them to sell to Syria sodium fluoride, a chemical used to make the known deadly sarin that can be used in chemical attacks, the ndtv report and UK daily reports said.

Chemicals used in attack -Sarin

Sarin, or GB, is an organophosphorus compound with the formula [(CH3)2CHO]CH3PF. It is a colorless, odorless liquid, used as a chemical weapon owing to its extreme potency as a nerve agent.
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Sarin can be lethal even at very low concentrations, with death following within one minute after direct ingestion due to suffocation from lung muscle paralysis, unless some antidotes, typically atropine or Biperiden and pralidoxime, are quickly administered to a person.[4] People who absorb a non-lethal dose, but do not receive immediate medical treatment, may suffer permanent neurological damage.

Other than sarin, VX and Mustard Gas are otehr chemical that have been used in  chemical attacks

Chemical attacks History

 

The March 16, 1988,(Saddam Gasses The Kurds) attack came during the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who ordered the attack on Halabja, came to be known as Chemical Ali. He was executed in 2010 following the U.S. invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam.

Chemical weapons were used sporadically after the war, including by the Soviets againstrebelling peasants; Spain and France against Rif rebels in Spanish Morocco; Britain in Mesopotamia; and Italian Fascists during the invasion of Abyssinia.

Most countries need to have checks , but in a clear breach of international protocol on the trade of dangerous chemicals and substances, the British firms delivered sodium fluoride to a Syrian cosmetics company.It is alleged that Assad’s government uses such sham companies to divert chemicals into its weapons programme in syria as reported by the newspaper.

"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, British companies – with the backing of our government – were supplying this potentially lethal substance as reported by Docherty.

This has created a flurry of questions in British parliament in relation to their accountability in this chemical attack