'UK didn’t stop Saddam regime making chemical arms'
Press TV has conducted an interview with Kevin Ovenden, a member of the UK's Respect Party Leadership from Athens, and Jonathan Fryer, a lecturer & broadcaster from London, to discuss new secret papers which show the UK government didn’t oppose Saddam’s chemical weapons program because a British firm was involved in their trade.
Ovenden says during the Iran-Iraq war, the US and Britain obviously supported Saddam Hussein’s regime and they were aware of whatever Baghdad ha done during the imposed war. They delivered different kinds of arms, especially weapons of mass destruction, to Saddam Hussein to fight Iran. Ovenden says in 1983, even before that, Iraq began to use chemical weapons on a large scale to repel Iranian attacks, and that diplomats were aware of Baghdad’s covert chemical weapons program.
Referring to the shooting down of an Iranian civilian passenger flight by a guided missile fired from a United States Navy cruiser on July 3, 1988, which killed all 274 passengers on board, Ovenden says the United States didn’t apologize to Iranians and unfortunately they gave a medal to the Captain of the ship who committed that atrocity. This is why most of the nations around the world don not trust the United States.
Meanwhile, Fryer says in 1979, the UK Foreign Office was informed by its ambassador to Baghdad of the manufacturing of some chemical weapons by the Iraqi army, but the UK Foreign Office arms control department declined to impose export restrictions. Fryer says it is very difficult to apologize for historical errors. He says whatever is important now is that both sides could turn a fresh page and forget the past.
MAN/NN
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