From: sehari@iastate.edu (Babak Sehari)
Subject: STUDY FINDS BRITAIN'S ARMS TRADE TO THE MIDDLE EAST CONTINUES UNABATED
Originator: sehari@class1.iastate.edu
Organization: Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, Iowa.
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 23:03:06 GMT

STUDY FINDS BRITAIN'S ARMS TRADE TO THE MIDDLE EAST CONTINUES UNABATED

LONDON, (NOV. 13) IPS - The British government is being exposed as another
Western power that helped build Saddam Hussein into the bellicose monster that
turned on his creators. But the West continues to arm volatile Middle East
states, say analysts. 

"In the final stages of Operation Desert Storm the allies said they would take
a firm stand on preventing a Middle East arms race...but terrific amounts of
armaments are still being sent to these potential conflict zones," says
Professor Paul Wilkinson, author of a recent report on arms sales to the Middle
East. 

Since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991 some $35 to $45 billion worth of arms have
been supplied to the Middle East -- a figure that amounts to a sudden and
dramatic upsurge in sales. The escalation is justified by suppliers as helping
to create a defensive shield for vulnerable states. But, say analysts, many of
the weapons are highly sophisticated offensive missiles. 

Though the technology is taking place within the context of peace time, not the
military build-up of Iraq in the 1980s, the parallels are close enough to
prompt analysts to warn governments who seem not to be learning from their past
mistakes. 

Saferworld, an independent think-tank that co-researched Wilkinson's report,
says the major powers place "short term, narrowly defined foreign policy and
commercial interests above the needs of long-term peace and stability in the
Middle East." 

Fears of a Western-fed arms race within the Middle East came as British Prime
Minister John Major battled to contain a furor over allegations that ministers
colluded to contravene a government embargo on arms sales to Iraq up to the
invasion of Kuwait. 

The scandal broke during a four-week trial which charged a British machine
tools company with illegal arms sales to Iraq. The case collapsed when the
defense produced classified documents alleging government ministers blurred the
guidelines to enable the company to trade with Iraq. 

The total value of British arms exports to Iraq up to the Kuwaiti invasion is
unknown. But in 1987 British intelligence learned that $57 million worth of
machine tools were going to Iraqi arms factories. 

Britain was not alone in tacitly building up Iraq's defenses. The unfolding
"Saddamgate" investigation in the United States into top level sanctioned
exchanges of 'arms for hostages' deals suggests the policy was widely accepted,
on a confidential level. Western governments, say analysts, saw Iraq as a
necessary bulwark against Islamic Fundamentalism after the overthrow of the
Shah of Iran. 

Despite an international arms embargo on Iraq Saddam Hussein by 1991 had run up
international debts of about $75 billion, much of which was used to buy arms.
His defense budget in 1990 was $13.3 billion, about 25 percent of the previous
year's gross domestic product, and his army had become the fourth largest in
the world. 

After the Gulf war, when half the world had to ally to fight Saddam Hussein,
governments made strong commitments to curb arms sales to the Middle East. 

"It would be tragic if the nations of the Middle East were now, in the wake of
war, to embark on a new arms race," Foreign Office Minister Douglas Hogg said
in March 1991. 

Yet since then the British government has gone on to more than double orders
for arms exports to the region. Some four billion dollars worth of arms have
been ordered from Britain from countries around the Middle East, including
Iran, Syria and Israel. 

Of the estimated $35-$45 billion dollars worth of arms that have poured into
the region since the invasion of Kuwait, the major share has gone to Saudi
Arabia, which has put in orders of over $17 billion. 

But analysts are not convinced by arguments that arms sales are necessary to
prop up Western-friendly nations, especially in a region where today's friend
is tomorrow's worst enemy. The reality, say analysts, is that as economies in
developed nations crumble under the weight of a prolonged and severe recession,
the temptation of safe-guarding and creating jobs in the arms industry becomes
ever harder to resist. 

"There are always excellent reasons for selling arms -- economics, jobs,
regional security -- but various countries applied these reasons to Iraq and
the net result was that Iraq had more tanks and aircraft than England and
France together," says Sir Anthony Parsons, a former British ambassador to the
U.N. 

It is possible the U.N. Security Council could become the means to control its
own members' worst arms exporting excesses. If not, say analysts, the world
could face wars that make the Gulf War seem like the mother of all warm-ups. 



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