HL Deb 06 June 1996 vol 572 c136WA
The Countess of Mar

asked Her Majesty's Government:

For what reasons they discount the possibility that Iraq may have released Scud missiles containing toxic but sub-lethal quantities of nerve agents when 28 Iraqi Scud missile warheads containing Sarin were found at the end of the war.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe)

Careful analysis of reported detections of chemical weapons agents during the Gulf Conflict has failed to find any evidence of the release of nerve agents by the Iraqis.

The Countess of Mar

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they accept that, at the time of Operation Granby, Iraq had several chemical weapons including Soman and Sarin, and why they discounted Czechoslovak military reports that low levels of Sarin were detected in the Saudi theatre in the early days of the air conflict.

Earl Howe

At the time of Operation Granby, Iraqi stocks of chemical weapons (CW) included nerve agents of the Satin and Soman types. The reported detections of CW agent by the Czechoslovak military have been carefully studied by UK authorities, who have found no collateral evidence that would support such detections.