§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports Her Majesty's Government have received of the use of nerve agents by Iraqi forces during (i) the Iran-Iraq war and (ii) the attack on Halabja; and when the first such reports were received. [62513]
§ Mr. FatchettThere have been numerous reports about Iraq's use of chemical weapons. The UN Secretary-General first despatched a mission of specialists to investigate allegations of their use in the Iran-Iraq conflict in March 1984. In 1988, he sent a medical specialist to Iran and Iraq to investigate allegations of chemical attacks in Halabja. A report on 25 April 1988 drew together the results of these missions, concluding that nerve agent had been used in both instances.