§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
When and in what terms they communicated to the United Nations Security Council the decision to send British Armed Forces into Côte d'Ivoire. [HL177]
§ Baroness Symons of Vernham DeanWe had the consent of the Ivoirian authorities to send British Armed Forces into Côte d'Ivoire to assist in the evacuation of British nationals. We informed the Security Council on 9 November that a team of military experts was being deployed to Abidjan to assist with contingency planning on, and subsequently proposed an exemption to the United Nations arms embargo to allow the temporary supply of military equipment to the forces of a country facilitating the evacuation from Côte d'Ivoire of its nationals and those for whom it has consular responsibility. This exemption was agreed, but in the event the UK did not need recourse to it as the evacuation of British nationals took place prior to the adoption of resolution 1572, which imposed the arms embargo.