§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean):Following consultation with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Trade and Industry recently approved two licences to export military list goods to Iraq. The arms embargo against Iraq remains in place under United Nations Security 31WS Council Resolutions 1483 (22 May 2003) and 1546 (8 June 2004). UNSCR 1483 (2003) includes an exception for "arms and related materiel required by the (Coalition Provisional) Authority to serve the purposes of this and other related resolutions".
Accordingly, prior to the hand over of power on 28 June and the Coalition Provisional Authority ceasing to exist, Her Majesty's Government considered it appropriate to grant licences for the export of the military listed goods on these two applications for use by private security companies, one working under contract to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the other working under contract to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the US Department of State and the project management office in Iraq. The licences are consistent with the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria. Future applications will continue to be assessed on a case by case basis against the UN embargo and consolidated criteria, taking into account the circumstances prevailing at the time.