UK supplied Saddam with equipment, documents reveal

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Classified British documents that were released on Friday indicate that the government of Margaret Thatcher had secretly supplied Iraq‘s former President Saddam Hussein with military equipment in early 1981, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The Financial Times quotes Thomas Trenchard, a junior minister, writing in a letter to Margaret Thatcher in March 1981, saying “Contracts worth over £150m have been concluded [with Iraq] in the last six months including one for £34m (for armoured recovery vehicles through Jordan)”. “This came despite the fact that the UK was officially neutral in the Iran-Iraq war, which begun in late 1980; Britain had also signed up to a UN Security Council resolution calling on its members to “refrain from any act which may lead to a further escalation and widening of the conflict” the Financial Times article continues. The article highlighted that “78 different types of military equipment including Land Rovers, tank recovery vehicles, terrain-following radar and spare tank parts that were in the process of being sold”. It noted that not all items on the list had completed sales marked. The Financial Times article goes on to say: “One prime-ministerial brief recommended that the best way to avoid public condemnation but to still make money from Iraq was to sell only non-lethal equipment but to “define this narrowly”. SKH (TI)/SR 518