GENEVA: Syria made multiple attempts to buy equipment in Switzerland that could have been used to make weapons of mass destruction, but officials blocked the sales, Swiss authorities said yesterday.
A total of 14 attempted purchases by Syria were turned down since 1998 by Switzerland’s export-control watchdog, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, its spokeswoman Marie Avet said. Among the contested items were a bioreactor, an industrial vacuum pump, and valves.
Avet said that export controls on sensitive products can apply even to relatively cheap items, and that the 14 rejected purchases were worth a total of $1.7m. The items in question could have had a civilian use, but there were reasons to believe that they could have been used to build weapons, she said. Swiss authorities have not issued export licences for such goods to Syria for the past five years, she added. AFP
