BRUSSELS, Apr 18 (AFP): Three Belgian companies are facing prosecution for allegedly exporting a chemical that can be used to make the deadly nerve agent sarin to Syria, in breach of international sanctions, officials said Wednesday.
Belgian customs agents have brought a case against the firms-a chemicals company, a transporter and an intermediary-who are suspected of exporting isopropanol to Syria and Lebanon without declaring it, a spokeswoman for the finance ministry told the news agency.
Isopropanol is subject to strict export controls when it is concentrated to 95 percent or more because it can be used to make chemical weapons, including sarin-which the United Nations and the West say the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used on its own people.
Isopropanol also has more innocent uses as a paint solvent and cleaning fluid.
Finance ministry spokeswoman Florence Angelici said a case had been brought for making a false customs declaration, as the companies had not listed isopropanol on the shipping documents.
A court in the port city of Antwerp will start hearing the case on May 15.
Belgian weekly Knack first brought the case to light, reporting that a total of 168 tonnes of isopropanol had been shipped from Belgium to Syria and Lebanon between mid-2014 and the end of 2016.
According to Knack, the case involves a total of 24 shipments including other products such as methanol, a type of alcohol, and the solvent dichloromethane.
The three companies involved--industrial chemicals supplier AAE Chemie, customs specialist Anex Customs and its shipping partner Danmar Logistics--all say they acted in good faith, Knack reported.
A UN security team was fired at on Tuesday while on a reconnaissance mission in the Syrian town of Douma ahead of the deployment of experts investigating an alleged chemical attack, a UN official said.
"Shots were fired yesterday at a UN security team doing a reconnaissance in Douma," the official told AFP. "They were not injured and returned to Damascus."
The experts from the OPCW chemical watchdog were awaiting the green light from the security team before beginning their investigation in Douma of the alleged attack.
The suspected April 7 gas attack on Douma, near Damascus, reportedly left more than 40 people dead and was blamed by Western powers on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
XINHUA adds: Around 500 displaced Syrians gathered Wednesday in Lebanon's southern town of Shebaa, waiting for buses that will take them to "safe zones in Syria," the National News Agency reported.
The displaced will be evacuated, through the Masnaa border crossing in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa valley, from Shebaa and Hasbaya to Syrian towns of Beit Jinn and Mazraat Bit jin, the report said.
The repatriation was directly coordinated between the Syrian authorities and the refugees themselves.
The chosen safe areas are a direct reflection of Ghouta battle according to a security source who told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that "it is a prelude to a series of successive operations that has nothing to do with the Lebanese government."
The United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has made direct contacts with the displaced persons making sure their return is voluntary.
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