Written question asked by Ivan Lewis (Labour) on Monday, 26 March 2001, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 3 April 2001. It was answered by Brian Wilson (Labour) on Tuesday, 3 April 2001 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what efforts he has made to ensure that arms sales to Syria do not fall into the hands of (a) Hizbullah, (b) Hamas and (c) Islamic Jihad.

Answer: Mr. Ivan Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what efforts he has made to ensure that arms sales to Syria do not fall into the hands of (a) Hizbullah, (b) Hamas and (c) Islamic Jihad. [155995] Mr. Wilson: As for all other countries, we consider all applications for licences to export military equipment to Syria on a case-by-case basis against the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria, taking careful account in case of the nature of the equipment and the proposed end-use and end-user. If there is a clear risk that the proposed export might be used for internal repression, external aggression or diverted to an undesirable end-user the licence is refused.

Secondary information