Syria: Sanctions

(asked on 18th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 13 May (HL Deb, col 681), what assessment they have made of the compatibility of the continuing prohibition on sales of dual use goods such as disinfectants and nitrous oxide for anaesthetics to the Syrian Ministry of Health with the exemption of medical supplies used for humanitarian purposes from sanctions on that country.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 2nd June 2020

EU Syria sanctions do not prohibit the sale, supply, transfer, export or finance of disinfectants, nitrous oxide and other goods required to combat Covid-19. Certain goods and their components can be used for internal repression, including through chemical attacks, and are therefore subject to prohibitions but even in those cases, humanitarian exemptions enable them to be sold or exported where the end user has demonstrated that the goods will be used to deliver humanitarian relief and will not be transferred to a designated person or entity. The Syrian Ministry of Health is not designated in the EU Syria sanctions. Applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis in accordance with UK legislation and the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. On 12 May, the European Commission issued guidance on the humanitarian exemptions to the Syria sanctions regulations to support humanitarian organisations.

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