TODAY’S MESOP QUOTATION : CHEMICAL WEAPONS SYRIA – THE FRENCH + GERMAN CONNECTION
REMEMBERING SADDAM + JACQUES CHIRAC
Syria did not rely on rogue states, or even entirely on its alliance with the Soviet Union, to acquire its chemical weapons stockpile — it simply asked European companies for the technology. CERS received financial support to purchase equipment from the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, and it sent its engineers for training at the French government’s official research agency, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). Until the early 1990s, the French government was actively encouraging French high-tech companies to do business with CERS, according to a 1992 report by Middle East Defense News (Mednews).
West German company Schott Glasswerke provided high-durability glass instruments for what the Syrians dubbed the “Borosilicate Glass Project”