GENEVA, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Switzerland lifted its freeze on
weapons exports to the United Arab Emirates on Friday but said
it would require guarantees that arms not be re-exported, after
a joint investigation found some Swiss-made grenades had found
their way into Syria's war.
The government suspended arms exports to the Gulf state in
July after a Swiss newspaper published a picture of a hand
grenade made by Swiss weapons manufacturer RUAG which it said
had been taken into the Syrian town of Marea, despite
Switzerland having stopped arms exports to Syria in 1998.
A joint Swiss-UAE investigation has found that some grenades
sold in 2003/2004 had been given by the UAE to Jordan "on the
grounds that it wished to support Jordan in the fight against
terrorism. From there the hand grenades evidently made their way
to Syria".
"The UAE assured Switzerland in writing that apart from the
hand grenades, no other war materiel imported from Switzerland
has been re-exported," the Swiss state secretariat for economic
affairs (SECO) said in a statement on Friday.
"New applications for licences to export war materiel to the
UAE must contain a non-re-export declaration, which grants
Switzerland the right to conduct an on-site post-shipment
inspection of the exported war materiel," it said.
SECO is to conduct a review in the coming months of previous
war materiel exports to various countries and inform the Federal
Council (Swiss cabinet) of its findings, it added.
"In view of these measures, which take immediate effect, the
Federal Council has decided that the temporarily suspended
application procedures for licences to export war materiel to
the UAE can be resumed," it said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Andrew Roche)
