The United Kingdom was directly involved in arms trade with both parties during the war, however the British government kept a blind eye to evident illegal exports taking places between numerous British companies and Saddam Hussein's regime, making Iraqi clandestine procurement operations very active within the United Kingdom.
The UN Security Council had identified and listed 150 foreign companies whom supported and facilitated Saddam Hussein's program for weapons of mass destruction during the Iran-Iraq war. 24 of these companies were British.
Matrix Churchill was a company set up in Coventry in England heavily involved in the production and exportation of machine tools used for the building of military equipment used by Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war, and following the war.
3 senior executives of the Matrix Churchill firm were charged in 1991 with deceiving the British government over the intended use of the machine tools when they applied for export licenses. Matrix Churchill defended itself by claiming that the British government knew exactly what the firm was doing, and as one of its directors claimed to have been working for the British intelligence services, the Ministry of Defence advised the firm on the best ways to apply for export licences without attracting attention.
It was revealed that Britain exported Thiodiglycol, a mustard gas precursor, and Thionyl chloride, a nerve gas precursor, all of which were used in an extensive chemical attack against Iran during the Iran-Iraq war by Saddam's regime.
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