Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons
dated 18 July 1996 for the Appendices to the Report of the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and Dual-Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions laid before The House on 15 February 1996*

Volume One
Section D Arms and Defence-Related Exports to Iraq
Chapter 1 The Howe Guidelines

Excerpt:
THE INTRODUCTION OF THE HOWE GUIDELINES

D1.3 On 22 September 1980, Iraqi forces invaded Iran and began a war *1 which continued until, in August 1988, a ceasefire was accepted by both sides. The war produced casualties on a massive scale, the use by Iraq of horrifying chemical weapons, and the use by Iran of children as infantry soldiers. It produced for the United Kingdom serious problems of policy regarding sales of arms and defence-related equipment to the combatants.

D1.4 On the outbreak of the war, the United Kingdom had adopted a position of impartiality or neutrality. There was no United Nations embargo on defence sales to the two countries and it was open, therefore, to the government to operate its export licensing policy so as to permit the continuance of defence sales to both sides. Neutrality may have required no more than an even- handed approach to the combatants. It was, however, also Government policy, declared at an early stage in the conflict, to do nothing that might exacerbate or prolong the hostilities. Consistently with that policy, the Government announced that it would not license the export of lethal weapons to either side.*2 The implementation of this policy was, however, by no means straightforward.

Endnotes
*1 - Iraq would prefer 4 September 1980 as the date of the commencement of the war, that being the date on which Iranian artillery shelled Iraqi positions across the Shatt-Al-Arab and provoked, in the Iraqi contention, a defensive invasion of Iran on 22 September

*2 - The policy of denying defence equipment to Iran had been adopted in November 1979 as a result of the Iranian taking of the United States hostages. In the case of Iraq, Ministers decided shortly after the outbreak of hostilities that exports of weapons or ammunition to Iraq would not be sanctioned. See paragraph 9 of Lord Howe’s written statement of 10 January 1994

* The Full report is available from The Stationery Office Ltd., PO Box 276, London, SW8 5DT.