Did German companies help Syria make chemical weapons?

A list of German companies that may have assisted Syria build up the country’s chemical weapons arsenal over several decades is reportedly collecting dust. According to Der Spiegel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has been in possession of this list for 16 months but no investigation has been launched yet.

The German government, a coalition between Merkel's conservatives and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), received the list from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The organisation, together with the experts from the United Nations, had carried out the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons last year.

The government, however, has rejected calls to release the names on the list on the grounds that it would "significantly impair foreign policy interests and thus the welfare of the Federal Republic of Germany”.

As reported by Der Spiegel, Syria has produced and is storing poison gas weapons with an explosive power of more than 1,500 megatons. More than 1,400 people have been killed by poisonous gas during the ongoing civil war in Syria, though it is still not know if the chemical weapons were used by the Syrian army or by opposition militias.

Meanwhile, there is evidence that Germany had known about some of these companies 30 years ago. The “198Foreign Ministry” files (unclassified and released every 30 years) includes information about the German companies that may have been involved.

Source URL