Syrian conflict: Key sarin ingredients sold by UK firms
Britain sold chemicals and components to Syria that ended up being used in the manufacture of the deadly nerve agent sarin, BBC Newsnight can reveal.
A leaked Foreign Office document says they were supplied in the mid-1980s.
Ministers will confirm within days that UK firms provided the materials and that Syria has admitted they played a role in its chemical weapons programme.
They will say there were no proper regulations at the time, but that tighter rules and controls exist now.
Sarin has been linked to a number of attacks in Syria's bloody three-year conflict.
Newsnight's investigations correspondent Nick Hopkins reports.
09 Jul 2014
- From the section World