Belgium: Three companies in court over chemical exports to Syria

(Brussels)  One thing I've noticed these past few years is how pressure groups love to claim that the US and Uk armed the most despotic regimes going, without providing any evidence or remaining silent on those that actually did. So we've all heard how the US and Uk armed Saddam, yet the fact remains his armoury of weapons have very few systems with a made in the US or UK stamp on them. (If you feel I am incorrect here, please be so kind as to prove me wrong with facts)  Which kind of explained all the Russian,Chinese, French, South African and Serbian weapon systems found within Iraq. Of late the country in question has moved North West to Syria and again the ethical latte drinkers have said the exact same thing and yet the vast majority of weapons are again Russian, Chinese and Eastern European and it was the same with Chemicals, In Iraq it was found that Germany built the chemical plants and Holland supplied the chemicals and in Syria it has been found that Belgium, (The country which loves to take the moral high ground when it comes to the US and UK) has been selling chemicals to Assad since 2013. The export of chemicals to Syria has been subject to special authorisation since 2013, but Belgian customs apparently did not take into account the ban of the International Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons of the United Nations.

Which is why the court case for 3 companies (AAE Chemie, Danmar Logistics, and intermediary Anex Customs) will begin next month in Antwerp over the export of several chemical substances between 2014 and 2016 to the Assad regime.The firms say they acted with the consent of Belgian customs officials between 2014 and 2016 but were subsequently alleged to have failed to apply for the permits that would protect them from falling afoul of the current global ban on exports.

How strange that those who claim to have the highest moral standards (during the 1991 Gulf war, Belgium refused to sell the Uk 120 mm tank ammunition (A fellow NATO member) as the Uk was part of the coalition which helped kick Iraq out of Kuwait which it has captured and occupied in 1990)  have no problem breaking their own ethical guidelines in which to make a quick buck from a despotic dictator.