Latest editorial
THE Thatcher government was reluctant to press for an international ban on Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein obtaining chemical weapons for fear that it would leave itself open to claims of hypocrisy, newly released files have revealed.
Foreign Office papers, released by the National Archives at Kew, show that British officials received US intelligence in early 1983 suggesting that mustard gas was being manufactured at a plant in Iraq.
The Indian contractor which built the factory had acquired some of the equipment from a British firm, Weir Pumps, which supposedly believed that they were to be used for the production of pesticides.
ANSELM ELDERGILL looks at the legality of the wars in the Middle East and the means used to fight them. It is said that truth is the first casualty of war, so what is the truth with regard to the legality of America’s and Israel’s wars in Iran, Palestine and Lebanon?
History shows from Iraq to Libya, and now Iran, that regime-change fantasies rarely deliver stability — but they always deliver human and economic cost, says MARYAM ESLAMDOUST
Trump threatens war and punitive tariffs to recapture Iranian resources – just as in 1953, when the CIA overthrew Mossadegh and US corporations immediately seized 40% of the oil, says SEVIM DAGDELEN