When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
LA STAMPA

Not Just Russia: Italy, Other Europeans Sold Plenty Of Weapons To Syria

Tanks in Azaz, Syria
Tanks in Azaz, Syria
Francesco Grignetti

ROME — Way back in 1998, Bill Clinton bet on the young Assad. He was to be his father’s successor, and the United States believed that the young Bashar al-Assad, once he reached power, would be the person to bring Syria back into the fold among the civilized nations of the world.

And so Clinton’s government, despite the controversy it provoked, took some very significant decisions: Syria was removed from the black list of narcotic-producing countries, sanctions were lifted, and the arms embargo was eased. America’s allies quickly followed suit, and Italy was the quickest to reestablish links with Damascus. The result: a massive order of what was then a payday of 400 billion lira (206 million euros) for the Italian military industry.

The Italian government authorized this monster-order as can be seen in the weapons report presented to Parliament on March 31, 1999 by the government of then Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema: “In 1998, the considerable export total came mainly from a single destination country, and in practice, from a single order. Among the main countries, Syria was the top destination with 21.79% of weapons exports, equivalent to 400.64 billion lira with a single authorization." With just one purchase, that year Damascus far outspent both France and the U.S. in its military shopping spree in Italy.

What that order actually involved would become clear during the following years: night-vision viewfinders for tanks with thermal and laser capacities, called “Turms,” produced by a company from within the Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica. It would allow the Syrians to modernize old T72 Soviet tanks that were equipped with rather rudimentary viewfinders.

The company, Galileo Avionica, pocketed $229 million in return for 500 Turms pieces. As is normal procedure, the order was drawn up by the companies, and then authorized by the government. The provision was spread over several years; this sort of equipment is not held in a warehouse ready to go, but produced and delivered in batches.

Dictator favors

It is no surprise that European statistics show an impressive flood of exports from Italy to Syria throughout the first decade of the new millennium. The rate was so high that Italy became the European leader in weapons sales. But it wasn’t alone. Still in 1998, a merchant ship set sail from Denmark with 12 T72 tanks on board and 186 tons of munitions. And in Germany a scandal had recently broken surrounding Telemit Electronics, suspected of having bribed foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher’s liberal party in exchange for government authorizations to export to Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Without losing a sense of proportion, however, it must be remembered that for the last 10 years Vladimir Putin’s Russia has Syria’s arms dealer of reference: 78% of weapons in Assad’s army come from Moscow.

“And we are only talking about official sales here,” vice-president of Italy’s disarmament archive Maurizio Simoncelli warns, “not the gray or black markets. The statistics, as is to be expected, only record registered contracts. Then there is all the rest.”

“All the rest” is everything transported undercover. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain how there are still so many weapons in Syria when an arms embargo has been in place on the regime for two years and almost no one will admit to supplying the rebels. According to the Permanent Observatory on "Light Weaponry" (a vague definition usually comprising pistols, rifles, cartridges, and even hand bombs, machine guns and missile launchers) and Italy’s Disarmament Network, the sharp rise in light weapons exports to Turkey is very suspicious.

According to a recent inquiry on the website Wired, the orders from Galileo Avionica continued for 10 years, peaking in 2002 and 2003. And given that 500 tank viewfinders is a huge number, even for Assad’s extensive army, it is believed that a certain number of those pieces were passed on to Saddam Hussein ‘under the counter.’

This was the eve of the Second Gulf War after all. US Secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld accused Assad’s regime of providing Saddam with arms and thus bypassing the embargo then in place. What’s more, this is the same period in which the Iraqi regime relocated its chemical arsenal to Syria. Those were some of the same chemical weapons that Saddam had used against Kurdish rebels, and which Assad is using today. An exchange of favors from one dictator to another.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

On The Donetsk Frontline, Where Kamikaze Drones Are Everyone's Weapon-Of-Choice

In Ukraine, kamikaze drones have gradually overtaken artillery as the main threat to soldiers — on both sides of the frontline. Meanwhile, a bitter winter is taking over life in the trenches.

On The Donetsk Frontline, Where Kamikaze Drones Are Everyone's Weapon-Of-Choice

Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline.

Guillaume Ptak

DONETSK — In the chilly pre-dawn hours, a mud-stained pickup truck drives along a potholed road in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk. Despite the darkness and the ice, the vehicle travels with its lights off, its interior illuminated only by the reddish glow of a lit cigarette.

For the latest news & views from every corner of the world, Worldcrunch Today is the only truly international newsletter. Sign up here.

Throughout the early morning last Monday, the cracking sound of artillery can be heard echoing intermittently in the distance, followed by the bright trail of a projectile soaring into the cloudy sky.

Inside the truck, four soldiers from the 28th brigade of the Ukrainian army have just left the relative comfort of a small country house to go to the frontline, towards Bakhmut. After a short journey through overgrown fields and devastated villages, the car stops at the edge of a forest.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest