Treasury Uses Sanctions Authority to Name More Syrian Proliferators

By Jonathan Winer

On January 4, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated as WMD proliferators three Syrian entities, the Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology (HIAST), the Electronics Institute, and the National Standards and Calibration Laboratory (NSCL), prohibiting all U.S. persons from doing business with them and requiring them to freeze any assets associated with the three organizations.

The three companies are subsidiaries of the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), a Syrian military research and development and industrial complex that was secretly supported in the past by Russian chemical experts to produce VX nerve gas, and which in the mid-1990's obtained missile components from China's Precision Machinery Import-Export Corporation. In July 2003, an Israeli official contended that Syria had by then equipped its missiles with the VX nerve agent. According to various public sources, China, North Korea, Russia and Iran continue to provide Syria help with their rocket program, with Russia recently forgiving millions of dollars worth of Syrian debt to facilitate new purchases of proliferation-related goods by Syria.

The role of HIAST has been known for some time, raising the question of why it had not been named by Treasury previously. Both the Japanese and British governments have previously cited HIAST as involved in Syrian chemical and biological weapon programs. But the designation will likely have some chilling effect. In the past, HIAST has had scientific cooperation and exchanges with the European Community, United Nations organizations, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as British, Canadian, French and German universities. Although the U.S. action does not directly force any of these foreign countries and entities to shut down contacts, it is likely to at least make it more difficult for these companies to purchase the machine tools, flow-forming equipment, components for producing solid rocket propellant, measurement and control systems, and autoclaves they need to move forward with their WMD program.

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