Page "Iraq disarmament timeline 1990–2003" Paragraph 294

* According to U. S. Intelligence, China, with help from France and Syria, has secretly sold to Iraq the prohibited chemical Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene, or HTPB, which is used in making solid fuel for long-range missiles.

France denies that the sale took place.

U. S. intelligence traces the sale back to China's Qilu Chemicals company in Shandong province.

The chemical sale involved a French company known as CIS Paris, which helped broker the sale of 20 tons of HTPB, which was then shipped from China to the Syrian port of Tartus.

The chemicals were then shipped by truck from Syria to an Iraqi missile manufacturing plant.