Nerve-racking experience

-- (Credit: Rustam Vania)A GERALAN ship carrying a load of the dual-use chemical trimethyl phosphate (TMP) exported from India to
Syria is now stuck in Cyprus after Germany refused to
allow the cargo to be offloaded for onward shipment.
The USA is said to have asked the German authorities to
stop the shipment because it suspects the TMP, which
has been ordered to manufacture pesticides, will be used
by Syria to make nerve gas.

The 45-tonne shipment was
exported by the Bombay-based -
company United Phosphorous as
the second part of a 90-tonne
order by a Syrian pesticide-manufacturing firm. Under Indian
regulations, the export of TMP is
not banned. However, recently
TMY has been put under a list of
chemicals that need permission
before export. It seems USA, the
global policeman, will finally
have to give the permission.