Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday announced the establishment of a joint investigation to look into whether hand grenades exported to the UAE were sent on to Syria.

The Swiss government this month temporarily halted arms shipments to the UAE after Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung published a photograph indicating a Swiss-made grenade was found with Syria rebels.

The temporary ban was lifted after the creation of the investigation commission.

Switzerland is a country enjoys neutral status. Although Swiss laws ban arms sale to warring states, weapons produced by Swiss manufactures have repeatedly been spotted as being used in wars.

Swiss-made tanks sold to the UAE in 2004 and Romania in 2007 were also found to be used in Morocco, Iraq and Afghanistan.