No Chemical Weapons for Iran, Official Says

There is no place in Iranian defense policy for chemical weapons, chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili told the European Parliament yesterday (see GSN, April 27, 2007).

“(Chemical) weapons have no place in our defense doctrine,” he said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

Jalili said Iran refused to retaliate against Iraqi chemical weapon attacks, which he said resulted in the death of 100,000 Iranians while the two countries were at war between 1980 and 1988.

“During Saddam Hussein's brutal attack on Iran we remained committed to the ethical and religious principles and refused to attack Iraqi cities.  When Saddam imposed a full-fledged war on our nation and bombarded our cities, we could target some Iraqi cities with our very small and ordinary weapons.  But late Imam [Ruhollah Musawi] Khomeini never sanctioned attack on the cities just on ethical and religious grounds.”

“At those times, Saddam, backed by certain European countries, applied chemical weapons against Iran.  Later, the supplier countries themselves began to object.  At those times we considered such weapons inhuman and unethical.”

The United States and other Western nations have suspected the existence of an Iranian offensive chemical weapons program, but that has never been publicly verified, according to one analysis (Islamic Republic News Agency/Mathaba, Jan. 23).

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