22 August 1973
Iran ratifies the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC).

Early to Mid-1980s
According to the US Department of Defense (DOD), Iran begins its offensive biological warfare program.
—US Department of Defense, Proliferation: Threat and Response, April 1996, <http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/prolif/me_na.html>; see also "CIA, DIA Provide New Details on CW, BW Programs in Iran and Russia," Arms Control Today, 26 August 1996, p. 32.

1980s
An Iranian scientist reportedly makes repeated efforts to acquire different strains of a fungus that produces mycotoxins from Canadian and later Dutch facilities.
—W. Seth Carus, "Iran and Weapons of Mass Destruction," MERIA 4 (3) (September 2000).

Mid-1980s
Mana International Investments, a company registered in Poland and controlled by Israeli businessman Nachum Manbar, supplies Iran with nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) protective suits.
—"CW Deliveries from China," Iran Brief, 6 July 1995.

As Early as 1982
As a result of the Iran-Iraq War and the Iraqi use of chemical weapons against Iranians, Iran allegedly begins to develop biological weapons by working on the "production of mycotoxins." Middle East analyst Anthony Cordesman acknowledges, however, that "there are insufficient unclassified data to characterize the scale of Iran's biological warfare programs, their focus....It is clear, however, that Iran has such programs and it has good reasons for expanding them...."
—Anthony H. Cordesman, "Iranian Chemical and Biological Weapons," CSIS Middle East Dynamic Net Assessment, 30 July 1997, p. 32.

[Note: According to Cordesman, the 1982 SIPRI Yearbook is the source that reports about Iranian BW activity, beginning for the first time in 1982 and then sporadically through the 1988 edition. However, CNS could not find any statement about an Iranian BW capability nor any Iranian research in mycotoxins in the 1982 Yearbook.]
—See Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, World Armaments and Disarmament; SIPRI Yearbook 1982 (Taylor & Francis Ltd: London, 1982).

2 July 1987
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reports that Iraq may have used biological weapons during a bombing raid on Sardasht, a mountain town in northwest Iran. The information came on 28 June from a doctor who examined victims from the raid. IRNA quotes him as stating that "the worsening infections of some of the wounded, along with other symptoms...indicated that biological bombs were used." The doctor states that medical specialists will be needed to examine the bomb remnants. The raid killed 12 and wounded 650.
—Samir F. Ghattas, "Revolutionary Guards Reinforce Naval Bases against U.S.," Associated Press.

18 October 1988
Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, then Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, says in a speech to military officers, "[c]hemical and biological weapons are poor man's atomic bombs and can easily be produced. We should at least consider them for our defense. Although the use of such weapons is inhuman, the war taught us that international laws are only scraps of paper."
—IRNA, 19 October 1998; FBIS Document, FBIS-NES, 19 October 1998; Paula DeSutter, Denial and Jeopardy: Deterring Iranian Use of NBC Weapons, National Defense University, <http://www.ndu.edu/ndu/inss/books/dajd/ch5.html>; Michael Eisenstadt, Iranian Military Power: Capabilities and Intentions, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policy Paper no. 42, 1996, pp. 25-26.

18 October 1988
Iranian Speaker of the Parliament, Hashemi Rafsanjani states, "...[w]e should fully equip ourselves in the defensive and offensive use of chemical, bacteriological and radiological weapons."
—Gregory F. Giles, "The Islamic Republic of Iran and Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons," in Peter R. Lavoy, Scott D. Sagan, and James J. Wirtz, eds., Planning The Unthinkable: How New Powers Will Use Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000), p. 84.

December 1988
An Iranian national allegedly attempts to buy toxigenic strains of fungi from Canada. An Iranian man identified in intelligence reports as a Mr. Moallem reportedly issues a request to a Canadian scientist, Dr. H. Bruno Schiefer, Director of the Toxicology Research Center at the University of Saskatchewan, to send him two strains of fungi. After consulting the Canadian government, Shiefer refuses.
—Michael R. Gordon with Stephen Engelberg, "Iran is Said to Try to Obtain Toxins," New York Times, 13 August 1989, p. 11.

December 1988
Dr. Schiefer, in a 20 November 2001 interview, recalls that the request was "definitely" suspicious. Because of this, he contacted the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department and followed its advice to turn down the request. Western intelligence sources believe that the letter to Dr. Schiefer was one of several attempts made on behalf of Iran to purchase mycotoxin-producing fungi from Canada and the Netherlands. The two samples of fungi requested were Fusarium spp.
—Don Sutton, "Harmful Fungi Requested by Iranian, Scientist Says," Globe and Mail (Toronto), 14 August 1989, p. A1; Tu Thanh Ha, "The Sinister Business of Biological Warfare," Globe and Mail (Toronto), 20 November 2001; FBIS, "Canadian Paper Notes 1988 Iranian Request for Toxin-Producing Fungus," Document EUP20011119000716, 19 November 2001.

1989
Reports emerge that Iran had previously purchased growth media suitable for producing mycotoxins from Germany.
—Andrew Rathmell, "Iran's Weapons of Mass Destruction," Jane's Intelligence Review – Special Report No. 6, June 1995, p. 17.

1989
US intelligence sources report that Iran is trying to buy two new strains of fungi from Canada and the Netherlands that can be used to produce mycotoxins. The Imam Reza Medical Center at Mashhad Medical Sciences University and the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology are identified as the end users for this purchasing effort, "but it is likely that that the true end user was an Iranian government agency specializing in biological warfare."
—Anthony H. Cordesman and Ahmed S. Hashim, Iran: Dilemmas of Dual Containment (Westview Press, 1997), p. 293;
Anthony H. Cordesman, "Iranian Chemical and Biological Weapons," CSIS Middle East Dynamic Net Assessment, 30 July 1997, p. 32; Michael Eisenstadt, The Deterrence Series: Chemical and Biological Weapons and Deterrence, Case Study 4: Iran, Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, 1998, p. 2.

21 February 1989
Iran attempts to buy toxigenic fungi in the Netherlands. The Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology in Tehran orders 11 types of fungi that can be used to produce mycotoxins from the Netherlands' Central Bureau for Fungus Cultures. The Dutch reject the order. This is Iran's second try in one year to procure fungi.
—Michael R. Gordon with Stephen Engelberg, "Iran is Said to Try to Obtain Toxins," New York Times, 13 August 1989, p. 11; "Says Iran Made Two Attempts to Buy Hazardous Fungi in Netherlands," Associated Press, 15 August 1989.

	Updated August 2003