Iran has a sophisticated base for the development of a chemical weapons program dating back to the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)—a conflict that gave Iran strong incentives for developing a robust chemical defense capability. There are several unclassified allegations and reports that suggest Iran has developed an offensive CW program as well. Most of these claims cannot be verified in open sources. However, reports of transactions of various dual-use material is publicly known. Imports such as thiodyglycol and thionyl chloride can be applied towards legitimate purposes such as dyes, textiles, and pesticides or can be diverted towards an illicit CW program. Iran also imported several tons of phosphorus pentasulfide, which is on the Australia Group's watch list for controlled chemical precursors, but not on the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) Schedule lists. The compound has several legitimate uses in the agricultural industry, specifically relating to pesticides, but is also a starting point for nerve agents such as VX. Based on such information, some idea of Iran’s CW status can be ascertained.

	Updated February 2006