Other Names: Marv Dasht, Marv Darsht, Marv Dacht
Location: There are several chemical plants in the city of Marvdasht, but the address of the suspected chemical weapons facility is unknown. One source reports a facility on the Persepolis-Shiraz highway. 29°36'54"N 52°32'19"E. Marvdasht is located near Shiraz in the Fars province.
Subordinate to: Jane's Online reports that the government department responsible for all chemical development facilities is the Engineering Research Center of the Construction Crusade (Jihad-e Sazandegi). During the Iran-Iraq War, a mustard-gas production facility in Marvdasht was reportedly under direct control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Size: Unknown
Primary Function(s): Reported chemical weapons production (specifically mustard gas)

History: During the war with Iraq, the IRGC is believed to have produced mustard gas at a facility at this location.

Activities: According to several sources, there is a suspected chemical weapons plant in the city of Marvdasht. The China Report notes Chinese assistance, in terms of both infrastructure for building chemical plants and some of the necessary precursors for mustard gas production at the Marvdasht center in Fars Province.

According to Radio Luxemburg, cited by Burck and Flowerree, in February 1984 there was an unconfirmed explosion in the research lab at a "Marv Darsht" or "Marv Dacht" petrochemical complex, in which several people were killed. Experiments on biological weapons were allegedly being carried out at this complex. A Kuwaiti paper reported soon after that this was Iran's "main factory for weapons and chemical products" and that it was destroyed by Iraqi bombing during the Iran-Iraq War.

In March 1985, a correspondent of the Voice of Liberation of Iran in Shiraz reported in a telephone dispatch that the chemical fertilizer plant in Marvdasht on the Persepolis-Shiraz highway was manufacturing several types of chemical weapons that were ready for use. The factory's first product was a weapon reportedly containing mustard gas that was being stored in the grounds near the Marvdasht factory, ready for transportation. These bombs were to be deployed on the war fronts with Iraq upon the orders of Khameneh'i. A bomb containing hydrogen cyanide gas was also reportedly produced at the Marvdasht chemical fertiliser plant at that time.

In March 1985, an Iranian opposition group in Italy reportedly claimed that a chemical fertilizer plant at Marvdasht had been converted over a three-year period with supervision from West German and Italian companies and experts, "...with the aim of making chemical weapons." An opposition radio station reported later that the plant had manufactured several types of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and cyanide.

There has been little speculation about these facilities since the end of the Iran-Iraq War.

Additional Information: Marvdasht is the location of the Chemical Fertilisers Company and the Shiraz Petrochemical Company (both established in 1963), but there is no evidence of CW activity in either of these plants.

Key Sources: Iran Yearbook '96, <http://www.harborwatchpub.com/iran/iyb96ind.htm>; Giles, "The Islamic Republic of Iran and Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons," in Peter R. Lavoy, Scott D. Sagan, and James J. Wirtz, ed., Planning the Unthinkable: How New Powers Will Use Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000), p. 101; Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence 1999-2000, p. 26; Jane's Online, Jane's Sentinel Security Assessment; Burck and Flowerree, International Handbook on Chemical Weapons Proliferation, pp. 254, 264; "Sudan in Brief; Iran's Reported Production of Chemical Weapons," BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, Part 4, "The Middle East, Africa, and Latin America," Section A, "The Middle East," ME/7960/A/1, 26 May 1985; Gerald M. Steinberg, "Chinese Policies on Arms Control and Proliferation in the Middle East," China Report, Special Issue on China and the Middle East, no. 3-4, 1998, pp. 381-400.

	Updated September 2003