Just so Canadians know what we would be up against in the event of a full scale war with Iran. It would appear from the referenced reports below that Iran doesn't have CW or BW stockpiles. Iran has signed the treaties banning CW and BW production and stockpiling. However Iran has the ability to produce BWs and CWs in a relatively short time, similar to their Nuclear Weapon break out capability. I would expect that in the event of an attack, Iran would make developing a WMD capability their second highest priority. Defending themselves with their conventional weapons would be the highest priority.
As is evident from the contents of the Persian Type Culture Collection discussed below, Iran clearly has access to many dangerous pathogens. Furthermore, Iran clearly possesses technology useful for producing biological weapons (as will be elucidated in the Facilities section of this profile). What remains unclear is whether Iran is indeed proceeding with a BW program. Like many facilities throughout the United States and Western Europe that have similar or even more advanced capabilities, these facilities are open to public scrutiny. Also, like many facilities in the West, Iran's leading biotechnology research and development facilities create valuable vaccine products that are distributed in Iran and throughout the world.
NTI: Country Overviews: Iran: Biological Capabilities
While Iran ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in late 1997, it continues
to seek production technology, training, and expertise from foreign entities that could
advance Iran's assessed chemical weapons (CW) program. We assess that Iran
maintains the capability to produce CW agent in times of need and conducts research
that may have offensive applications. We judge that Iran still maintains a capability to
weaponize CW agents in a variety of delivery systems.
Iran probably has the capability to produce some biological warfare (BW) agents for
offensive purposes, if it made the decision to do so. We assess that Iran has previously
conducted offensive BW agent research and development. Iran continues to seek dualuse
technologies that could be used for biological warfare.
http://www.dni.gov/reports/Unclassified%20Report%20to%20Congress%20WMD%20Covering%201January%20to%2031%20December%202007.pdf
BTW, I just learned a few things about Iran's CW and BW weapon programs. Iran has never used BWs or CWs offensively, even during the Iran/Iraq war when they were attacked by Iraq CWs. They had the capability and the legal right to use them in response, but for some reason, they did not resort to using them. I also assumed that Iran had CW and BW stockpiles like the US and Israel. apparently they do not. They have played with them in the labs and tested them, but they don't currently produce CW or BW weapons according to US intel. What they have is the ability to produce them in a relatively short period of time.