I'm John Bachelor.

Chemical weapons.

Weapons of mass destruction.

I welcome Andrea Stricker of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

She is part of the non-proliferation program at the FD,

to turn from the concerns every day about nuclear weapons in Iran to chemical weapons in Iran.

This is something that I'm fresh to,

so Andrea is going to leave me through the thinking here as recently as right now.

Andrea, a very good evening to you. Why did Iran develop a chemical weapons industry supply

chain? Why did they devote their university time to it?

What is the explanation Iran offers for something that ordinarily would be understood as malevolent?

Good evening to you.

Good evening, John. Iran has long developed chemical weapons since at least the 1980s in order to

potentially use them against Iraq during the long

eight-year war. And of course, Iran was the victim, Iranian soldiers were victims of Iraqi

chemical weapons use. So that traditional battlefield program after the war, they maintain the stockpiles

and capabilities.

And according to the U.S. and Israel, the program evolved into something more sophisticated.

So they focus on chemical weapons that they could use against civilians or against Israel or other regional targets in the form of pharmaceutical-based agents.

So weaponized medicines, in effect, aerosolized, delivered via grenade that they could use during

battles.

And then also these debilitating substances that could be used for riot control but qualify

...