Iran has developed fentanyl-based chemical weapons

Business  Insider-Nov 10th2024

Iran has developed chemical weapons based on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, warns a US expert, powerful agents that could incapacitate soldiers or civilians when added to grenades or artillery.

Pharmaceutical-based agents, or PBA, are essentially weaponized medicines that incapacitate or kill their victims depending on the exposure. Iran may have given PBA to its proxies such as Hezbollah, which could use them to kidnap Israeli troops and civilians.

“At a time of growing regional instability in the Middle East, largely the result of the militancy of Iranian proxies, the threats posed by Iran’s weaponized PBA program can no longer be overlooked,” wrote Matthew Levitt in an article for the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office defines PBAs as “chemicals based on pharmaceutical compounds, which may or may not have legitimate medical uses, and can cause severe illness or death when misused.” They include opioids such as fentanyl and tranquilizers for animals.

These drugs affect a victim’s central nervous system. “Once inhaled, these agents cause victims to lose full consciousness and enable the forces deploying them to advance quickly and quietly and/or take captive the unconscious victims,” Levitt wrote.

Iran was a victim of chemical warfare during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, when Iraqi chemical attacks — including nerve gases such as Sarin, and mustard gas — contributed to as many as 1 million Iranian casualties. But Iran employed its own mustard gas on a few occasions during the war. Israel believes Iran used PBAs against rebels in the Syrian Civil War, while there are reports that pro-Iranian militias in Iraq may have unleashed them against anti-government protestors.