Israeli Claims of Iranian Chemical Weapons Divide U.S. Officials

Israel has shared intelligence with the United States asserting that Iran is considering the use of chemical weapons against its adversaries, information met with alarm by some American officials and deep skepticism by others, according to U.S. and regional officials. Some American officials see the Israeli intelligence as part of a pressure campaign by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to persuade the Trump administration to return to major combat operations against Iran.

Other officials believe the threats should be taken seriously, given the recent array of warnings about Iran’s preparations to attack American interests. Israel has shared some of the information with officials in Gulf countries. Several doubted that Iran was developing plans to use chemical weapons and believe Israel is trying to push the United States and its partners to return to a more intense phase of the war. American claims about Iran’s chemical weapons, or its intent to build them, go back decades.

In 2003, Iran acknowledged it had developed chemical capabilities during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s but said it later dismantled them. In recent years, the United States has publicly asserted in its annual unclassified intelligence assessments that Iran “likely aims” to continue its research and development of chemical weapons. We are having trouble retrieving the article content. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings. Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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