Iran is not known to possess weapons of mass destruction, and has signed treaties repudiating possession of them, including the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Over 100,000 Iranian troops and civilians were victims to chemical weapons during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War. "Nuclear proliferation: The Islamic Republic of Iran]", Gawdat Bahgat, Iranian Studies Journal, vol. 39(3), September 2006 Center for Documents of The Imposed War, Tehran. (مرکز مطالعات و تحقیقات جنگ) On ideological grounds, a public and categorical religious decree against the development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons has been issued by the leader of the Islamic Republic. blank">Ayat. Kashani: N-bomb production religiously forbidden.

The November 2007 _United States National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) judged that Iran halted an active nuclear weapons program in fall 2003 and that it remained halted as of mid-2007. The estimate further judged that US intelligence did not know whether Iran intended "to develop nuclear weapons," but that "Iran probably would be technically capable of producing enough HEU [highly enriched uranium] for a weapon sometime during the 2010-2015 time frame" if it chose to do so. Iran notes its nuclear program is peaceful. The head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, has stated that he has seen "maybe some studies about possible weaponization", but "no evidence" of "nuclear material that can readily be used into a weapon" or "an active weaponization program" as of October 2007.

The United Nations Security Council has imposed sanctions against Iran three times, because Iran refuses to suspend its nuclear enrichment. Iran's representative to the UN argued that Iran categorically rejected the development of nuclear weapons and that the sanctions compelled Iran to abandon its rights under the NPT to peaceful nuclear technology. The IAEA has been able to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran, but not the absence of undeclared activities, blank">Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions 1737 (2006) and 1747 (2007) in the Islamic Republic of Iran and has reached an agreeement with Iran on the timeline for implementation of all the remaining verification issues specified in an August 2007 workplan. IAEA Chief Concludes Visit to Iran The _Non-Aligned Movement has called on both sides to work through the IAEA for a solution.