Iran
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Five-Year Review: Non-signatory Iran acknowledges the humanitarian rationale for the convention and says it is against the use of cluster munitions, but objects to key provisions of the convention as well as the process that created it. Iran participated in a meeting of the convention once, in 2011. Iran is not known to have used cluster munitions, but it has imported, may have produced, and likely stockpiles them.
Policy
The Islamic Republic of Iran has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Iran acknowledges the humanitarian rationale for the convention, but objects to key provisions of the convention as well as the fast-track process that created it. In its last comment on the matter, in 2012, Iran stated that its experience of being contaminated by cluster munition remnants means it “shares the humanitarian aspects” of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1] In a meeting with the Monitor, an Iranian representative said the government acknowledges the humanitarian rationale for the convention and is against the use of cluster munitions, but cannot join the convention because it was negotiated outside of the UN, does not include major producers, and allows for joint military operations with states not party that use cluster munitions.[2]
Iran listed these same arguments against the Convention on Cluster Munitions in a September 2011 statement to States Parties.[3]
Iran did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention.
Iran has attended one meeting of the convention: in September 2011, it participated as an observer in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties hosted by Lebanon in Beirut. Later, in 2012, it acknowledged this was its first participation in a meeting of the convention and described its presence as an indication of support for Lebanon, as “the main victims of cluster bombs used by Zionist regime” in 2006.[4]
Iran is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Iran is not known to have used cluster munitions.
Iran has imported cluster munitions, may have produced them, and likely stockpiles them.
Jane’s Information Group lists Iran as possessing KMG-U dispensers that deploy submunitions, PROSAB-250 cluster bombs, and BL-755 cluster bombs.[5] Additionally, Iran possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rockets as well as a number of types of 122mm, 240mm, and 333mm rockets that it produces, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[6]
In September 2011, Iran stated that it is contaminated by cluster munitions used during the Iran-Iraq War.[7] According to one source, Iraq used air-dropped cluster bombs against Iranian troops in 1984 during the war.[8]
According to a United States (US) Navy document, on 18 April 1988, US Navy aircraft attacked Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboats and an Iranian Navy ship with 18 Mk-20 Rockeye bombs during Operation Praying Mantis.[9]
[1] Iran stated that “we ourselves are faced with a huge problem of contaminated lands due to the leftover mines and cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war already used by Saddam’s army.” Statement of Iran, UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 1 November 2012.
[2] Interview with Reza Najafi, Director for Disarmament and International Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in New York, 23 October 2012.
[3] “We commend and support all efforts made to save civilians. However it goes without saying that in order to be effective a convention regulating aspects of cluster munitions should include the major producers and former users of these munitions.” Iran added that in order for “such an instrument to be universal” it should be concluded “within the framework of the United Nations.” Statement by Gholamhossein Dehghani, Director-General for Political International Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 13 September 2011.
[4] Statement of Iran, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 1 November 2012.
[5] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 840.
[6] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 309; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007–2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
[7] Statement by Gholamhossein Dehghani, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 13 September 2011.
[8] Anthony H. Cordesman and Abraham R. Wagner, Lessons of Modern War Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990), p. 210. The bombs were reportedly produced by Chile.
[9] Memorandum from the Commanding Officer of the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) to the Director of Naval History (OP-09BH), “1988 Command History,” 27 February 1989, p. 20.