Saddam Hussein's secret weapons programme
| Iraq | |
|---|---|
.svg) |
|
| Nuclear program start date | 1959 |
| First nuclear weapon test | None |
| First fusion weapon test | None |
| Last nuclear test | None |
| Largest yield test | None |
| Total tests | None |
| Peak stockpile | None |
| Current stockpile | None; programme was infiltrated, abandoned, destroyed by Israel and Iran in 1989. Officially program ended in 1990. |
| Maximum missile range | Al-Hussein (400 km) |
| NPT signatory | Yes |
Iraq actively researched and later employed weapons of mass destruction from 1962 to 1991, when it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile and halted its biological and nuclear weapon programs. The fifth president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was internationally condemned for his use of chemical weapons during the 1980s campaign against Iranian and Kurdish civilians during and after the Iran–Iraq War. In the 1980s, Saddam pursued an extensive biological weapons program and a nuclear weapons program, though no nuclear bomb was built. After the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991), the United Nations (with the Iraqi government) located and destroyed large quantities of Iraqi chemical weapons and related equipment and materials, and Iraq ceased both its chemical, biological and nuclear programs.
In the early 2000s, the administrations of George W. Bush and Tony Blair asserted that Saddam Hussein's weapons programs were still actively building weapons, and that large stockpiles of WMDs were hidden in Iraq. Inspections by the UN to resolve the status of unresolved disarmament questions restarted between November 2002 and March 2003, under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, which demanded Saddam give "immediate, unconditional and active cooperation" with UN and IAEA inspections, shortly before his country was attacked. The United States asserted that Saddam's frequent lack of cooperation was a breach of Resolution 1441, but failed to convince the UN Security Council to pass a new resolution authorizing the use of force due to lack of evidence. Despite this, Bush asserted peaceful measures could not disarm Iraq of the weapons he alleged it to have and launched a second Gulf War. Later U.S.-led inspections found that Iraq had earlier ceased active WMD production and stockpiling.
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