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Iran has been a party to the since 1970, and has an advanced nuclear program that was the subject of international negotiations and from 2002 until implementation of a comprehensive nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) began in 2016. The United States unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA on 8 May 2018, leaving its future in doubt.

Iran is not a member of the , and is actively working to acquire, develop, and deploy a broad range of and capabilities. The scope and status of Iran's and activities are unknown, but the most recent Western intelligence estimates have downgraded the likelihood that Iran maintains significant offensive chemical and biological weapons programs.

Mohamed Reza Shah initiated Iran's nuclear program during the 1950s with assistance from the U.S. Program. Establishing the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) in 1974, the Shah had ambitious plans to construct 20 nuclear power , a facility, and a plant for . [1] However, after the 1979 Iranian Revolution deposed the Shah, Ayatollah Khomeini deemed the nuclear program "un-Islamic" and ordered it terminated. In 1984, Khomeini reversed course on the issue of and sought international partners to continue building the Bushehr reactors. [2] Currently, Iran has complete nuclear fuel cycle capabilities including mining, milling, conversion, and enrichment facilities. [3] Iran's extensive enrichment program, which could be used to produce for a nuclear weapon, has been particularly controversial. At its 2015 peak, the program comprised nearly 20,000 gas centrifuges at 3 major facilities. [4]

The Board of Governors found Iran in non-compliance with its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement in 2005, and the passed seven resolutions demanding that Iran halt its enrichment and reprocessing activities. Beginning in 2002, Iran, the IAEA, and various groupings of world powersfirst with France, Germany, and the United Kingdom (the EU-3), and later accompanied by China, Russia, and the United States (the )made numerous attempts to negotiate a settlement to the dispute. [5] Negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran yielded the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in July 2015, a comprehensive 25-year nuclear agreement limiting Iran's nuclear capacity in exchange for sanctions relief. On 16 January 2016, all nuclear-related sanctions on Iran were lifted in response to its progress meeting key metrics of the deal. [6]

U.S. President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to "dismantle the deal with Iran," however, the Administration initially upheld the deal. [7] On 8 May 2018, President Trump officially withdrew the United States from the JCPOA and announced the imminent re-imposition of all nuclear-related sanctions. He alleged that the deal was defective at its core, citing Iranian support for terrorism and pursuit of ballistic missiles (despite the fact these are not material to the terms of the JCPOA), as well as a presentation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleging that Iran had concealed details of its early-2000s nuclear weapons efforts from the international community. [8] Notably, President Trump did not claim that Iran had violated any specific terms of the agreement. Iran has expressed a willingness to remain in the JCPOA despite the U.S. withdrawal, and all other P5+1 states reiterated their commitment to full implementation of the deal. [9]

There is very little publicly available information to determine whether Iran has bought biological weapons. Iran acceded to the in 1929 and the in 1973. However, the U.S. government has accused Iran in the past of pursuing a biological weapons program. More recent U.S. intelligence estimates do not suggest that such a program currently exists. In its most recent unclassified report to Congress on the subject the U.S. Director of National Intelligence assessed that Iran "probably has the capability to produce some biological warfare (BW) agents for offensive purposes, if it made the decision to do so. [] Iran continues to expand its biotechnology infrastructure and seek technologies that could be used for BW." [10] This qualified assessment likely indicates that U.S intelligence does not have conclusive evidence of a current Iranian BW program. Historically, Iran has denied the acquisition or production of biological weapons.

Iran suffered severe losses from Iraq's use of chemical weapons between 1982 and 1988 during the Iran-Iraq War. Consequently, Iran has significant experience with the effects of chemical warfare (CW). Iran ratified the in November 1997 and has been an active participant in the work of the . Iran has publicly acknowledged the existence of a chemical weapons program developed during the latter stages of the 1980 to 1988 war with Iraq. After ratifying the CWC in 1997, Iran opened its facilities to international inspection and claimed that all its offensive CW activities had been terminated and the facilities destroyed prior to the treaty's .

Nevertheless, throughout the late 1990s and the early 2000s, the United States claimed that Iran maintained an active program for the development and production of chemical weapons. This program was alleged to include stockpiles of , , , and possibly , although U.S. intelligence agencies did not publicly provide evidence for these allegations. [11] Since 2003, the U.S. intelligence community has substantially downgraded its public assessments of Iranian chemical warfare capabilities. In its most recent unclassified report to Congress on the subject, the Director of National Intelligence asserted that Iran "maintains the capability to produce chemical warfare (CW) agents and conducts research that may have offensive applications." [12] Iran denies producing or possessing chemical weapons in violation of its treaty obligations.

Following the Iran-Iraq war, Iran committed itself to the development of one of the most sophisticated programs in the Middle East. Iran has pursued a dual-track strategy, developing both liquid and solid-fueled systems. [13] While Iran's program was initially dependent on foreign technical assistance, particularly from North Korea, Iran now likely has the indigenous capacity to develop, test, and build ballistic missiles. [14]

Iran's first ballistic missiles were Soviet -B and Scud-C models acquired from North Korea (renamed Shahab-1 and Shahab-2). [15] In 2003, Tehran deployed a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM), the Shahab-3, which is a derivative of North Korea's Nodong missile. [16] Since 2004, Iran has test-fired numerous variants of the Shahab-3, which were designed to increase its range, payload, and accuracy, including the Ghadr-1 and the Emad. [17] In 2008, Iran successfully tested the Sejjil, a two-stage, solid fueled MRBM. [18]

Visit the CNS Iran Missile and SLV Launch Database for a comprehensive visualization of all known Iranian missile launches since the Iran-Iraq War.

In addition to its missile program, Iran possesses a space launch capability. Iran has successfully launched several satellites aboard its the Safir, with reports of an attempted launch from the new Simorgh SLV. Many have expressed concern over the dual- use capabilities of these systems and their potential application for . [19]

Iran is not a member of the or the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation. In 2015, to support implementation of the JCPOA, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2231, which called on Iran "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons." [20] The U.S., U.K., France, and Germany have claimed that Iran's subsequent ballistic missile tests were "inconsistent with" and "in defiance of" UNSCR 2231, with the U.S. imposing sanctions on Iran in response to its ballistic missile tests, most recently in 2017. [21]

Sources:[1] Judith Perera, "Iran's Nuclear Industry," Middle East and North Africa, January 2006.[2] "Iran's Nuclear Program: 1950s and 60s: Atoms for Peace," Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), http://www.isis-online.org.[3] "Iran's Nuclear Fuel Cycle," Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), http://www.isisnucleariran.org.[4] David Sanger and William Broad, "U.S. and Allies Warn Iran Over Nuclear 'Deception'," The New York Times, 25 September 2009, http://www.nytimes.com; "Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and Relevant Provisions of Security Council Resolutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran," Report by the Director General, the International Atomic Energy Agency, 7 November 2011, http://www.iaea.org.[5] IAEA Press Release, "IAEA, Iran Sign Joint Statement on Framework for Cooperation," 11 November 2013, http://www.iaea.org.[6] "Secretary of State's Confirmation of IAEA Verification," U.S. Department of State, Accessed 1 March 2017, http://www.state.gov.[7] Gardiner Harris, "Tillerson Toughens Tone on Iran after U.S. Confirms Nuclear Deal Compliance," The New York Times, 19 April 2017, http://www.nytimes.com; Baker, Peter, "Trump Recertifies Iran Nuclear Deal, but Only Reluctantly," The New York Times, 17 July 2017, http://www.newyorktimes.com.[8] Remarks by President Trump on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, The White House, 8 May 2018, http://www.whitehouse.gov.[9] Parisa Hafezi, Rouhani Says Iran will Remain in Nuclear Deal without U.S., Reuters, 8 May 2018, http://www.reuters.com; Jeremy B. White, UK, France, and Germany Issue Joint Statement Attacking Trumps Withdrawal from Iran Nuclear Deal, UK Independent, 8 May 2018, http://www.independent.co.uk; Russia says no grounds to scrap Iran nuclear deal, Xinhua, May 8, 2018, http://www.xinhuanet.com.[10] Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 January - 30 June 2002, Central Intelligence Agency, http://www.fas.org.[11] Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, Covering 1 January - 31 December 2011, Director of National Intelligence, http://www.fas.org.[12] Unclassified Report to Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction and Advanced Conventional Munitions, 1 January - 30 June 2002, Central Intelligence Agency, http://www.fas.org.[13] Joseph Cirincione, Jon Wolfsthal and Miriam Rajkumar, "Iran," in Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats (Washington, DC, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), p. 295.[14] Paul Kerr, Steven Hildreth, Mary Beth Nitikin, Iran-North Korea-Syria Ballistic Missile and Nuclear Cooperation, Congressional Research Service, 26 February 2016, https://fas.org.[15] Iran's Ballistic Missile Capabilities: A Net Assessment, Dossier, London: IISS: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2010, pp. 14-17, 22.[16] Iran's Ballistic Missile Capabilities: A Net Assessment, London: IISS: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2010, pp. 17-22.[17] CSIS Missile Defense Project, "Shahab-3," https://missilethreat.csis.org.[18] Iran's Ballistic Missile Capabilities: A Net Assessment, Dossier, London: IISS: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2010, pp. 54-63; Ted Postol, "Technical Addendum to the Joint Threat Assessment on Iran's Nuclear and Missile Potential The Sejjil Ballistic Missile," EastWest Institute, 31 May 2009, http://www.ewi.info; "Sejil (Ashoura)," Jane's Strategic Weapon Systems, 12 February 2012, http://www.janes.com.[19] Bill Gertz, "Iran Conducts Space Launch," The Washington Free Beacon, 20 April 2016, freebeacon.com.[20] Security Council, Adopting Resolution 2231 (2015), Endorses Joint Comprehensive Agreement on Iran's Nuclear Programme - Meetings Coverage and Press Releases, http://www.un.org.[21] Louis Charbonneau, "Exclusive: Iran missile tests were 'in defiance of' U.N. resolution U.S., allies," Reuters, 30 March 2016, ww.reuters.com;Michelle Kelemen, "U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Iran in Response to Missile Test," NPR, 3 February 2017, http://www.npr.org.

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Iran Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, and Missile Weapons ...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that the United States continually sends messages to Iran asking it to begin negotiations.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attends a news conference with President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Vladimir Putin of Russia following their meeting in Tehran, Iran September 7, 2018. Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool via REUTERS

Tensions between Iran and the United States soared after President Donald Trump pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal with Iran in May, and then reimposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic last month.

Trump has said he would meet Irans leaders.

From one side they try to pressure the people of Iran, on another side they send us messages every day through various methods that we should come and negotiate together, Rouhani said in a speech broadcast on Iranian state television.

(They say) we should negotiate here, we should negotiate there. We want to resolve the issues ... Should we see your message? ... Or should we see your brutish actions?

Washington aims to force Tehran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups in Syria and Iraq.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took aim at U.S. criticism of Irans regional policy in a Twitter post on Saturday.

Trump regime flip-flops are truly comical, he wrote. One week, its talking point is that we are squandering our resources abroad, the next week its that weve not financially supported the Palestinians enough.

U.S. sanctions targeting Irans oil sector are scheduled to be reimposed in November.

Iran is facing an economic, psychological and propaganda war, Rouhani said Saturday, pointing to the United States and Israel as the Islamic Republics main enemies.

Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Robert Birsel and Kevin Liffey

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Rouhani: U.S. asks Iran 'every day' to begin talks | Reuters

BASRA, Iraq Protesters in this port city stormed the Iranian Consulate late Friday, setting it on fire and sharply escalating violent demonstrations that began over miserable living conditions but have grown into an indictment of Iraqs stagnant politics.

The consulate was the latest symbol of entrenched power to be torched by protesters in Basra during a week of demonstrations, raising concerns that the unrest would draw a firm response from Iran, which controls several powerful militias in the oil-export city.

The attack on the consulate also upended notions of solidarity between Iraqs Shiite heartland and Iran, the preeminent Shiite power in the region. The assault contributed to a growing sense that Iraq is slipping into a period of dangerous instability as powerful political parties remain locked in a struggle over the composition of the countrys next government.

Protesters said they targeted the consulate to vent their frustrations over abuses by Iran-backed militias in Basra, as well what they see as Tehrans outsize influence over their city and over Iraqs fractured politics.

The demonstrators complained that the militias run rampant in Basra, kidnapping and extorting money from their opponents and creating an atmosphere of fear. They said Iran has empowered the militias to enrich themselves at the expense of the citys residents.

Iran has destabilized Basra with their armed gangs, said Sattar Hamdi, 50, a day laborer. They have the upper hand here and with the politicians in Baghdad. Im appealing to any foreign country, even Israel, for help because weve already lost Iraq to Iran.

Protests over a lack of electricity and clean water during the scorching summer months began in early July in Basra and other Shiite-majority cities but have grown larger and more violent in recent days as politicians have failed to form a national government nearly four months after elections in May.

Iran and the United States have been deeply involved in the political gridlock, each supporting rival factions that claim a parliamentary majority and the right to appoint a new prime minister.

People in Basra have accused Iraqs political class of abandoning them, ignoring the peoples pleas for relief as the politicians jockey for control of a new government. They have expressed their displeasure by burning down the headquarters of nearly every political party in the city, along with offices belonging to Shiite militias that won parliamentary seats in the May elections.

Fresh graffiti outside the destroyed offices of the powerful Badr Organization, an Iran-aligned party that counts Iraqs interior minister among its senior leaders, announced: We demand blood.

Packs of young men surrounded the gated complex of the Iranian Consulate as the sun set on Friday, breaking past police checkpoints as they smashed their way into the empty building and set it on fire.

Dozens lingered afterward, taking photos and videos of the burning consulate as police stood by sometimes chatting or joking with the young demonstrators.

Police had repelled an attack on the consulate Thursday night but were overwhelmed by the growing number of young men Friday, one officer said. He said he was hesitant to draw his weapon on the protesters after at least eight were shot during other demonstrations this week, drawing widespread condemnation from the government and from the United Nations and human rights groups.

Visa services are officially suspended, cracked one of the demonstrators as he filmed the flames and dark plumes of smoke with his cellphone.

Shall we go for the Turkish Consulate next? a friend responded.

A group of protesters gathered around a young man who clutched papers he said he stole from a city council building that purported to show thousands of dollars in allocations to various city officials.

Theyre being given a fortune, but we cant even get clean water from the taps, the man shouted.

Iraqs Health Ministry said Thursday that 6,280 people have been sickened by the water in Basra, which residents have said is too salty for drinking or cleaning.

Protesters have said they were moved to action by the citys undrinkable water and crumbling infrastructure, bitterly noting that Basra is the top export hub for Iraqs oil yet remains one of the countrys least developed cities.

After Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis government failed to respond to their demands in July, protesters began to rally against Iraqs endemic corruption and the political figures that have dominated the country since the 2003 invasion by U.S. troops.

Hussein Hatem, 33, a welder, said that torching the Iranian Consulate was a message to Irans and Iraqs leaders alike that Basra does not belong to anyone.

Our government takes orders from Iran, he said. And no one is looking after us. Weve run out of patience. Theyre busy trying to form the biggest bloc in parliament and they cant fulfill the most basic demand for clean water.

Iraqs Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on the consulate, saying the assault harms Iraqs interests and is unrelated to demonstrators demands for basic services and clean water.

It was the latest security embarrassment for the ministry in two days. Late Thursday, three mortar rounds landed in an empty field near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdads fortified Green Zone. There were no injuries, and no group asserted responsibility for the incident.

Meanwhile, Basra is settling into a new rhythm.

During the day, diverse groups of protesters, including many women, chant against government corruption and unemployment, occupying major squares and boulevards to demonstrate peacefully.

As day gives way to night, large columns of young men in their teens and 20s take over the streets, stopping traffic as they walk swiftly or jog to any symbol of government power they can find to vandalize.

Despite the daytime protests and nighttime disturbances, residents go about their business, sipping tea in cafes or window-shopping at brightly lighted stores. On occasion, they step aside to make way for the clutches of young men chanting slogans such as Iran, out, out! and If we die, we die, as long as the nation survives.

Read more:

Deadly protests rage in Iraq over lack of services as political transition deadlocks

How Moqtada al-Sadr went from anti-American outlaw to potential kingmaker in Iraq

U.S. sanctions on Iran hit an unintended target: Ordinary Iraqis

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Chanting Iran, out! Iraqi protesters torch Iranian ...

PARIS/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran has given ballistic missiles to Shiite proxies in Iraq and is developing the capacity to build more there to deter attacks on its interests in the Middle East and to give it the means to hit regional foes, Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources said.

FILE PHOTO: A display featuring missiles and a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen at Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran September 27, 2017. Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi/TIMA via REUTERS

Any sign that Iran is preparing a more aggressive missile policy in Iraq will exacerbate tensions between Tehran and Washington, already heightened by U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

It would also embarrass France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the three European signatories to the nuclear deal, as they have been trying to salvage the agreement despite new U.S. sanctions against Tehran.

According to three Iranian officials, two Iraqi intelligence sources and two Western intelligence sources, Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to allies in Iraq over the last few months. Five of the officials said it was helping those groups to start making their own.

The logic was to have a backup plan if Iran was attacked, one senior Iranian official told Reuters. The number of missiles is not high, just a couple of dozen, but it can be increased if necessary.

Iran has previously said its ballistic missile activities are purely defensive in nature. Iranian officials declined to comment when asked about the latest moves.

The Iraqi government and military both declined to comment.

The Zelzal, Fateh-110 and Zolfaqar missiles in question have ranges of about 200 km to 700 km, putting Saudi Arabias capital Riyadh or the Israeli city of Tel Aviv within striking distance if the weapons were deployed in southern or western Iraq.

The Quds Force, the overseas arm of Irans powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has bases in both those areas. Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani is overseeing the program, three of the sources said.

Western countries have already accused Iran of transferring missiles and technology to Syria and other allies of Tehran, such as Houthi rebels in Yemen and Lebanons Hezbollah.

Irans Sunni Muslim Gulf neighbors and its arch-enemy Israel have expressed concerns about Tehrans regional activities, seeing it as a threat to their security.

Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the missile transfers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that anybody that threatened to wipe Israel out would put themselves in a similar danger.

The Western source said the number of missiles was in the 10s and that the transfers were designed to send a warning to the United States and Israel, especially after air raids on Iranian troops in Syria. The United States has a significant military presence in Iraq.

It seems Iran has been turning Iraq into its forward missile base, the Western source said.

The Iranian sources and one Iraqi intelligence source said a decision was made some 18 months ago to use militias to produce missiles in Iraq, but activity had ramped up in the last few months, including with the arrival of missile launchers.

We have bases like that in many places and Iraq is one of them. If America attacks us, our friends will attack Americas interests and its allies in the region, said a senior IRGC commander who served during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

The Western source and the Iraqi source said the factories being used to develop missiles in Iraq were in al-Zafaraniya, east of Baghdad, and Jurf al-Sakhar, north of Kerbala. One Iranian source said there was also a factory in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The areas are controlled by Shiite militias, including Kataib Hezbollah, one of the closest to Iran. Three sources said Iraqis had been trained in Iran as missile operators.

The Iraqi intelligence source said the al-Zafaraniya factory produced warheads and the ceramic of missile moulds under former President Saddam Hussein. It was reactivated by local Shiite groups in 2016 with Iranian assistance, the source said.

A team of Shiite engineers who used to work at the facility under Saddam were brought in, after being screened, to make it operational, the source said. He also said missiles had been tested near Jurf al-Sakhar.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon declined to comment.

One U.S official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Tehran over the last few months has transferred missiles to groups in Iraq but could not confirm that those missiles had any launch capability from their current positions.

Washington has been pushing its allies to adopt a tough anti-Iran policy since it reimposed sanctions this month.

While the European signatories to the nuclear deal have so far balked at U.S. pressure, they have grown increasingly impatient over Irans ballistic missile program.

France in particular has bemoaned Iranian frenzy in developing and propagating missiles and wants Tehran to open negotiations over its ballistic weapons.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday that Iran was arming regional allies with rockets and allowing ballistic proliferation. Iran needs to avoid the temptation to be the (regional) hegemon, he said.

In March, the three nations proposed fresh EU sanctions on Iran over its missile activity, although they failed to push them through after opposition from some member states.

Such a proliferation of Iranian missile capabilities throughout the region is an additional and serious source of concern, a document from the three European countries said at the time.

A regional intelligence source also said Iran was storing a number of ballistic missiles in areas of Iraq that were under effective Shiite control and had the capacity to launch them.

The source could not confirm that Iran has a missile production capacity in Iraq.

A second Iraqi intelligence official said Baghdad had been aware of the flow of Iranian missiles to Shiite militias to help fight Islamic State militants, but that shipments had continued after the hardline Sunni militant group was defeated.

It was clear to Iraqi intelligence that such a missile arsenal sent by Iran was not meant to fight Daesh (Islamic State) militants but as a pressure card Iran can use once involved in regional conflict, the official said.

The Iraqi source said it was difficult for the Iraqi government to stop or persuade the groups to go against Tehran.

We cant restrain militias from firing Iranian rockets because simply the firing button is not in our hands, its with Iranians who control the push button, he said.

Iran will definitely use the missiles it handed over to Iraqi militia it supports to send a strong message to its foes in the region and the United States that it has the ability to use Iraqi territories as a launch pad for its missiles to strike anywhere and anytime it decides, the Iraqi official said.

Iraqs parliament passed a law in 2016 to bring an assortment of Shiite militia groups known collectively as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) into the state apparatus. The militias report to Iraqs prime minister, who is a Shiite under the countrys unofficial governance system.

However, Iran still has a clear hand in coordinating the PMF leadership, which frequently meets and consults with Soleimani.

Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Jonathan Landay in Washington; editing by David Clarke

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Exclusive: Iran moves missiles to Iraq in warning to enemies ...

EXCLUSIVE An Iraniancivil aviation companyis suspected of smuggling arms into Lebanon, destined for the militant group Hezbollah and Iranian weapons factories -- and western intelligence sources said Monday they've uncovered the unexpected routes that Iran apparently took to try avoiding detection.

The sourcesidentified two rare and unusualQeshm Fars Air flights from Tehran to the international airport in Beirutduring the past two months.

The first flight, on July 9, involved a Boeing 747 that departed from an air force base in Tehran, stopped for a short layover at the international airport in Damascus, Syria, and then continued with a rather uncharacteristic flight path to the Beirut international airport, where it landed shortly after 4 p.m. local time.

One route passed over northern Lebanon after a layover in Damascus.(FlightRadar24/Google Maps)

According to flight data obtained by Fox News, the route passed over northern Lebanon, not following any commonly used flight path. A regional intelligence source who asked to remain anonymous said:The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to its allies in the Middle East, testing and defying the Wests abilities to track them down.

Western intelligence sources said the airplane carried components for manufacturing precise weapons in Iranian factories inside Lebanon. The U.S. and Israel, as well as other western intelligence agencies, have supplied evidence that Iran has operated weapons factories in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

Last week, citing Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources, the Reuters news agency reported that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to its Shiite allies inside Iraq in recent months.Tehran and Baghdad formally denied that report.

The second flight was conducted on August 2. Flight number QFZ9960 landed in Beirut at 5:59 pm, after departing Tehran's international airport two and a half hours earlier. This time, the plane did not stop in Damascus, but it followed a slightly irregular route north of Syria.

Another aircraft flew directly from Tehran to Beirut, following an unusual path.(FlightRadar24/Google Maps)

Qeshm Fars Airis considered one of the various pseudo-civilian airlines used forarms-smuggling by theIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC)and the elite Al-Quds force led byQassem Soleimani. Back in October 2017, President Trump imposed sanctions on the IRGC and the Al-Quds force.

IRAN STILL SEEKING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, GERMAN INTEL REVEALS

The airline had ceased operations in 2013, citing poor management, but restarted under new management in March 2017. It is said to have two Boeing 747s in its fleet.Among the members of the companys board are three IRGC representatives: Ali Naghi Gol Parsta, Hamid Reza Pahlvani and Gholamreza Qhasemi.

The United States is Lebanons primary security partner, according to the State Department. Since 2006, the U.S has provided Lebanon over $1.7 billion in security assistance, in part to counter Hezbollahs influences.

Qeshm Fars Air, an Iranian civil aviation company, is suspected of smuggling arms into Lebanon, destined for the militant group Hezbollah and Iranian weapons factories.(File)

NETANYAHU: IRAN 'BRAZENLY LYING' AFTER SIGNING NUCLEAR DEAL

Hezbollah is considered a terror organization by many U.S. officials and other western countries, and is backed and funded by Iran.

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Iran's secret weapons-smuggling air routes to Lebanon ...