IRAN turning to chemical or biological as its missile supply dwindles is a “real risk” that the West is “blind to”, insiders warn.
Tehran could be plotting to set up clandestine labs to quietly create and unleash biological weapons – or even utilise botox or a disease for evil.
But it is feared an accidental deadly leak from a lab or nuclear infrastructure could also be sparked as the US and Israel continue to trade blows with the rogue nation.
Focus has centred on the regime’s growing nuclear capabilities – but experts warn the “short term” threat has been largely overlooked.
Unlike the fixable disruption to the oil market and damage from strikes, release of a lethal disease or radioactive material – deliberate or unintentional – would have more devastating, far-reaching consequences.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon warned Iran is known to have chemical capability – having used it during its war against Iraq in the 1980s.
The former commander of the Army’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment said chemicals being weaponised is “more likely” than Iran being able to utilise nukes any time soon.
He told The Sun: “The Russians are advising them [Iran] and giving them a lot of intelligence and you only have to look to Ukraine and how Russia has used chemical weapons.
“You then look at the Iranian regime itself, in the Iran-Iraq war, thousands of soldiers on both sides were killed with chemical weapons.
“It is safe to assume that Iran still has a chemical weapons programme and has the potential to use chemical weapons and probably nerve agents like sarin and mustard agent, aka mustard gas.
“When I was with the Peshmerga [security forces of the Kurdistan Region] as their chemical weapons advisor in the fight against ISIS and the Iranian militias in between 2015 and 2017, the Iranian militias used nerve agents and chlorine against us.
“So one must assume that they still have that capability.
“If the IRGC are starting to shout about nuclear, that is a toothless tiger, but they could certainly do something on the chemical side.”
Professor Raina MacIntyre warned that Iran could also resort to biological warfare – which has become more attainable than ever.
She told The Sun: “Bioweapons have been used throughout human history, and more accessible and cheaper than nuclear weapons.
“Methods for creating bioweapons are more accessible than ever before, and the cost of technology has declined substantially.
“They also have WMD (weapons of mass destruction) potential, because a small release can spread all over the world through contagion.
“Synthetic biology and genetic engineering technology open endless possibilities of biological WMDs.
“So the risk is real, as I have been warning for over a decade”.
MacIntyre, a professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales, said Iran could be plotting to create temporary labs in enemy nations.
The illegal labs on the soil of target countries would be used to develop biological weapons undetected – ready to be released at any chosen time.
“It is possible to procure lab equipment, genetic code and materials online, and to set up DIY labs,” MacIntyre explained.
“The clandestine labs discovered in the US in Reedley and Las Vegas as well as recent examples of smuggling biological materials indicate how easy a Trojan Horse attack would be.
“That is we are deaf and blind to this threat.”
Despite being leaked accidentally, Covid-19 caused millions of deaths worldwide – and reshaped day to day life for years.
A disease being weaponised and deliberately released could have a far more catastrophic fallout, experts warn.
“The biggest risk is that we fail to recognise a serious epidemic as having an unnatural origin,” MacIntyre said.
“In health and medicine, we are not taught about biowarfare, and epidemics, when they occur, are assumed to be natural.
“Most biowarfare pathogens also occur in nature, so differentiating natural and unnatural epidemics requires specialised tools and skills.”
But Iran could have another sinister plot up its sleeve – exploiting cosmetic botox.
Dr Steven Quay, CEO of a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company, told The Sun how Iran’s rapidly growing cosmetic industry is raising eyebrows among experts.
He added: “A pharmaceutical facility inside Iran that is making botox for their medical use can very quickly be ramped up to be making huge quantities of something that is highly toxic.
“That is the ambiguity that exists around biological weapons. Legitimate medical and scientific studies can very quickly be used for dual purpose.”
Trump extends pause on bombing Iran’s energy sites
by Joe Mannion, Foreign News Reporter
DONALD Trump has extended his pause on blitzing Iran’s energy network to advance peace talks – as Israel races to decimate the regime’s weapons factories.
The US president dramatically called off plans to obliterate Iranian power plants on Monday after issuing a 48-hour ultimatum for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump initially declared a five-day delay, but this week extended it to ten days, giving Iran until Monday, April 6, at 8pm ET (1am UK time) to agree to America’s 15-point plan.
In a Truth Social post, he wrote: “As per Iranian Government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days.
“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary, they are going very well.”
With Trump pushing for peace, Israel has refocused its bombing efforts to Iran‘s industrial munitions bases in the hope of crippling its military.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared to have given up hope of forcing a regime change in the short-term and has stopped publicly calling on Iranians to overthrow the government.
Israel has already worked through top targets within Iran’s top brass and hasn’t announced any fresh strikes on its internal security forces since the beginning of the week.
Instead, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) has blitzed weapons and naval cruise-missile production sites in Tehran, and an explosive-materials production site in Isfahan.
US Central Command announced on Wednesday that US strikes had already devastated Iranian facilities used to build missiles, drones and warships.
Farzin Nadimi, an Iran-focused senior fellow with the Washington Institute, told The Wall Street Journal that Israel is taking the “opportunity to reduce Iran’s military capabilities before they call it a day.”
“Almost every military-industrial factory I know of has been struck, most of them at least twice,” he said.
“They are very systematic and meticulous in this regard.”
There are two manufacturers of the neurotoxin – most commonly used cosmetically for facial wrinkles and medically for migraines .
Derived from the botulinum toxin, one of the most poisonous substances known, a large dose could kill tens of thousands of people.
MacIntyre said: “Botox is a biological weapon, so it is possible cosmetic botox could be harnessed for weapons.
“We pick up reports of illegal botox supplies linked to illegal cosmetic clinics, which means there is a blackmarket in botox already, which could be exploited.
“However, botox is not transmissible from human to human, so the impact of a botox attack would not be as high as a pathogen that is contagious, such as smallpox.”
Dangerous materials could also be unleashed accidentally – with facilities both in Iran and across the Middle East being blasted.
It would take just one site housing hazardous matter to be blitzed for it to be dispersed into its surroundings and for disaster to unravel.
MacIntyre said: “Physical disruption to labs is possible during conflict, which may then result in biocontainment breaches and epidemics.”
Iran signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1973, banning the development, production and stockpiling of biological weapons.
But since the fall of the Shah and the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the US has continued to raise the alarm that the country has accelerated offensive research.
Tehran has denied pursuing unconventional weapons, but the “weakness” of the BWC is that it lacks a formal and legally binding inspection or verification regime to monitor compliance, Dr Quay said.
All signatories are called upon to submit an annual report – but this requirement is a politically binding one – not a legal commitment.
Each report includes data on research centres and laboratories, national biological defence programmes, outbreaks of infectious diseases, details on policies for publishing results of biological research, a declaration of all laws and regulations, and vaccine production sites.
Iran has done so twice – once in 2016 and then in 2021.
“It leaves you with an understanding that on the one hand, Iran signed the biological weapons convention,” Dr Quay added.
“On the other, they are not being forthright and transparent within it.”
