Policy

The Islamic Republic of Iran has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. It has cited its perceived need for antipersonnel mines on its borders as the main reason for not joining the treaty.[1]

In November 2020, Iran repeated its earlier objections to the Mine Ban Treaty, stating that “the Convention focuses mainly on humanitarian concerns and does not adequately take into account the legitimate military requirements of some countries, particularly those with long land borders, for their responsible and limited use of mines to defend their territory. Because of the difficulty of monitoring extensive sensitive areas or permanent warning system, unfortunately, anti-personnel mines continue to be an effective means for those countries to ensure the minimum security requirements of their borders.”[2]

As it has done in previous years, on 7 December 2020, Iran abstained from voting on annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 75/52, which calls for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.

On 4 April 2021, Iran’s defense minister noted that landmines laid during its 1980–1988 war with Iraq have had major social, economic, and environmental impacts; but did not comment on Iran’s policy toward the Mine Ban Treaty.[3] On 2 May 2017, Iran’s Ministry of Defense commemorated International Mine Awareness Day at a meeting in Tehran, during which Iran’s defense minister conveyed a request for more international assistance in mine clearance.[4]

Iran has not attended any meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty held in the past decade. Iran’s only attendance was at the intersessional meetings held in May 2001.

Iran is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is also not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). However, in April 2016, a representative of Iran told the Monitor that legislation to join the CCW and its Amended Protocols I and V was before the Iranian parliament.[5]

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

The Monitor has not reported any new use of antipersonnel mines by Iranian forces since 1999.

In October 2015, several newspapers published reports alleging new use of antipersonnel mines by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on the border with northern Iraq. Eyewitnesses reportedly observed mine-laying operations, and media reports stated that the Kurdish authorities warned inhabitants of Penjwen, Sulaymaniyah governorate, not to approach the border due to new mine use. The allegations stated that the mines were laid to prevent incursion by Kurdish militants and smugglers.[6] The Monitor has been unable to verify these reports.

The director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mine Action Center (IRMAC) told the Monitor in 2005 that Iran neither uses nor produces landmines.[7] In September 2002, the Ministry of Defense declared: “The Islamic Republic of Iran, since the termination of its war [1988], has not produced anti-personnel mines.”[8] The Monitor received information in 2002, 2003, and 2004 that demining organizations in Afghanistan were removing and destroying many hundreds of Iranian YM-I and YM-I-B antipersonnel mines, date-stamped 1999 and 2000, from abandoned Northern Alliance frontlines.[9]

Iran is thought to possess a large stockpile of antipersonnel landmines, but no official information is available on its size or composition.

Iran exported a significant number of antipersonnel mines in the 1990s and earlier. An export moratorium was issued in 1997, but it is not known whether it is still formally in effect. In February 2006, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, “It has been several years since Iran voluntarily halted export of anti-personnel mines.”[10]

There is evidence that Iran has both produced and exported antipersonnel mines during the past 15 years. Iranian antipersonnel mines were seized in Afghanistan in 2008,[11] Tajikistan in 2007,[12] and Somalia in 2006.[13] The Monitor addressed a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 27 April 2011 to inquire on these matters, but did not receive a response. In October 2014, the Monitor received a copy of an English-language foreign sales brochure of Iran Ammunition Industries Group, that included two types of antipersonnel landmines among other weapons.[14] As of August 2020, Iran’s Ministry of Defense Export Center advertised the availability of the YM-IV bounding, fragmentation antipersonnel mine; and the YM-I-S, a self-neutralizing antipersonnel blast mine.[15]

In previous years, seven Iranian Kurdish armed groups pledged not to use antipersonnel mines by signing the Geneva Call Deed of Commitment. These include the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI), three factions of the Komala Party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (KDP), the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), and the Kurdistan Freedom Party. The three factions of the Komala Party stated that they had used antipersonnel mines sporadically in the past.[16]