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Iran
Mine Ban Policy
Mine ban policy overview
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Mine Ban Treaty status |
Not a State Party |
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Pro-mine ban UNGA voting record |
Abstained on Resolution 65/48 in December 2010 |
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Participation in Mine Ban Treaty meetings |
Did not attend the Tenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November–December 2010, or the intersessional meetings in June 2011 |
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]
Iran is not known to have made any statements about its mine ban policy in 2010 or 2011. In explaining its vote on the annual pro-ban UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution in 2008, it stated that it “shares the humanitarian concerns,” and welcomes “every effort to stop this trend” of irresponsible use of mines. It continued, “The Ottawa Convention, however, focuses mainly on humanitarian concerns while neglecting or not adequately taking into account legitimate military requirements of many countries, particularly those with long land borders, for the use of APLs [antipersonnel landmines] in defending their territories. Due to the difficulties of monitoring sensitive extensive areas by established and permanent guarding posts of effective warning systems, landmines continue to be the effective means, for those countries, to ensure the minimum security requirement of their borders.”[2]
Iran did not attend any international meeting on the mine ban in 2010 or the first half of 2011.
Iran is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).[3] Iran participated in the CCW meetings in November 2010 as an observer and made a statement. It said that “we are hopeful that we might be in apposition [sic] to find some incentives in the framework of international humanitarian cooperation within this convention to start our efforts to be one of the parties to this convention and relevant protocols.”[4]
Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use
The director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mine Action Center (IRMAC) told the Monitor in August 2005 that Iran neither uses nor produces mines.[5] 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.”[6] 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.[7]
Iran is thought to have a large stockpile of antipersonnel mines, but no official information is available on its size and composition.
Iran exported a significant number of antipersonnel mines in the 1990s and earlier. An export moratorium was instituted in 1997, but it is not known if 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.”[8]
Despite these government statements, there is evidence that Iran has both produced and exported antipersonnel mines in the past decade. Iranian antipersonnel mines have been seized in Afghanistan in 2008, [9] Tajikistan in 2007,[10] and Somalia in 2006.[11] The Monitor addressed a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 27 April 2011 to inquire on these matters, but as of August 2011, it had yet to receive a response.
Six Iranian Kurdish armed groups have pledged not to use antipersonnel mines by signing the Geneva Call Deed of Commitment, including the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) in December 2007 and three factions of the Komala Party in April and June 2009—the Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran, the Komala Party of Kurdistan, and the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan—as well as the Kurdistan Democratic Party-Iran (KDP) and the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) and its armed wing the Liberation Forces of Eastern Kurdistan, in April 2010. The three factions of the Komala Party stated that they had used antipersonnel mines sporadically in the past.[12]
In July 2011, Iran reportedly blamed PJAK for laying an antivehicle mine resulting in the death of six Islamic Revolutionary Guards on patrol in the Alvatan region near the Kurdish city of Sardasht bordering Iraq.[13]
[1] In a February 2006 letter to the Monitor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, “Due to our expansive borders and problems resulting from narcotics and terrorist trafficking, our defense institutions are considering the use of landmines as a defensive mechanism.”
[2] Delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Explanation of Vote on the Draft Resolution L.6, UNGA First Committee, New York, 29 October 2008.
[3] Iran told the Monitor it has “announced its support for the regulations stipulated in the second protocol of this convention regarding the method of utilizing antipersonnel landmines.” Letter to the Monitor (Human Rights Watch), 1 February 2006, transmitting the response of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[4] Statement by Dr. Mohammad Hassan Daryaei, Counselor, Permanent Mission of Iran in Geneva, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Cluster Munitions, Geneva, 24 November 2010.
[5] Interview with Hossein Vaziri, IRMAC, Tehran, 28 August 2005. He did not state when Iran allegedly stopped using and producing mines, nor if there is a formal policy or law prohibiting use and production. Iran has manufactured several types of antipersonnel mines, including the YM-I, Mk. 4, and a Claymore-type mine.
[6] Letter to the Monitor from the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN in New York, 6 September 2002.
[7] Information provided to the Monitor and the ICBL by HALO Trust, Danish Demining Group, and other demining groups in Afghanistan. Iranian antipersonnel and antivehicle mines were also part of a shipment seized by Israel in January 2002 off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
[8] Letter to the Monitor (Human Rights Watch), 1 February 2006, transmitting the response of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[9] One report cites 113 mines recovered, including 50 antipersonnel mines. “Landmine deport smuggled from Iran discovered,” Pajhwok Afghan News, 25 January 2008. See also “Iranian Land Mines Found in Taliban Commander’s House,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), 25 January 2008.
[10] Tajikistan Article 7 Report, Form B2, 3 February 2008.
[11] “Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia pursuant to Security Council resolution 1676 (2006),” S/2006/913, 22 November 2006, p. 62.
[12] Geneva Call, “The Komalah–the Kurdistan Organization of the Communist Party of Iran and the Komala Party of Kurdistan Prohibit the Use of Anti-Personnel Mines,” Press release, 7 April 2009, Geneva, www.genevacall.org; Geneva Call, “The Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan Prohibits the Use of Anti-Personnel Mines,” Press release, 16 June 2009, Geneva, www.genevacall.org; and Geneva Call, “The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Prohibits the Use of Anti-Personnel Mines,” Press release, 5 December 2007, Geneva, www.genevacall.org. Previously, the Monitor had not identified any Kurdish armed group in Iran as a mine user. However the PDKI destroyed a stockpile of 392 antipersonnel mines in August 2008. Geneva Call, “Communiqué: Iranian Kurdish Organizations Prohibit the Use of Anti-Personnel Mines,” 21 April 2010. The KDP is a split off faction of the PDKI, and PJAK is affiliated with the Kurdish Workers Party of Turkey. Geneva Call informed the Monitor that the KDP stated that it had not used mines after it split from the PDKI in 2006. The PJAK stated that it has never used antipersonnel mines. Both groups told Geneva Call that they are investigating whether their armed wings possess any antipersonnel mines.
[13] “6 IRGC troops killed in landmine explosion in northwest of Iran,” Shanghai Daily (Xinhua Tehran) 22 July 2011, www.shanghaidaily.com.
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