Narges Bajoghli: It is estimated that more than 100,000 survivors of chemical warfare live in Iran, more than any other country. Starting in 1981, Iraq fired countless chemical warheads at Iranian soldiers and civilians. Iraqi troops carried out the first extensive chemical attack on Iran in October 1983, with shells containing tons of sulphur mustard and nerve agents. Later, with the help of West Germany, Iraq began to manufacture mustard gas and nerve agents in large amounts. There were more than 30 chemical attacks on residential areas in Iran, as well as on the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja, where more than 5,000 civilians were killed. Companies based in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, the US, India and Egypt were involved in selling and providing material for these chemical weapons to Iraq. “I remember demonstrating in the 1980s against the fact that Germany was sending chemical agents to Iraq to be used in the war against Iran,” says Jochheim. In an odd twist of fate, he sees his country now engaged in a different type of aggression against Iran that is harming the very people who bore the brunt of the chemical weapons. Though the German and Swedish branches of IPPNW [International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War] have publicly contacted their respective foreign ministries and asked that steps be taken to alleviate the medicine shortage, the physicians are not hopeful that things will change any time soon. In theory, medicine is exempt from western sanctions against Iran; in practice, however, with blanket international sanctions on Iranian banking and shipping, it is extremely difficult for any pharmaceutical company to arrange for payment and shipment. More here.