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Updated: April 2006

Sources:

1. This chart summarizes data available from public sources. Precise assessment of a state's capabilities is difficult because most weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs remain secret and cannot be verified independently.
2. Nuclear Engineering International, 1998 World Nuclear Industry Handbook, (Essex, UK: Wilmington Publishing Ltd, 1998), pp. 36, 118. "Status of Multilateral Arms Regulation and Disarmament Agreements," UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, 2006, [Online] http://www. Disarmament2.un.org/treatystatus.nsf.
3. Julian Perry Robinson, "Chemical-Weapons Proliferation in the Middle East," Non-Conventional Weapons Proliferation in the Middle East, Efraim Karsh, Martin S. Navias, and Philip Sabin, eds. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 75, 83. "Status of Multilateral Arms Regulation and Disarmament Agreements," UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, 2006. "Membership of the OPCW: Status of Participation in the Chemical Weapons Convention," Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, 2006, [Online] http://www.opcw.org.
4. Reports on biological weapons programs do not identify Yemen as a country of proliferation concern. E.g., Graham S. Pearson, "The Threat of Deliberate Disease in the Twenty First Century," Biological Weapons Proliferation: Reasons for Concern, Courses of Action (Washington, DC: Henry L. Stimson Center, 1/98) Report No. 24, p. 26. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 12/93), p. 239. "Status of Multilateral Arms Regulation and Disarmament Agreements," UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, 2006.
5. "Missile and Space Launch Capabilities of Selected Countries," The Nonproliferation Review, forthcoming 1998. Duncan Lennox, ed., "Country Inventory – In Service," and "Offensive Weapons, Russia," Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems Issue 24, 5/97. "Yemen," Federation of American Scientists, 9/12/96 [Online] http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/missile/yemen.htm. "South Yemeni Forces Use Scud Missiles in Civil War," Arms Control Today, 6/94, p. 31.

   A recent US congressional task force report alleges that in mid-1991, chemical weapons and "about 400" Scud missiles were transferred from Iraq to Yemen and Sudan. The report states that due to pressure from Saudi Arabia on Yemen, all of the missiles were sent "soon afterwards" from Yemen to Sudan. The report was said to be based on unidentified European and Israeli intelligence sources. Yossef Bodansky, "The Iraqi WMD Challenge: Myths and Reality," (Washington, DC: US House of Representatives Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, 2/10/98). Jim Wolf, Reuters, 2/15/98, "Iraq Hid Deadly Weapons Abroad-Congress Report."

   A White House official said on 2/16/98 that the United States has "no credible evidence" to support the allegations. European intelligence sources likewise said they had no evidence to support the charges. "White House Says No Sign Iraq Exported Arms," Reuters, 2/16/98. Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Munich), 3/26/98, "Authorities Claim US 'Disinformation Attempt' Over Iraq;" in FBIS-WEU-98-085, 3/26/98.

   The claim that Iraq transferred hundreds of ballistic missiles from Sudan is wildly at variance with public estimates by other sources, which estimate that Iraq may retain from between two up to a maximum of a few dozen Scud missiles. US National Security Council (NSC), "Iraq's Program of Mass Destruction: Threatening the Security of the International Community,"11/14/97, p. 4, [Online] http://www.usia.gov/regional/nea/gulfsec/nsc1119.htm. US Government White Paper, "Iraq Weapons Of Mass Destruction Programs," 2/13/98, [Online] http://www.usia.gov/regional/nea/iraq/whitepap.htm. Anthony H. Cordesman, "Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East: National Efforts, War Fighting Capabilities, Weapons Lethality, Terrorism, and Arms Control Implications" (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2/98), p. 31. Michael Eisenstadt, "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD): Unresolved Issues," Policywatch #304, 2/27/98, [Online] http://www.washingtoninstitute.org. Anthony H. Cordesman, "The Northern and Southern Gulf," The Military Balance in the Middle East, CSIS, 2/19/04, p. 80, [Online] http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/me_mb_gulf2.pdf. For information on the 2002 delivery of Scud missiles to Yemen from North Korea, see Sharon Squassoni, "Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons and Missiles: Status and Trends," CRS, 1/14/05, p. 3, [Online] http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RL30699.pdf. Carla Anne Robbins, "Why U.S. Gave U.N. No Role in Plan to Halt Arms Ships: Sole Superpowers Approach to Fighting Proliferation Challenges the World Body," Wall Street Journal, 10/21/03, p. 1.

6. Lennox. Federation of American Scientists. "Yemen," The Middle East Balance, (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 6/28/04), p. 15, [Online] http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/balance/Yemen.pdf.
7. The Military Balance 1997/98 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1997), p. 144. "Yemen," The Middle East Military Balance, (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 6/28/04), pp. 5, 10, 11. Cordesman, "The Northern and Southern Gulf," The Military Balance in the Middle East, CSIS, 2/19/04, p. 80.