Iraq disarmament crisis was claimed as one of primary issues that led to the multinational invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003 . Since the 1980s , Iraq was widely assumed to have been producing and extensively running the programs of biological , chemical and nuclear weapons . Iraq made extensive use of chemical weapons during the Iran – Iraq War in the 1980s , including against its own Kurdish population . France and the Soviet Union assisted Iraq in the development of its nuclear program , but its primary facility was destroyed by Israel in 1981 in a surprise air strike
against its own Kurdish population
Anfal genocide
Iraq disarmament crisis