According to Mehdi Farahi, deputy defence minister, Iran has installed defence systems in 51 cities to combat "biological, radiological, and chemical threats."
According to Farahi, who was quoted on Saturday by the state broadcaster's website Iribnews, the defence ministry "had equipped 51 cities in the country with the essential installations and equipment for passive defence".
The infrastructure put in place to address various biological, radiological, and chemical threats has enabled the ministry to identify risks, he continued.
The statement comes as Iran is in the midst of talks with Western countries to resurrect the 2015 nuclear agreement, which gave the Islamic Republic much-needed sanctions relief in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme.
Israel has been making a last-ditch effort to persuade allies to end negotiations as pressure mounts to salvage the agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid stated on August 28 that the army and the Mossad espionage agency have been told to "prepare for every eventuality" in the event that the agreement is approved.
Amir Hatami, the former defence minister of Iran, stated in March 2021 that the Islamic Republic must be prepared to defend itself from nuclear, chemical, and biological attacks.
“We must be ready to defend our nation against all threats and anything that the enemy could one day use as a tool for the attack,” he said at an event commemorating a 1987 chemical attack against Iranian Kurds by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
“These include (attacks using) chemical, nuclear and biological weapons,” Hatami added, according to Fars news agency.
Saddam's forces used chemical weapons against Iran frequently throughout the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, particularly in the 1987 raid on the Kurdish town of Sardasht in northwest Iran.
119 people were confirmed dead and 1,518 injured, but witnesses claim many more were subjected to mustard gas, which experts believe was dropped in canisters from planes.