US officials declared that Russia was still supplying Iran with technology, technicians and training for the building of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Russia wants to sell weapons and technology to Iran, even though the Islamic conservatives there still regard Russia as an enemy. But long terms, Russia sees Iran as a moderating force in the region and an idea customer for Russian goods and services. Russia also has thousands of unemployed scientists and engineers from it's Soviet era nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs. Iran sees Iraq continuing to develop these technologies and is desperate not to fall behind. Thousands of Iranian soldiers died in the 1980s when Iraq used chemical weapons. So Iran does not see Iraq as an idle threat in this area. Oddly enough, Russia is also an eager supplied of weapons and technology to Iraq. But trading with Iraq is difficult right now because of the UN embargo. Besides, Iraq still owes Russia billions of dollars from purchases made in the 1980s. Russia was the major supplied of weapons to Iraq during the 1980s.