TEHRAN— The head of the Department of Environment (DOE), Shina Ansari, and the under-secretary-general of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Inger Andersen, have discussed ways to expand cooperation on documenting war environmental impacts in the country.
In an online meeting on Friday, Ansari detailed the environmental impacts of the war on the country, IRNA reported.
Air strikes on Shajareh Tayyebeh school (in Minab, Hormozgan province), oil storage facilities, petrochemical plants, and industrial centers have led to widespread fires, dissemination of toxic pollutants and greenhouse gases, soil and water pollution, degradation of natural ecosystems, and decline in biodiversity, she said.
Highlighting the role of UNEP in supporting the environment amid conflicts, Ansari called on UNEP to support the DOE through holding training courses for experts affiliated with the department on documenting the environmental damage and pursuing legal actions against perpetrators
The official also invited UNEP international experts and technical teams to pay a field visit to Iran and assess environmental damage first-hand.
For her part, Andersen censured the US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s environment and environmental facilities.
The official said that the UNEP, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), is ready to hold specialized training courses on documenting environmental impacts of war for Iranian experts and provide technical support to them.
The DOE is supposed to introduce a group of experts to the UNDP secretariat to follow up on the discussed issues, and Iran’s ambassador to Kenya will also do needed arrangements.
Environment remains a victim of violations of international law
United Nations experts say that beyond immediate destruction, armed conflicts disrupt ecosystems, deplete natural resources, contaminate the environment, and jeopardize the health of the planet for future generations.
The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) was adopted in 1976 to prohibit the use of environmental modification techniques as a means of warfare. In addition, Additional Protocol I (1977) to the Geneva Conventions includes two key provisions — Articles 35 and 55 — prohibiting methods or means of warfare that are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment.
However, the adequacy of these two instruments was called into question during the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. The extensive pollution caused by the deliberate destruction of more than 600 oil wells in Kuwait, along with subsequent claims of $85 billion in environmental damage, led to growing calls to strengthen legal protections for the environment during armed conflict.
Since the start of terrorist attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime against Iran, numerous infrastructures — including oil storage facilities — have been targeted in acts of aggression.
A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), speaking at a press conference in Geneva, raised concerns about the health and environmental consequences of attacks by Israel and the United States on oil depots in Iran due to the release of toxic pollutants into the air.
The spokesperson stated that these impacts raise “serious questions regarding compliance with the principles of proportionality and precaution under international humanitarian law,” emphasizing that the sites struck did not appear to have been used exclusively for military purposes.
Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), also warned that the “black rain” and “acid rain” reported in Tehran following the attacks pose real dangers to public health in Iran, according to Al Jazeera.
Public concern over the targeting or misuse of the environment during wartime first reached its peak during the Vietnam War, widely regarded as the longest war of the 20th century and a military defeat for the United States. In the US, the conflict gave rise to what became known as the “Vietnam Syndrome,” reflecting widespread public aversion to American military interventions abroad.
MT/MG
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