On Wednesday, Israel accused Iran of intentionally orchestrating a major oil spill near its coast in early February.
Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said Iran is conducting “terrorism by harming the environment”, according to Reuters, adding that when “Iran is harming the environment, it is not just harming the state of Israel”.
Israeli officials said the ship that caused the pollution was a tanker owned by Libya, suspected of smuggling oil from Iran into Syria.
More than 90% of Israel’s 120-mile Mediterranean coast has been covered by about 1,000 tonnes of black tar due to the spill, the Associated Press reported, marking one of the worst ecological disasters in the country’s history. Gamliel said the incident was an intentional act of “environmental terror”, promising “to sue for all citizens of Israel”.
Iranian officials did not comment on the matter and the UN Iranian mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Israelis clean the tar from the sand after an alleged oil spill covered the Israeli coast with tar on February 25, 2021 in Haifa, Israel.
Amir Levy / Getty Images
Wednesday’s accusations came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran attacked an Israeli-owned cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman.
“It was really an act by Iran, that much is clear,” said Netanyahu on Monday, according to the Associated Press. “Iran is Israel’s biggest enemy, I am determined to stop it. We are attacking across the region.”
Tehran rejected the accusations.
Amid rising tensions between Washington and Tehran over President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign and his decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal, the U.S. in 2019 accused Iran of being behind the attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
The contentious dynamics between the U.S. and Iran have been carried over into the Biden era, even as the new government seeks to revive the 2015 agreement.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden ordered air strikes in Syria against Iran-backed militias in retaliation for a rocket attack in Irbil, Iraq, in mid-February, which killed a foreign contractor and wounded several Americans. Biden said the attacks were aimed at sending a message to Iran to “be careful”, warning that Tehran cannot act “with impunity”.
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