In letter to UN chief, Iran warns about environmental impacts of US-Israeli war, calls for swift action

In a letter to Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, Iran has warned about the social and environmental impacts of the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic, calling for an immediate international action.

Vice President and Head of Iran’s Department of Environment Sheena Ansari sounded the warning on Tuesday, telling the UN chief that Iran’s civilian infrastructure has been targeted since the start of the massive US-Israeli aggression on February 28.

Of the atrocities caused by the imposed war, she touched on the Minab massacre in which some 170 schoolchildren were killed in the small town located in southern Iran, after a joint US-Israeli bombing pounded the Shajareh Tayyebeh all girls’ elementary school.

Nearly 100 other schoolchildren from the same school were injured in the barbaric aggression on the first day of the war.

In her letter, Ansari also said that airstrikes on the evening of March 7 targeted several fuel storage facilities in Tehran that led to the release of huge amounts of toxic hydrocarbon compounds as well as sulfur and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere.

Iran: US-Israeli strikes on oil depots 'intentional chemical warfare'

Iran says the US-Israeli attacks on oil storage facilities amount to intentional chemical warfare civilians.

She expressed grave concern that the release of these pollutants into the atmosphere could cause air pollution crisis in Tehran and the neighboring city of Karaj and has seriously endangered people’s health, particularly the elderly and those already suffering from respiratory and cardio-vascular diseases.

The vice president also warned that the rain on the morning of March 8 spread hazardous substances with acidic nature that could seriously harm lungs and damage water resources and natural ecosystems.

Elsewhere in her letter to the UN chief, Ansari stressed that such attacks are in blatant violation of international commitments regarding protection of the environment.

The head of Iran’s Department of Environment called on Guterres and the world body’s specialized mechanisms to condemn these attacks and hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes.Ansari also called the UN to adopt a firm position against “this obvious crime against Iran’s environment and people.”

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