Lebanon
Israeli aggression against Lebanon summer 2006
Lebanese Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil
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Tuesday 21 Apr 2015 - 12:36 Makkah mean time-2-7-1436
Beirut beach August 6, 2006 oil spil (Google image)
Beirut, (IINA) - Israel must compensate Lebanon for the environmental destruction caused after it bombed a power plant during its 2006 invasion which led to the leak of more than 10,000 tons of oil into the sea, Lebanese Daily Star reported Quoting Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.
Speaking at a joint news conference on Monday, alongside Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk and the U.N. resident coordinator for Lebanon Ross Mountain, Bassil urged the world body to invoke Chapter VII of its charter to oblige Israel to pay the $856.4 million that it owes Lebanon, according to a U.N. General Assembly decision passed in December.
Israeli war jets targeted two of Lebanon’s oil storage tanks at the Jiyyeh power plant on Lebanon’s southern coast during the Israeli 2006 summer invasion of Lebanon, which led to a massive oil slick in the Mediterranean Sea in one of the worst environmental catastrophes ever created.
Studies showed that between 12,000 and 15,000 tons of medium and heavy oil spilled into the sea.
The spill reached 150 kilometers of the Lebanese coast due to an Israeli-imposed siege that prevented quick intervention to contain it.
In response, the environment ministry formed a team of pollution experts in cooperation with a number of local and international marine pollution agencies and the EU to clean the sea in a process implemented in two stages, in 2007 and 2009, Machnouk said.
Almost nine years later, remnants of the spill approximately 2,500 cubic meters of polluted sand, stones and wreckage remain at the refineries of Tripoli and Zahrani and the power plants of Jiyyeh and Zouk, Machnouk said.
The remnants will be treated with a 2.2 million grant from the EU, Machnouk said, as part of a larger donation of 19 million euros aimed at preserving Lebanon’s maritime resources.
The cost of the damage compensation, according to the U.N. resolution 69/212 supported by 170 states, is $856.4 million. However, since Israel is refusing to abide by the international decision, Bassil said, indirect and subsequent damages are adding to the main cost with time.
The minister said he is looking into the issue to find an applicable solution to propel Israel to pay for the damages.
SM/IINA
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