Lebanon has filed a report to the United Nations about the damages caused by the recent Israeli oil spill on its shores, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the report highlights “the extent of the damages that can be described as an environmental catastrophe,” noting that the process of undoing the damage “may take many years.”
In light of this, caretaker Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe has also sent a message to each of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, and the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Inger Anderson.
The message, according to the statement, requests technical assistance and support to Lebanon and stresses the need for the U.N. to determine the causes of the oil spill and who is responsible for it.
This is so that Lebanon can claim compensation for “the grave environmental damage it has suffered, which is considered an environmental disaster that it has no power to address and limit its incessant damages,” the statement added.
The report, which was filed on Tuesday upon the request of caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab, comes 5 days after Lebanon informed the U.N. about the pollution of the Lebanese shore by an oil spill that had reached it from Occupied Palestine.
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