The Israeli government is accusing Iran of environmental terrorism over the historic oil disaster unfolding along its Mediterranean coast line. At this point, nearly 100 tons of tar and contaminated material have been scraped off the country’s shores since cleanup efforts began on the 21st of February. In the ensuing investigation the original culprit has since been identified by authorities as a pirate-owned Libyan oil tanker carrying stolen cargo from Iran to Syria.
The Minister of Environmental Protection, Gila Gamliel, reports that the vessel in question is the Panama-flagged oil tanker Emerald. In a tweet, Gamliel linked the vessel to the Islamic Republic, adding that “Iran is (conducting) terrorism by damaging the environment, and (when) Iran is damaging the environment it isn’t just hurting the state of Israel.”
The ship in question sailed through the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea without any radio contact, turning off her tracking devices while transiting the Suez Canal but then reactivating them once across. The ship’s transponder was off before entering Israeli waters. Clearly, such behavior is surreptitious.
Read the complete article at: Forbes