🔸 Baqai called Iran’s dumping of oil into the sea a “plain lie”

Ismail Baqai, spokesperson of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Monday, August 17 (26 Mordad), in part of his weekly briefing, when asked about “Iran’s release of oil into the sea and the observation of an oil slick near Khark Island,” described the issue as a “plain lie.”

He blamed the United States’ military operations in the region for environmental damage in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Strait of Hormuz, and said: «The U.S. military presence in the region and the various wars that the U.S. has imposed on the people of the region have imposed very severe and long-lasting environmental consequences on the region.»

Baqai did not consider the damage caused to the environment of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman to be limited to the recent war and claimed that “the environmental damage caused by the U.S. to the region over these five decades has been very substantial and in the trillions of dollars.”

He said environmental damage is not confined to Iran and also includes other countries on the Persian Gulf’s shores, and that this is one of the reasons why Iran emphasizes the creation of “a management mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz.”