TEHRAN — Addressing environmental issues and dust storms require mutual cooperation, Rajeh Saber Abboud al-Mousavi, the Iraqi ambassador to Iran, has said.

Dust storms is of the problems common to both Iran and Iraq which is predominantly sourced from Iraq, Abboud al-Mousavi told IRNA in an interview published on Saturday. 

Environmental status is worsening worldwide day by day as a result of human-induced alterations such as industrialization and ozone depletion, the ambassador remarked.

Environment was treated brutally at the time of Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, he said, adding, rivers were dried up (at his time of reign) and normally when the land is dried it is subjected to the wind (and causes dust storms).

He further regretted that building numerous dams on Tigris and Euphrates rivers by Turkey and not letting the water flow into the rivers led to some 41 rivers getting dried between Iran and Iraq.

Iran, Iraq and the whole region are dealing with water shortage and some issues have contributed to and speeded up desertification which have imposed heavy expenses on the governments, he noted.

Sometimes these problems are rooted in political issues in addition to climate change and global warming, he suggested.

These issues are being dealt with on international level and countries such as Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are holding joint sessions and so far they have proposed some solutions to these problems, Abboud al-Mousavi highlighted.

“What matter is that there are conferences and meeting being held to solve these issues and I believe that we have to join hands and discuss them in order to resolve them,” he said.

Environmental predicaments that are threatening the Middle East are so numerous to count and they mostly have a domino effect as one issue sets off a chain of other critical issues and that they are related to one another such as dust storms.

Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are the three countries which have always been a source of unpleasant dust storms for Iran. Unfortunately recurrent periods of drought, climate change and wars have worsened the situation over the past years.

MQ/MG