Tehran challenges shipping insurers, energy-importing nations, and military powers to step up, warning it ‘cannot remain indifferent’ to decades of ecological ruin
Iran has declared that any future administrative framework for the Strait of Hormuz must place environmental restoration at its very core, directly challenging foreign nations, shipping insurers, and military actors to take responsibility for what Tehran describes as decades of unchecked ecological devastation across the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei made the declaration on Thursday via his X account, seizing on recently circulated footage of heavy oil fouling the coastlines of Qeshm Island as the latest testament to a chronic crisis.
“In recent days, videos have circulated showing oil pollution along the shores of Qeshm Island,” Baqaei wrote. “This pollution drifted toward the coast from the Persian Gulf, and preliminary evidence indicates a foreign bulk carrier as the source. Contamination has been documented at three coastal sites and across portions of the sea surface.”
A ‘Visible Example’ of Deeper, Concealed Damage
Yet for the Iranian spokesman, the Qeshm spill is merely the surface manifestation of a far more systemic assault on the region’s marine ecosystem.
“This incident is only one visible example of the extensive pollution—both overt and concealed—that has degraded the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, as well as the region’s marine ecosystem, over recent decades, imposing trillions of dollars in damage on Iran’s coastal areas,” Baqaei asserted.
The spokesperson then pivoted to a series of pointed rhetorical questions designed to pin liability squarely on external actors.
“Who bears responsibility for compensating these damages?” he asked. “Is it the nations that consume the inexpensive energy exported from our region, the shipping insurers, or the aggressors and their partners who have transformed the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman into a theater for military operations and the testing of highly destructive weaponry?”
Tehran’s Unique Stake—and Its Warning
Stressing Iran’s geographical and moral standing, Baqaei reminded that the Islamic Republic holds the longest shoreline along both the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, a position that he argued precludes indifference.
“As the country with the longest coastline along the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, Iran cannot remain indifferent,” he declared.
In closing, Baqaei issued a sweeping demand for accountability, insisting that legal and ethical obligations extend to every beneficiary of the strategic waterway.
“Every party that benefits from commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz carries both a legal and a moral obligation to remediate the environmental harm inflicted upon the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman,” he said.
Source: Iranian media (edite dby Al-Manar)