The ability of a ship to purposely dump oil so that, two weeks later, it harms a country’s coastline appears very complex.
An oil tanker loads gas in Assaluyeh seaport at the Persian Gulf, 1,400 km (870 miles) south of Tehran, Iran May 27, 2006.
(photo credit: MORTEZA NIKOUBAZI/ REUTERS)
A shocking claim by Israel’s environmental protection minister on Wednesday – that a Libyan ship dumped containers of crude oil off Israel’s coast, causing one of the country’s worst environmental disasters – is making waves. This is because Environment Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said that Iran was linked to the environmental harm.
The story of the ship that allegedly caused the spill is convoluted, like many things at sea that involve the shipping industry. This is because ownership of ships is often murky and involves shell companies and ships registered in one place, flying the flag of a different place, owned by a third party and captained by people from a fourth nation.
This is especially true of ships involved in illicit activity linked to countries that are under international sanctions like Iran.
Israel says that the ship is the Libyan-owned Emerald tanker.
“This is a crude oil tanker called Emerald, owned and operated by a Libyan company,” Gamliel said. “It was illegally carrying cargo from Iran to Syria. The ship was flying Panama’s flag. Iran is waging terrorism not only by trying to arm itself with nuclear weapons or trying to establish a basis near our borders. Iran is waging terrorism by harming the environment.
“Our battle on behalf of nature and animals must be a cross-border one,” she said. “Together, we will bring to justice those responsible for the environmental terrorism, those who committed this crime against humanity. We will continue to rehabilitate the damaged beaches and the animals that were harmed. Together, we will win, and we’ll remove the pollution from our country’s shores.”
The ship was allegedly going from Iran to Syria where it was smuggling crude oil, Israel claims. Ships trying to get to Syria from Iran in the past have been interdicted so the transit can be illicit. The vessel also turned off its automatic identification system, a kind of transponder.
