Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Monday said that "a ship of the Israeli enemy" was to blame for the oil spill that has reached Lebanon's southern Mediterranean shores.
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Diab turned to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, to launch an investigation and possibly help with the severe pollution. Diab, who is also his government's minister of environmental protection, said he was "following the developments."
The program director of Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa, Julien Jreissati, called on Lebanon's Ministry of Environment to "take immediate measures to assess the magnitude of the risk of this spill by setting up an urgent survey and monitoring program."
He added: "The authorities must develop a quick plan to reduce the impacts on the environment and public health, and based on the results of the assessment, the authorities should provide safety instructions to the Lebanese people, especially concerning fishing and swimming activities.
Jreissati said the incident added to a long list of oil spills that threaten the rich marine biodiversity and affect the eastern Mediterranean's inhabitants.
"It is a manifestation of the destruction of nature resulting from the addiction of the global systems to fossil fuels," he concluded.
The last oil spill in the region occurred during the 2006 Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah following Israeli airstrikes on the Jiyeh Power Station in Lebanon, which spilled some 30 tons of oil into the sea. The incident led the UN General Assembly to issue a non-binding resolution in December of 2014 calling on Israel to pay Lebanon $856.4 million in compensation.
Meanwhile, a Haifa court on Monday ordered the partial lifting of key restrictions that have been placed on the media regarding the mysterious oil spill.
As of Tuesday, it was unclear which merchant vessel was responsible for the spill and what flag it was carrying.
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