Tehran: The ecological impact of the Middle East conflict has km now emerged with a massive oil slick being detected near Iran’s Kharg Island.
The island is at the heart of Iran’s oil export industry and lies in the Gulf north of the narrow, strategic Strait of Hormuz.
According to Orbital EOS, the agency that monitors such activity, a major oil spill has been seen near Kharg Island. It is spreading off its coasts, the agency told The New York Times. The spill has already covered more than 52 square kilometres (20 square miles).
The slick appeared to be spreading southward towards Saudi Arabia’s waters, as seen in images captured between May 6 and May 8. , reports said. The source of the spill remains unclear though, as reported by timesnow.in.
With the US imposing sanctions on the movement of oil from Iran, Tehran could be running out of storage space. Experts suspect that some of the oil could have been released into the sea.
This brings back memories of Operation Desert Storm when Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait set ablaze to hundreds of onshore oil rigs. The oil reached the coast, causing severe damage to the marine ecosystem.
The US is said to be awaiting a response from Iran on a proposal to end the war with president Donald Trump saying that his administration was expecting to hear back from Tehran on Friday night.
“We’ll hear from them supposedly tonight,” Trump told CNN. Pressed on whether he believed the Iranians were slow-rolling negotiations, Trump replied that he did not know. “We’ll find out soon enough,” he said. As at Saturday morning Eastern time, it is not clear if Iran has responded to the US.
The US might resume a short-lived operation to guide ships through the waterway, Trump said. He paused the operation earlier this week, citing progress in negotiations with Iran.
Trump also spoke of “Project Freedom plus” while addressing reporters at the White House before travelling to a dinner at his golf course in Sterling, Virginia. He might “go back to Project Freedom” if a deal is not reached, but it would be “Project Freedom plus”, Trump said, noting that the initiative would be the same as its predecessor, “plus other things”.
“We’ll go a different route if everything doesn’t get signed up, buttoned up,” Trump said.
“I think Project Freedom is good, but I think we have other ways of doing it also. We may go back to Project Freedom if things don’t happen, but it’d be Project Freedom plus, meaning Project Freedom plus other things,” he added.
