BEIRUT: Environment Minister Mohammad Machnouk said the U.N. resolution calling on Israel to pay compensation to Lebanon over a major oil slick in 2006 was one wish that had come true among 22 made on National Environment Day last month.
In comments he made at a ministry gathering to mark the end of the year, Machnouk said the U.N. decision was “a great victory for justice, rights and environment.”
”We had made 22 wishes for the new year, and one of them was realized through the U.N. General Assembly’s resolution that demands Israel pay Lebanon $856.4 million in compensation for the oil pollution disaster it had caused during its aggression,” Machnouk said in the comments published Monday.
Lebanon marks National Environment day on Nov. 16 each year.
He vowed that the Cabinet will continue efforts to implement the resolution to force Israel to meet its financial compensation obligations.
But the resolution, which passed Friday with a 170-6 vote, is non-binding, and Israel said it will not pay.
The resolution was opposed by Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. The three countries that abstained from voting were Cameroon, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.
Machnouk also wished for a quick approval in Cabinet of the solid waste management plan “in order to turn a new page in Lebanon’s environmental record.”
Machnouk listed among the aspired achievements he hopes to seal in the near future, a roadmap for preventing pollution of Qaraoun Lake in the Bekaa, inauguration of 11 air pollution monitoring stations, and a plan for combating deforestation.
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