Israeli minister sticks to Iran ‘environmental terror’ claim

Israeli soldiers wearing protective suits clean tar from an Israeli beach after an oil spill in the Mediterranean Sea (Ariel Schalit/AP)

Israel’s environmental protection minister has stood by her allegation that a crude oil spill in the eastern Mediterranean last month was an intentional attack by Iran, but provided no evidence for her claim.

Defence officials remained silent about the charge by Gila Gamliel, a junior minister in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, who announced on Wednesday that she had concluded the Iranian government deliberately spilled tonnes of crude oil into the sea in an attempt to damage Israel’s marine ecosystem.