The Gulf War inflicted $23 billion in losses on various sectors to Iran, a government official said on Wednesday.
“Of this amount, $15.4 billion in damage was inflicted on natural resources, agriculture and fisheries,” said Deputy Minister of Agriculture Behzad Ghareh-Ryaz, cited by the official Iranian news agency, IRNA.
Speaking on the sidelines of a gathering entitled Damage
Inflicted on Iran's Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture during Iraq-Kuwait War and the Persian Gulf War, he said Iran should follow up the case through international organizations to receive compensation.
According to the head of the research, training and agricultural Development, the country's environment has been polluted by oil wells set on fire by Iraqi forces, and the explosion of oil tankers and their subsequent leakage of oil into the Arabian Gulf waters.
In the meantime, over 1.5 million war refugees sought shelter in the Iran iduring the war.
After attacks by the US-led "allied" forces on Iraq, some 700 Kuwaiti oil wells were set on fire by retreating Iraqi forces, causing severe environmental contamination.
The Iraqi invasion also inflicted heavy damage on underground water resources, forests and pastures, soil, marshlands, fisheries and sea animals as well as herbal medicines, he said.
The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) took some $17 billion from Iraq and allocated the amount for research in Iran, he said.
The UNCC in October 1999 announced that payments made to organizations and individuals who had suffered financially owing to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 totaled $3.65 billion, said the agency – Albawaba.com
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