Iranian president accuses US, Israel of causing environmental damage during war

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the US and Israel of inflicting severe environmental damage during attacks on the country in his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference in Turkey on Wednesday, calling for mechanisms to hold them accountable. "The recent criminal and illegal aggression against Iran by America and the Zionist regime... has inflicted severe damage on the environment, releasing massive quantities of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere," Pezeshkian said. He told COP31 that US-Israeli attacks released 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere and caused extensive damage to the environment. Attacks on the Asaluyeh gas field in Iran's south on 8 March alone "resulted in the emission of approximately 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide", he added, while "the deliberate strike on fuel depots near Tehran led to the release of another one million tonnes". Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian delivers a speech during the COP31 UN climate conference in Antalya, Turkey, on 11 November 2026 (Ozan Kose/AFP)