An Iranian official has categorically rejected reports suggesting that Lake Urmia has been purposefully neglected to let the body of water dry up and allow for mining of much-coveted lithium.
Saeed Shahand, the head of West Azarbaijan’s Environment Protection Office said on Tuesday that the only material that exists under the lake is salt, whose mining poses no risk to the ecosystem.
There are reports that officials have intentionally neglected the lake in recent years, saying the area is a major source of lithium, a metal in high demand in the world.
Lake Urmia in Iran’s West
Azarbaijan Province, once the world’s 6th saltwater lake and the biggest of its kind in West Asia, is now on the cusp of drying up. The tragedy is blamed on a number of factors, including excessive water consumption by farmers in the region and climate change.
The rate of rainfall in the region has remarkably reduced in recent decades and the Urmia basin has experienced several multi-year droughts.
The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Massoud Pezeshkian, stated that the Zionist regime,…
Kiev lacks the capability to "reclaim" Donbass and Crimea from Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky has…
Newly declassified documents have disclosed that the United States was aware that Israel was capable…
Russia says the suspect behind the terrorist attack that killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Chief…
Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has expressed shock over the recent hijab law approved by…
Democratic legislators in the United States have urged the administration of President Joe Biden to…