SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Wednesday launched an initiative to confront dust storm with the regional countries.
Abdollahian held a telephone call with his counterparts from Iraq, Syria and Kuwait to discuss the issue of dust storms that have hit their countries, according to the Iranian foreign ministry.
Abdollahian had “intensive consultations” with his counterparts over the management of the common problem of dust storms, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministers agreed that Iraq’s top diplomat would pursue the issue along with his Saudi counterpart and ask him to participate in the regional initiative to solve the problem, the statement read.
He underlined the “sensitivity and urgency of controlling the problem in different countries, that has a foreign origin and has disrupted and poses a threat to the normal life of people”, the statement said.
The officials decided to hold a joint regional meeting on the matter.
The Middle East has always been battered by dust and sandstorms, but they have become more frequent and intense in recent years.
Thousands of people were hospitalized in Iraq due to the dust storms.
Iraq is rich in oil and is known in Arabic as the land of the two rivers — in reference to the legendary Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
In April, an environment ministry official warned that Iraq could face “272 days of dust” a year over the next two decades.
