Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization

Ali Salajegheh Vice President and Head of Department of Environment (DoE) and Masoud Mansour, Vice Minister of Agriculture- Jahad and Head of  Natural Resources and Watershed Management Organization (NRWO), arrived in Iraq accompanied by a delegation of representatives of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Roads and Urban Development on Saturday, May 28, 20222.

According to NRWO's website, Iran has signed a regional memorandum of understanding with Iraq, Turkey and Syria since 2006, and now Iran's representatives are travelling to Iraq and then Syria to pursue a regional action plan.

After visiting Iraq, this high level delegation will visit Syria. This mission is deemed to promote environmental diplomacy to address recurrent dust storms originating from neighbouring countries of Iran. It should be noted that there is a signed Memorandum of Understanding in 2006 between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey and they will discuss about it.

The mission to Iraq and Syria was carried out by the order of the President Reisi to boost cooperation in the region in order to control Dust Storms and to examine effective and immediate solutions to reduce its effects.

Based on this report, these days, dust originating from neighboring countries, especially Iraq and Syria, has entered Iran and has greatly affected the country's environment. Therefore, creating a regional convergence and alignment with neighboring countries that are the source of dust storms is essential for the country and can certainly led to make the regional polices to combat dust Phenomenon.

It is worth noting, dust storms usually occur when strong winds lift large amounts of sand and dust from bare, dry soils in the hotspots into the atmosphere.