YEREVAN -- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian here Friday hit out at the United States and Israel for waging an aggressive war that has devastated ecosystems across the region, describing the destruction as “ecocide or environmental genocide” and demanding the international community hold perpetrators accountable.
Addressing the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), Pezeshkian said wars do not only target humans and economic infrastructure but also burn forests, destroy wetlands, contaminate soil, threaten water sources, eliminate habitats, displace animal species, and introduce chemicals and heavy metals into natural cycles.
“Today, the international community knows well that environmental destruction in armed conflicts is not a minor and insignificant side effect of war. These damages are directly linked to the security and welfare of future generations,” Pezeshkian said.
“The aggressive war that the United States and the Zionist regime have launched in our region, by damaging industrial and energy facilities, fires, pollutant emissions, soil and water pollution, has threatened natural ecosystems and destroyed protection infrastructure
that was built over years of effort to protect biodiversity.”
He added: “What has happened in our region due to aggressive wars is ‘ecocide or environmental genocide’ that must be condemned.”
Citing Gaza as a stark example, Pezeshkian said experts have confirmed that parts of its soil will be unable to host life and natural ecological and plant cycles for hundreds of years.
The Iranian president called on the international community to establish “effective, transparent, and enforceable mechanisms” to protect natural heritage and biodiversity during wartime, saying “no country should consider nature a silent and defenseless victim during war.”
Pezeshkian said Iran itself has been targeted by criminal wars involving widespread use of destructive and prohibited weapons, including deliberate attacks on environmental targets such as fuel reservoirs in Tehran.
“Nature does not recognize political borders; the spread of water, soil, and air pollution does not stop behind borders. Therefore, damages caused by war are also issues of a global nature and require international solutions,” he said.
The Iranian president stressed that countries under economic sanctions or facing military aggression should not bear alone the environmental costs of wars they did not start.
“If we expect developing countries to protect their forests, wetlands, species, and genetic resources, we must also provide them with the conditions to access the necessary tools to fulfill this responsibility. This is the true meaning of environmental justice,” Pezeshkian said.
He called for more accessible and equitable biodiversity financing, technology transfer, capacity building, and local community participation, urging UN agencies and international financial institutions to strengthen mechanisms for resource mobilization, environmental damage assessment, and ecosystem restoration in countries affected by armed conflict.
Pezeshkian described environmental cooperation as a potential pillar of “peace diplomacy,” saying it can build bridges between nations in a region grappling with security crises, climate change, water shortages, and ecosystem degradation.
“We believe that protecting biodiversity can be one of the important arenas of ‘peace diplomacy,’” he said, envisioning “a future away from war, killing, and destruction in which biodiversity is a common foundation for the welfare and prosperity of the present and future generations.”
The Iranian president also noted Iran’s commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity, citing the country’s national biodiversity strategy and action plan, the designation of the Department of Environment as national coordinator, and government-approved mechanisms for non-governmental participation with priority given to local communities.
Pezeshkian arrived in Yerevan on Friday for the one-day summit, accompanied by Environment Department chief Shina Ansari, Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, and presidential chief of staff Mohsen Haji Mirzaei.
On the sidelines, he met Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, discussing bilateral cooperation, regional connectivity, and a proposed joint strategic document between Tehran and Yerevan.
Speaking to reporters upon his return, Pezeshkian said the Yerevan summit and a prior conference in Turkmenistan’s Avaza addressed the declining Caspian Sea, water pollution, and biodiversity loss.
“We are all guests on this planet that we are destroying, and if we cannot preserve it for future generations, we will create many problems,” he said, adding that any disruption to the cycle of life threatens human existence regardless of nationality or borders.