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Exclusive- Ahwazi Palm Groves Die amid Water Shortage Protests

Protesters calling to halt projects for diverting the course of the Karun River in October 2013
Protesters calling to halt projects for diverting the course of the Karun River in October 2013
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Exclusive- Ahwazi Palm Groves Die amid Water Shortage Protests

Protesters calling to halt projects for diverting the course of the Karun River in October 2013
Protesters calling to halt projects for diverting the course of the Karun River in October 2013

Ahwaz is a clear example of environmental and social disasters taking place in Iran as a result of river diverting projects to the country’s central provinces.

Most provinces facing serious water shortages are populated with non-Persian ethnicities. Three decades ago, two-thirds of Iran's fresh water was found in the country’s southwest, which is an Arab majority area.

Over the past 30 years, Ahwaz has been affected by the construction of 67 large and small dams and 6 water transfer projects. 

The registered volume of Ahwaz reservoirs reached more than 45 billion cubic meters of water.

Water transfer projects were designed to transport 8 billion cubic meters per year to all central provinces of Iran and Qom.

“Most dams and water-transfer projects in Ahwaz have not received an environmental license as a prerequisite for the implementation of such projects, but they are continuing despite these conditions,” says an environmental expert.

Sustaining heavy impact from dam projects, Ahwaz lands, which once surprised travelers with their rich green palm groves, became home to the largest dust storms in Iran. Over the past two decades, millions of palm trees have died because of water shortage.

According to official sources, more than 4 million palm trees in Ahwaz are dying today, the fishing industry saw a 30 percent drop and continues to decline.

Such is the case for hundreds of thousands of farms and orchards that once enjoyed golden fertility and now are left arid.

All of which caused the rise of “shocking” crises in the city. 

The Ahwazi Doctors Association also began warning against a breakout of respiratory diseases and cancer.

According to some reports, the rate of cancer in the city of Ahwaz is four times greater than that of other regions in Iran.

The city witnesses persistent protests demanding to roll back projects that are environmentally detrimental.

Speaking under the condition of anonymity, the environmental expert speculated of Iranian parties conspiring to kill Ahwazi nature. He labeled it a ‘large-scale ethnic cleansing project.’

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The Pentagon Chief Loses Bid to Reject 9/11 Plea Deals

FILED - 19 March 2024, Rhineland-Palatinate, Ramstein-Miesenbach: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a press conference. Photo: Uwe Anspach/dpa
FILED - 19 March 2024, Rhineland-Palatinate, Ramstein-Miesenbach: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a press conference. Photo: Uwe Anspach/dpa
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The Pentagon Chief Loses Bid to Reject 9/11 Plea Deals

FILED - 19 March 2024, Rhineland-Palatinate, Ramstein-Miesenbach: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a press conference. Photo: Uwe Anspach/dpa
FILED - 19 March 2024, Rhineland-Palatinate, Ramstein-Miesenbach: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks during a press conference. Photo: Uwe Anspach/dpa

A military appeals court has ruled against Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's effort to throw out the plea deals reached for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants in the 9/11 attacks, a US official said.

The decision puts back on track the agreements that would have the three men plead guilty to one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States in exchange for being spared the possibility of the death penalty. The attacks by al-Qaeda killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001, and helped spur US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in what the George W. Bush administration called its war on terror.

The military appeals court released its ruling Monday night, according to the US official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, according to The AP.

Military prosecutors and defense attorneys for Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the attacks, and two co-defendants reached the plea agreements after two years of government-approved negotiations. The deals were announced late last summer.

Supporters of the plea agreement see it as a way of resolving the legally troubled case against the men at the US military commission at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. Pretrial hearings for Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi have been underway for more than a decade.

Much of the focus of pretrial arguments has been on how torture of the men while in CIA custody in the first years after their detention may taint the overall evidence in the case.

Within days of news of the plea deal this summer, Austin issued a brief order saying he was nullifying them.

He cited the gravity of the 9/11 attacks in saying that as defense secretary, he should decide on any plea agreements that would spare the defendants the possibility of execution.

Defense lawyers said Austin had no legal authority to reject a decision already approved by the Guantanamo court's top authority and said the move amounted to unlawful interference in the case.

The military judge hearing the 9/11 case, Air Force Col. Matthew McCall, had agreed that Austin lacked standing to throw out the plea bargains after they were underway. That had set up the Defense Department's appeal to the military appeals court.

Austin now has the option of taking his effort to throw out the plea deals to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. There was no immediate word from the Pentagon on any next move.