DUBAI: Jordan’s king said on Friday that war was making the threats from climate change even worse in the Gaza Strip.
King Abdullah II told the UN’s COP28 climate talks in Dubai that “we cannot talk about climate change in isolation from the humanitarian tragedies unfolding around us.”
He said: “In Gaza, over 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes. Tens of thousands have been injured or killed in a region already on the front lines of climate change.”
The massive destruction of war makes the environmental threats of water scarcity and food insecurity even more severe,the king told a gathering of world leaders.
“In Gaza, our people are living with little clean water and the bare minimum of food supplies, as climate threats magnify the devastation of war.”
The Gaza war has been a major talking point at COP28.
Iran’s delegation walked out of the COP28 talks on Friday in protest at Israel’s presence, which delegation chief Ali Akbar Mehrabian said was “contrary to the goals and guidelines of the conference,” according to the official IRNA news agency.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog is conducting talks on hostage releases on the sidelines of the conference, while his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas canceled a planned visit.
Iran has warned of “severe consequences” as the deadly conflict resumed on Friday.
“The continuation of the Washington and Tel Aviv war means a new genocide in Gaza and the West Bank,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Friday in post on X, formerly Twitter.
“It appears that they do not think about the severe consequences of returning to war,” he added.