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BASRA: Bees once thrived among the date palms along the Shatt Al-Arab, where Iraq’s mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet, but drought has shriveled the green trees and life in the apiaries that dot the riverbank is under threat.

In the historic port city of Basra, beekeepers following centuries-long traditions are struggling to produce honey as the salinity of water in Shatt Al-Arab rises, along with extreme heat and persistent droughts that have disturbed the bees’ delicate ecosystem.

“Bees need clean ... water. The lack of this water leads to their death,” said Mahmoud Shaker, 61, a professor at Basra University who has his own apiary.

The banks of the Shatt Al-Arab were once a lush jungle where bees would feast, producing high-quality honey that was a good source of income for Iraqi beekeepers in the southern city.

But decades of conflict and a changing climate have slowly diminished the greenery, putting the bee population at risk. Less than a quarter of the palm trees on the riverbanks of Shatt Al-Arab have survived, with fewer than 3 million trees now, from a peak of nearly 16 million.

There were more than 4,000 bee hives in at least 263 apiaries around the city, the assistant director of the Basra office in the agriculture ministry, Dr. Mohammed Mahdi Muzaal Al-Diraoui, said. But due to conflict and the harsh environmental conditions, around 150 apiaries have been damaged and at least 2,000 hives lost, he said.

“Environmental conditions and salt water have harmed the bees, causing significant losses. Some beekeepers have completely lost their apiaries,” Al-Diraoui said.

As a result, honey production in the area is expected to decline by up to 50 percent this season compared to the previous year, Al-Diraoui said.

At its peak, honey production from the Basra region was around 30 tons a year, he said, but has been declining since 2007-2008, falling sharply to 12 tons in the past five years, with production this season expected to reach just six tons.

Iraq has endured decades of warfare — from war with Iran in the 1980s, to the Gulf War of the early 1990s, the 2003 US-led invasion followed by insurgent violence and rise and fall of the Daesh group. Its latest challenge, however, is a water shortage that is putting its whole ecology at risk.

Water security has become a pressing issue in the oil-rich nation as levels in Euphrates and Tigris have declined sharply, worsened by upstream dams, mostly in Turkiye. For Shatt Al-Arab that meant a surge of seawater from the Arabian Gulf into the waterway, raising salinity to unprecedented levels.

Its riverbanks, once lined with groves rich in nectar and flowers, have been devastated as salinity levels soared, while bees also struggle with extreme heat, with summer temperatures in Basra reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), Shaker said.

As the salinity of Shatt Al-Arab’s water rises, the bee population remains at risk, and some areas on the riverbanks of southern Basra have already stopped production, Al-Diraoui said.

“I expect that if the water crisis continues at this rate over the next year, especially if salt water reaches areas in northern Basra, honey production will come to a complete halt.”

LONDON: During a meeting with US President Donald Trump, eight leaders and ministers from Arab and Islamic states stressed the need to end the war in Gaza.

The leaders of Qatar, Jordan, Turkiye, Indonesia and Pakistan, as well as Egypt’s prime minister and the foreign ministers of the UAE and ��������, met with Trump on the sidelines of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. 

They highlighted the “humanitarian catastrophe and high human toll” in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

They said the war has “serious consequences for the region and impact on the Muslim world,” rejecting the forced displacement of Palestinians from the enclave, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

They added that an immediate ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas, and the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid into Gaza are “the first step toward a just and lasting peace.”

They reaffirmed their commitment to rebuilding the lives of Palestinians in Gaza, and stressed the need for a comprehensive construction plan that outlines security arrangements in the territory and ensures international support for the Palestinian Authority, which they support in its reform efforts.

They also stressed the importance of protecting Jerusalem’s holy sites and maintaining stability in the occupied West Bank, where violence by Israeli settlers has increased since late 2023.

The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to cooperate with Trump to end the war and achieve peace.

The meeting was co-hosted by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Kamal Madbouly, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.