Egyptian technicians on Monday were to inspect an old French aircraft carrier, heading for an Indian scrapyard, ahead of its planned transit through the Suez canal after a delay caused by controversy over the warship’s asbestos insulation.
In a further potential legal snag, India’s Supreme Court on Monday banned the ship from entering Indian waters before February 13 when the tribunal is due to give a final ruling on whether it can be scrapped in the country, a court official said.
As the warship Clemenceau, weighing around 24 000 tonnes, lay at anchor off Port Said, a team of experts from Egypt’s environment ministry and officials from the canal authority was due on board to perform a routine inspection, said a canal authority official.
The vessel — a former pride of the French navy — has been stranded for three days in international waters.
”The vessel is now in the anchorage zone but the time of its crossing has not yet been set: it could take upto two days,” said a port official on condition of anonymity.
The official said France had yet to pay a transit fee estimated at $1,3-million for the vessel, which is 265m long.
Egypt on Sunday said it had received sufficient assurances from France and India to allow the transit of the ship. It accepted the French argument that the ship was still government property and could not be considered scrap and did not fall under the 1989 Basel convention banning the export of toxic waste.
”The French aircraft carrier does not pose an environmental threat to Egypt,” the environment ministry concluded in a statement that ended three days of deadlock.
The legal wrangling over the vessel had threatened to strain relations between the two countries and sources close to the case said it was solved ”at the highest level”.
Environmental watchdogs Greenpeace and Ban Asbestos, who have argued that the asbestos insulation of the vessel posed a threat to the health of the Indian workers who will dismantle it, were furious at the Egyptian about-face from its original position.
”It’s a purely political decision. It is scandalous that France managed to pressure Egypt,” said Greenpeace spokesperson Martin Besieux. Two Greenpeace protestors briefly boarded the ship on Thursday.
According to the French government, the vessel is carrying 45 tonnes of asbestos insulation. According to the firm that helped partially decontaminate it before the trip, the amount is between 500 and 1 000 tonnes.
The Clemenceau still faces the Indian legal obstacle before it reaches its final destination in Gujarat, western India.
An Indian Supreme Court environmental panel, which has been investigating the scrapping plans, needed time to reach a final recommendation, the court official told reporters.
The panel would next meet on January 20 and was told to have its report ready by February 13, the official said. A two-judge bench ordered that the ship should not enter India’s exclusive economic zone before February 13 when they will make their final ruling.
But French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie was optimistic.
”The Indian supreme court is dealing with the issue, we will provide it with all the elements it wishes so that it can come to a decision. I personally believe that these elements will convince it, just as they convinced me,” she told reporters. – AFP
