.
The Leader made the remarks on Tuesday during a ceremony held in Tehran to commemorate National Natural Resources Week.
“The destruction of the green space surrounding cities, especially forests, will cause many problems for the people, and all the relevant officials in the administration, the Majlis, the Judiciary, and municipalities should take serious measures to prevent the continuation of this wrong trend,” he said.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei underlined the need for greater resolve to prevent illegal seizures of land near large cities, saying, “In addition to illegal seizures of parcels of land surrounding cities and villages and the destruction of vegetation by certain profiteers, who turn green space into concrete and high-rise buildings, the country’s forests are also endangered.”
During the ceremony, the Leader also planted two saplings.
Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Agricultural Jihad Minister Sadeq Khalilian, Environmental Protection Organization Director Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh, and Tehran Governor General Morteza Tamaddon attended the ceremony.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a number of ambassadors of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member states based in Iran attended a separate ceremony in Tehran held to commemorate the occasion.
During the ceremony, Non-Aligned Movement Park was inaugurated and each ambassador planted a sapling named after their country in the park.
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