For more than two weeks, the Mount Etna volcano, situated on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily, has been experiencing new eruptions. As a result, small volcanic stones and ash have fallen on this city, causing the airport to close several times.

However, the path of the massive amount of sulfur dioxide gas ejected by the Italian volcano towards the Middle East zone, including Lebanon, has caused concern among residents of those areas.

Accordingly, the National News Agency interviewed Italian Civil Defense Commissioner and specialist in natural disasters, Leonardo Corbo, who assuaged these growing concerns by affirming that “no such thing would happen.”

“The situation has been the same for thousands of years, and our laboratories have confirmed over and over again that the peoples surrounding the volcano are in no danger, thus the countries of the Middle East are in no danger either,” said Corbo.

This is the 17th, post-World War II eruption of Etna volcano, and what is being said about pictures showing the occurrence of a storm with an enormous mass of gas taking an eastern course is exaggerated, added Corbo.

He went on to affirm that the mass of gas that moved towards the east would disintegrate with the passage of time. “Even sulfur dioxide, known as irritant gas, does not affect the inhabitants of Sicily,” he added.

“Talks about the effects of acid rain on crops is also exaggerated because the cloud is very high in altitude,” Corbo concluded.