CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt has approved the transit through the Suez Canal of a decommissioned French warship heading for an Indian scrapyard that had been stranded for three days over fears it was an environmental hazard.

In a statement carried by the official MENA news agency on Sunday, the environment ministry said documents provided by Paris proved the Clemenceau did not fall under the 1989 Basel convention banning the export of toxic waste.

The ministry assessed that “following the agreement by the French government to export the Clemenceau in its current state and India’s agreement to take it for dismantling, the French aircraft carrier does not pose an environmental threat to Egypt.”

Two protestors from the environmental watchdog Greenpeace had boarded the 40-year-old warship off the coast of Egypt on Thursday, claiming the Clemenceau’s asbestos insulation posed a health and environmental threat.