Iran sells first imported premium gasoline cargo on energy exchange

Under the order, the Central Bank of Iran must prepare the shift within two years before managing a three-year phase in which old and new banknotes circulate together.

Once that cycle ends, all transactions will be settled in the new unit and existing notes will be withdrawn, according to Iranian state media.

Parliament earlier approved a law defining the “new rial” as equal to 10,000 current rials, with “gheran” designated as the subunit.

Economists remain divided over the effect of the redenomination. The policy is expected to require printing new notes, destroying old ones and modifying banking and accounting systems.

Critics argue that without wider reforms the move is mainly cosmetic, citing Argentina, Zimbabwe, Romania and the former Yugoslavia, where redenominations did little to restrain prices.

“This policy is largely cosmetic,” economist Ahmad Alavi told Iran International in August. “Without tackling the roots of inflation – from liquidity growth to systemic inefficiencies – removing zeros will not restore the rial’s value.”

Debate over deleting zeros began in the late 1990s and circulated through multiple administrations. Parliament first passed the plan in 2020, but the Guardian Council sent it back for revisions. The current version – retaining the name “rial” and introducing “gheran” – won final approval in October and has now entered execution with Pezeshkian’s signature.

Long path to implementation

Officials say the overhaul aims to simplify calculations, improve the legibility of Iran’s currency and prepare the ground for broader fiscal measures.

The abundance of zeros in the national currency had caused accounting and operational difficulties, Shamseddin Hosseini, head of parliament’s Economic Committee, said last month, adding that similar redenominations had been undertaken by countries such as Turkey in 2003 and 2005.

The reform comes amid persistent inflation of about 40%, a more than 90% loss in the rial’s value since US sanctions were reimposed in 2018, and widespread economic hardship.

With the formal order issued, the central bank begins one of the Islamic Republic’s most extensive monetary reforms, whose outcome still hinges on the government’s broader effort to control inflation.

"The Iranian regime not only represses its own people, it has also taken the air out of their lungs," the State Department said in a post on its Persian-language X account.

Air pollution caused about 58,975 deaths in Iran in the Iranian calendar year starting in March 2024, equivalent to 161 deaths per day and around seven every hour, the country’s deputy health minister said earlier this month.

"For citizens already struggling with water shortages, economic collapse and the constant fear of arbitrary arrest, air pollution adds yet another deadly threat to their lives," the State Department said.

"This is the price of the failure of those who are supposed to protect their own people."

Tehran’s air reached the unhealthy for sensitive groups range on Friday as pollutant concentrations climbed and meteorologists issued an orange alert for six major cities, warning that stagnant conditions could drive indices toward the dangerous threshold in the coming days.

Calls to ban old vehicles, invest in cleaner energy, and empower a central environmental authority have so far gone unanswered. Critics warn that without systemic change, major cities including Tehran will continue to suffer both in air quality and human lives.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain.

He said the pressure on water, land and infrastructure had left the government with “no option” but to act. “When we said we must move the capital, we did not even have enough budget. If we had, maybe it would have been done. The reality is that we no longer have a choice; it is an obligation."

Tehran’s main dams have fallen to volumes that must be preserved for safety and contingency, said Rama Habibi, deputy head of the city’s regional water authority, on Saturday.

“I cannot say Tehran’s dams have reached dead storage, but they are almost at a level below which the remaining volume is considered strategic and must stay in place,” Habibi said.

While none of the capital’s dams has been taken offline, he said some have dropped so low that water can no longer be pumped out efficiently.

Tehran is now in its sixth straight year of drought. Official data show the capital’s Latian dam at its lowest point in six decades, while the Karaj dam holds less than one-tenth of its capacity. As a result, about 70 percent of Tehran’s water is now pumped from underground sources that are under severe strain and at risk of subsidence.

Pressure management and looming restrictions

Pressure management remains one of the ministry’s key tools to delay wider shortages, said Isa Bozorgzadeh, spokesman for Iran’s water sector. Pressure reductions, he added, are imposed from midnight until early morning when consumption is lower, with milder reductions continuing during the day.

Bozorgzadeh warned that if households fail to meet the ministry’s request for a 10-percent cut in use, pressure limits may be expanded to other hours.

Nationwide drought deepens

Only 3.5 millimeters of rainfall were recorded nationwide over the past 50 days, amounting to just 18 percent of normal levels, Mohammad Javanbakht, head of Iran’s water resources management company said.

20 provinces, according to him, saw no rainfall at all and last year marked Iran’s fifth consecutive dry year. “Tehran and Bandar Abbas experienced the lowest water levels in their operational history last year,” Javanbakht said.

Rainfall, he noted, has fallen roughly 40 percent below long-term averages, leaving the country’s dams with their lowest combined storage in more than a decade.

Mashhad and Kerman reach breaking point

The religious city of Mashhad has entered full rationing, Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a lawmaker, said on Friday.

The city’s Dousti dam, he added, “has no water left to transfer, and the reservoirs supplying Mashhad have reached zero,” attributing the crisis to inadequate watershed management.

In Kerman, south of Iran, field accounts describe collapsing aquifers, abandoned orchards and shrinking wildlife habitats. Local pumping systems are deteriorating, while flood irrigation and unsuited crop patterns continue to drain groundwater.

Water specialists warn that unchecked extraction, losses in distribution networks, rapid urban expansion and limited adoption of modern conservation technologies could make reliable supply unattainable for 30 to 50 percent of Tehran’s population within five to ten years.

They caution that without effective winter precipitation, Iran may face broader rationing and possible localized evacuations in the months ahead.

Reza Aflatouni, head of Iran’s Forests Organization, said initial findings “strongly suggest a human cause.” “Expert teams are in the area, and evidence points to deliberate or negligent action,” he told state media. “We are also examining possible connections between the fire and efforts to rezone forest and farmland for private construction.”

Mazandaran Governor Mehdi Younesi-Rostami also said security assessments confirm that the fire in the Elit area was caused by human activity.

The investigation follows mounting controversy in Mazandaran Province, where environmental experts have accused local officials and developers of converting protected farmland and forest edges into villa plots.

The blaze, centered in the Elit region near the town of Chalous, has spread through steep, densely wooded terrain and is being driven by high winds and dry conditions. Firefighting officials said eight helicopters from the Defense Ministry, police and Red Crescent are operating in the area, along with two Ilyushin aircraft from the Revolutionary Guards, each capable of carrying 40,000 liters of water per flight.

Turkey to send aircraft as Iran weighs Russian help

Two Turkish firefighting planes, a helicopter and eight personnel are expected to arrive on Saturday to support local crews, and officials said Iran may request additional assistance from Russia if needed. “If necessary, we will request cooperation from the Russian government to help contain the Elit forest fires,” Environment chief Shina Ansari said.

Authorities said the difficult terrain has slowed efforts to create firebreaks and reach isolated hot spots. Ansari warned that “the risk of fire spread remains high” and that teams have been working around the clock to prevent the blaze from reaching nearby villages.

The Hyrcanian forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site along Iran’s Caspian coast, is one of the world’s oldest temperate rainforests and home to thousands of plant and animal species, including endangered Persian leopards and brown bears.

Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, called the Elit blaze “heartbreaking,” saying Iranians are “losing a natural heritage older than Persian civilization.”

Officials said the full extent of the damage and the cause of the fire will be announced after investigations conclude.

“There are warnings that the fire spread risk is high and we need to act accordingly,” official media cited Ansari as saying.

The blaze in the Elit area ongoing since last week, fueled by wind and dry conditions. Iranian helicopters and ground teams deployed round-the-clock, but rugged terrain has hampered efforts.

Iran seeks international aid as the massive wildfire rages in UNESCO-listed Hyrcanian forest near the town of Chalous.

“Heartbreaking scenes from Elit, Iran, where wildfire is damaging parts of the ancient Hyrcanian forests — a UNESCO World Heritage treasure and one of Earth’s last temperate rainforests,” Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health posted on X.

“Iranians are losing a natural heritage older than Persian civilization,” he added.

Authorities said protection units remained on high alert along the forest front in western Mazandaran, where several smaller fires have been reported in recent days.

Iran's Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref ordered on Friday urgent provision of firefighting equipment and resources for the ongoing Elit forest wildfire.

The Hyrcanian Forests stretch along the southern Caspian Sea coast in Iran and Azerbaijan. This ancient temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion dates back 25-50 million years, surviving past ice ages as a refugium.

They host over 3,200 vascular plant species, 150 endemic and 180 bird species, plus mammals like the Persian leopard, brown bear, lynx and Caspian red deer.

Wildfires have been burning for over two weeks as officials warned that heat, wind and dry vegetation were fueling the blaze.