Iran must move its capital from Tehran, says president as water crisis worsens

Masoud Pezeshkian says subsidence is also ‘a disaster’ in city of 10 million, which consumes quarter of Iran’s water

Iran’s president has claimed Iran has no choice but to move its capital from Tehran to the south of the country due to the city’s over-expansion, the lack of adequate water supplies and the growing threat of subsidence.

Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that he had raised the proposal with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last year. He admitted it had received a lot of criticism, but argued that the accumulating resource crises were so deep that Iran now had an obligation to shift the capital, and no choice but to do so.