Economy & Environment

Tehran water authorities will cut supplies for 12 hours to households deemed heavy consumers who ignore three official warnings, a senior utility official said on Tuesday, as the capital faces its worst drought in more than a century.

A vast majority of Iranians are dissatisfied with the government's economic policies, according to a poll by Iran's leading economic newspaper Donya-ye Eqtesad, as costs of living soar and the value of the Iranian currency slips.

Iranian border guards, in coordination with the navy, have seized a tanker carrying more than 2 million liters of what authorities described as smuggled diesel fuel in the Gulf of Oman, state media reported on Monday.

Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran, once the Middle East’s largest, will completely dry up by the end of summer if current conditions persist, a senior Iranian environment official warned on Sunday.

The closure of several foreign embassies in Tehran during and after the 12-day war with Israel has left between 3,000 and 4,000 Iranian passports stuck in diplomatic missions, stranding visa applicants, Iranian officials said on Sunday.

Tanker tracking data obtained by Iran International shows sharp fluctuations in Iranian oil discharges at Chinese ports this year, alongside a steep rise in floating oil stocks.

The Financial Action Task Force has invited Islamic Republic representatives to attend talks in Spain aimed at ending a seven-year impasse over the country’s blacklisting, Iran’s economy minister said.

US President Donald Trump will host Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the White House on Friday to sign a US-brokered peace agreement creating a transit corridor at Iran’s doorstep, Axios reported.

Iran’s gold reserves are at their strongest level in decades and would help cushion the economy even if Western powers trigger the so-called snapback of UN sanctions, a former senior banker said on Wednesday.

Iran has resumed four-hour daily power outages in Tehran and other cities as a severe energy crisis grips the country, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday, sparking public complaints over unannounced cuts and unequal distribution.

A recent study cited by the Shargh newspaper on Tuesday found increasing levels of malnutrition and poor regular access to healthy food in Iran as the country grapples with deepening economic challenges.

Steep increases in the price of dairy products are putting unprecedented pressure on Iranian households, with many consumers saying they have stopped buying milk, yogurt and cheese altogether, according to accounts gathered by Iran International from across the country.

China’s imports of Iranian crude fell by nearly a third in July from the previous month as demand from private refiners eased, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday citing data from intelligence firm Kpler.

Iran has announced sweeping closures across multiple provinces including the capital this week due to soaring temperatures amid severe electricity and water shortages.

Iran’s Lake Urima, once the largest lake in the Middle East, is now all but dry, threatening mass displacement and environmental collapse amid the country’s worst drought in living memory.

Iran's parliament has approved a bill in committee that paves the way to remove four zeros from the national currency, the rial, in an effort to tackle long-term inflation.

As inflation continues to erode household incomes in Iran, a growing number of corner shops and grocery vendors across the country are quietly reviving an old tradition: the ledger-based, buy-now-pay-later system, Iranian daily Etemad wrote on Monday.

Iran has arrested 20 people in a crackdown on a suspected bribery and influence network operating within Tehran’s judiciary system, a top official said on Monday.