Dozens of foreign tankers suspected of transporting sanctioned crude for Iran and Russia sailed under the Cook Islands flag in 2024-2025, according to an AFP analysis of US and UK sanctions data.
Iran’s rial continued to weaken on Monday afternoon in a sign of flagging confidence in the country's troubled economy, with the US dollar trading at an all-time high above 1.19 million rials according to local exchange-rate websites.
Iran is facing a fresh shortage of the brand-name anti-rejection drug Myfortic with pharmacies halting distribution in several cities and clinicians warning that forced switches to substitutes could endanger a minority of kidney-transplant patients.
Iran’s diesel contains sulfur levels up to 15,000 parts per million (PPM), far above the global standard of 10 PPM, a senior industry representative said, warning that poor-quality fuel is contributing to severe air pollution in major cities.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy said it had seized an Eswatini-flagged vessel in the Persian Gulf carrying about 350,000 liters of smuggled gasoil, according to state-linked media.
Prolonged drought and the halt to permanent flows in the Zayandeh-Roud river have driven land subsidence and the Gavkhouni wetland toward an apparent point of no return, raising risks to Isfahan’s drinking-water supply, a provincial environmental official said.
The US dollar surged to 1,160,000 rials in Iran’s unofficial market on Saturday, adding to inflationary pressures and deepening worries about the country’s worsening economic outlook.
Iran’s Karkheh Dam hydroelectric power plant has stopped generating electricity because of a sharp drop in the reservoir’s water level, state media reported on Saturday.
Iranian authorities said they seized two vessels carrying 80,000 liters of smuggled fuel near the island of Kish in the Persian Gulf on Saturday.
Authorities in Tehran have issued an orange pollution alert, warning that stagnant air and rising emissions could push pollution levels into the “very unhealthy” range in the days ahead.
Authorities in the western Iranian city of Baneh have increased pressure on local journalists and social media administrators following days of severe water shortages, a Kurdish rights group reported.
An Iranian lawmaker has warned that the government’s new three-tier gasoline pricing system will drive up the cost of goods and services nationwide, saying the move was made without coordination with parliament or the public.
At eleven o’clock each night, Tehran time, my studio, half a world away, seems to inherit the city’s fatigue. The callers gather like silhouettes behind a scrim of static.
An Iranian lawmaker said price-based water policies risk serving as fiscal stopgaps rather than tackling the country’s chronic shortages, urging non-price reforms and stricter controls on water-intensive industry placement before any tariff overhaul.
Iranian authorities have imposed temporary bans on entering forest regions across the north and west of the country after wildfires damaged vast areas of woodland and pasture that officials now say are largely under control.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has drawn fire over his decision to hand leadership over a crucial new energy body tasked with confronting an acute power crisis to a bureaucrat with no background in the sector.
Iran is facing one of its most severe droughts in 60 years, with more than half its plains suffering drastic groundwater depletion and the term “water bankruptcy” becoming more palpable by the day.
Iran on Tuesday announced a limited fuel price increase in a move which appears aimed at reining in costly government subsidies while avoiding public anger which has previously exploded into protests.
Iranian crude held on tankers at sea has climbed to its highest level in about two and a half years, indicating softer buying from China even as Iran’s exports remain high, Bloomberg reported citing shipping data cited by market sources.
A blaze which had devastated a unique forest ecosystem in northern Iran has been brought under control after weeks of firefighting efforts, an environmental official said on Tuesday.
Indonesia announced it will auction the seized Iranian tanker MT Arman 114 and its 1.245 million barrels of crude oil starting December 2, with a reserve price of Rp 1.174 trillion ($70 million) through the government’s online auction platform.
Iran’s latest spell of heavy air pollution is disrupting daily life and raising health fears, with school closures in some provinces and residents reporting acute respiratory symptoms as smog blankets cities and even smaller towns.