The European Union will work to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and would welcome any progress that could be gained in addition to upholding the agreement, the EU foreign policy chief said on Friday.
The European Union will work to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and would welcome any progress that could be gained in addition to upholding the agreement, the EU foreign policy chief said on Friday.
Iran is determined to further reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, if the remaining signatories fail to uphold their side of the bargain, Tehran's ambassador to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog says.
Iran demands firm guarantee for its oil sales to reverse the steps taken beyond the limits set in the international 2015 nuclear deal, a top diplomat said.
Under the agreement, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was signed by six world powers, Iran placed curbs on its nuclear program in return for relief from international sanctions.
The United States, however, unilaterally exited the deal last year and reinstated harsh sanctions, especially aiming for a complete halt to Iranian oil exports, the main source of the country's income.
Extraction from renewable water resources in Khorasan Razavi Province has reached petrifying levels, the head of provincial Water Company said.
"At least 25% of what is being consumed now belongs to future generations," Mohammad Ala'ee was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Referring to measures to reverse the dangerous consumption and prohibitive trend, he said sealing illegal wells is a top priority. He did not provide any details.
Moreover, the process to installing smart meters on authorized water wells has been expedited so that water extraction can be monitored accurately and round-the-clock.
The water official said people in Iran’s most important religious province have yet not recognized the scale and scope of the water crisis. “It is the company's responsibility to spread awareness. If not, a bad situation will get worse.”
OPEC oil output increased in August for the first month this year as higher supply from Iraq and Nigeria outweighed restraint by top exporter Saudi Arabia and losses caused by US sanctions on Iran, a Reuters survey found.
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says so long as gasoline is not rationed, vehicle owners will not take fuel cards as seriously as expected.
The minister says the initiative to resume use of the smart fuel cards without restarting the 2007 gasoline rationing system would be like beating the air, local news outlets reported at the weekend.
In his opinion “not only can fuel rationing system help reduce consumption, it also will help combat fuel smuggling” in regions bordering Afghanistan and Iraq.
The discrepancy in prices in Iran (7 cents/liter) and most neighboring countries (75 cents) has made fuel smuggling a highly profitable and tempting trade in and near the porous borders.
Gasoline rationing started in 2007. At that time motorists could buy 60 liters of subsidized fuel each month with a special card at 7,000 rials (70 cents) per liter (at the time a dollar was worth 10,000 rials).
An average increase of 15% has been levied on Iran's freeway tolls, Secretary of Freeway Investor Companies’ Workgroup Khodayar Khashe’ announced. Noting that freeway tolls in Iran amount to less than 10% of the rates in other countries, the official said freeway investor companies complain about the small increase in toll rates.
Oil revenues are generated from selling the country’s capital assets and should be spent on augmenting capital assets, such as development projects, the head of Plan and Budget Organization, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, said.
“Therefore, all revenues from oil sales will be allocated to the development sector as per structural reforms in next year’s budget," he added.
Noting that current expenditures from oil revenues will be cut to zero in the next fiscal budget (2020-21), the official said, “The number of provincial development projects has increased from 76 to 86 over the past couple of years, indicating that new projects have been initiated before the completion of old ones. The disproportionate rise in the number of development projects will be avoided, as per the reforms undertaken in next year’s budget.”
Governor of Central Bank of Iran says the bank has been working hard to reform the banking system long grappling with mismanagement and financial indiscipline.
Addressing participants in the 30th Islamic Banking Conference on Saturday in Tehran, Abdolnasser Hemmati spoke of reforms coming into force gradually and highlighted the ingrained ills of the key sector.
“Problems cannot be solved overnight simply because they were not created overnight,” he told the conferees, IRNA reported.
Iran’s banking industry is suffering, among other things, from issues such as poor balance sheets, capital inadequacy, inability to recover non-performing loans to the tune of billions of dollars, arcane rules, and dubious operations of illegal credit institutions that have been punishing the economy for years.
Tehran stocks started trading week in positive territory as commodity stocks gained traction amid upbeat trends in international markets and positive signals from domestic political developments.
The main gauge of Tehran Stocks Exchange gained more than 5,400 points on Saturday, climbing nearly 2% to extend a winning streak into the fourth day.
Reviews by the analytical website Donyaye Bourse show the recent bull markets are triggered more by sentimental behavior than fundamental factors.
Sentiments are more intense for small stocks, causing remarkable jumps in share prices in recent days and running the risk of creating price bubbles.
For the first time in months, home prices in Tehran have declined.
A new report released by the Central Bank of Iran shows the average price of each square meter of a residential unit in Tehran stood at 130.25 million rials ($1,157) in the fifth month of the current Iranian year (ended Aug. 22), indicating a 2.4% decline compared to 133.51 million rials ($1,186) in the fourth month of the year.
Prices, however, showed an annual surge of 76%, as average prices were registered at 73.99 million rials ($657) in last year’s same month.
A total of 3,292 homes were sold in the capital during the fifth month of the year, signaling a year-on-year decline of 72.6% compared with the 12,006 deals in the corresponding month of last year. The number of property deals fell by 31.3% compared with the preceding month.
After two months of high-density pollutants stifling Tehran, August offered some solace and its residents once again could breathe more easily.
Data released by Tehran Air Quality Control Company show no significant change in the capital city’s air conditions during the month compared with the corresponding period of last two years.
Charts published on TAQCC’s website, Airnow.tehran.ir, show that in August, Air Quality Index did not fell under 50, which indicates good condition.
The index categorizes conditions dictated by a measure of polluting matters into good (0-50), moderate (51-100), unhealthy for sensitive groups (101-150), unhealthy (151-200), very unhealthy (201-300) and hazardous (301-500).
Moderate conditions, however, dominated the month-long period, as the index hovered between 51 and 100 for 26 days.
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