Iran's new president wants to move the capital away from Tehran?

In a speech this past weekend, Mr. Pezeshkian, who took office in July, suggested that continuing to develop Tehran was pointless because the city was facing many difficulties.

The capital is currently facing "water shortages, land subsidence and air pollution", among other problems, he said, according to Javan Online news agency.

"Tehran, as the capital of the country, is facing problems for which we have no solutions," the president admitted, adding that the best way out of this situation is to "relocate the political and economic center of the country."

Simply telling people they should leave Tehran will not work, and the government “must first move ourselves so that people follow us,” Mr. Pezeshkian argued.

He stressed that there were also economic reasons for finding a new capital closer to the Persian Gulf, through which major trade routes passed.

"It is impossible to develop the country further if the current trend continues, when we bring resources from the south of the country and the sea to the center, turn them into products there and send them back to the south for export," the president argued.

Such a situation, he stressed, “seriously depreciates and reduces our competitiveness, and we have no choice but to move the country's economic and political center to the south and closer to the sea.”

Gholamhossein Karbaschi, who was mayor of Tehran in the 1990s, has opposed Mr Pezeshkian’s idea, arguing that there is no suitable alternative to Tehran. “Where do you want to go?” he said in an interview with the Iranian news agency Asr. The former mayor warned that some countries that have decided to move their capitals in the past have ended up losing money and having two problem cities instead of one.

This is not the first time that the Iranian government has proposed moving the capital away from Tehran. Similar proposals were made during President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tenure from 2005 to 2013. At that time, the parliament voted to form a special council to find an alternative location. However, a final decision on moving the capital was never made.

Mr. Pezeshkian took office as President of Iran in late July after defeating his opponent Saeed Jalili by 53.7% to 44.3% in the second round of elections in early July. The early election was held after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May.