Iran mulls moving capital from Tehran to south coast

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00:00Well, where should I begin, Stuart? We have problems from our sky up. And as you said,

00:05the earth beneath us is also sinking. And right now, as I'm speaking to you, the power in my

00:12neighborhood is out. It has been out for an hour and a half. And this is due to the densely

00:20populated city of Tehran. This city right now hosts 15 million citizens who are now consuming

00:28a megaton of electricity. And the government is not prepared for this. There are not enough

00:34power plants to supply the electricity. So as of February, the country, the capital and the

00:40country has been shut for almost two or three days a week. And all banks, all government

00:48organizations are shut down at least twice or three times a week because of power shortage

00:55and gas, low gas supplies. And the pollution is crazy in Tehran. There have been several alerts

01:05for people with heart diseases and children and pregnant women not to leave the house if they

01:13have and they can leave the house if they have some emergency business that they have to attend to.

01:21So, Said, once again, this possibility of actually moving the capital is under discussion. I mean,

01:26could that actually really ever happen? No, it can't, because President Pesachkian

01:31actually came up with this idea of moving the capital to the city of Makran, which, as you said,

01:37is bordering the beaches of the Gulf of Oman, the Sea of Oman. But later on, his cabinet

01:47tried to soften his words, saying that, OK, this proposal was made, but it is under review.

01:52And in the latest developments, the minister of housing and urban planning said that, no,

01:58what the president actually said was that we have to develop the city. We have to develop the

02:03infrastructure there, because right now, Makran, the city of Makran is heavily influenced by its

02:12intactness of nature. There are no infrastructure for people to live there. There is absolutely no

02:22infrastructure for government organizations to set up offices there. So how can the government

02:28move all of its businesses there if there is no infrastructure? So later on, the cabinet of

02:33President Pesachkian tried to soften his words and say that, OK, this proposal was made, but it is

02:38under review, and it will likely be shut down.

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