The US State Department on Saturday blamed Iran’s government for tens of thousands of pollution-related deaths last year, calling it another burden on Iranian citizens already facing water shortages, economic collapse and arbitrary arrests.
"The Iranian regime not only represses its own people, it has also taken the air out of their lungs," the State Department said in a post on its Persian-language X account.
Air pollution caused about 58,975 deaths in Iran in the Iranian calendar year starting in March 2024, equivalent to 161 deaths per day and around seven every hour, the country’s deputy health minister said earlier this month.
"For citizens already struggling with water shortages, economic collapse and the constant fear of arbitrary arrest, air pollution adds yet another deadly threat to their lives," the State Department said.
"This is the price of the failure of those who are supposed to protect their own people."
Tehran’s air reached the unhealthy for sensitive groups range on Friday as pollutant concentrations climbed and meteorologists issued an orange alert for six major cities, warning that stagnant conditions could drive indices toward the dangerous threshold in the coming days.
Calls to ban old vehicles, invest in cleaner energy, and empower a central environmental authority have so far gone unanswered. Critics warn that without systemic change, major cities including Tehran will continue to suffer both in air quality and human lives.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain.
He said the pressure on water, land and infrastructure had left the government with “no option” but to act. “When we said we must move the capital, we did not even have enough budget. If we had, maybe it would have been done. The reality is that we no longer have a choice; it is an obligation."
Tehran’s main dams have fallen to volumes that must be preserved for safety and contingency, said Rama Habibi, deputy head of the city’s regional water authority, on Saturday.
“I cannot say Tehran’s dams have reached dead storage, but they are almost at a level below which the remaining volume is considered strategic and must stay in place,” Habibi said.
While none of the capital’s dams has been taken offline, he said some have dropped so low that water can no longer be pumped out efficiently.
Tehran is now in its sixth straight year of drought. Official data show the capital’s Latian dam at its lowest point in six decades, while the Karaj dam holds less than one-tenth of its capacity. As a result, about 70 percent of Tehran’s water is now pumped from underground sources that are under severe strain and at risk of subsidence.
Pressure management and looming restrictions
Pressure management remains one of the ministry’s key tools to delay wider shortages, said Isa Bozorgzadeh, spokesman for Iran’s water sector. Pressure reductions, he added, are imposed from midnight until early morning when consumption is lower, with milder reductions continuing during the day.
Bozorgzadeh warned that if households fail to meet the ministry’s request for a 10-percent cut in use, pressure limits may be expanded to other hours.
Nationwide drought deepens
Only 3.5 millimeters of rainfall were recorded nationwide over the past 50 days, amounting to just 18 percent of normal levels, Mohammad Javanbakht, head of Iran’s water resources management company said.
20 provinces, according to him, saw no rainfall at all and last year marked Iran’s fifth consecutive dry year. “Tehran and Bandar Abbas experienced the lowest water levels in their operational history last year,” Javanbakht said.
Rainfall, he noted, has fallen roughly 40 percent below long-term averages, leaving the country’s dams with their lowest combined storage in more than a decade.
Mashhad and Kerman reach breaking point
The religious city of Mashhad has entered full rationing, Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a lawmaker, said on Friday.
The city’s Dousti dam, he added, “has no water left to transfer, and the reservoirs supplying Mashhad have reached zero,” attributing the crisis to inadequate watershed management.
In Kerman, south of Iran, field accounts describe collapsing aquifers, abandoned orchards and shrinking wildlife habitats. Local pumping systems are deteriorating, while flood irrigation and unsuited crop patterns continue to drain groundwater.
Water specialists warn that unchecked extraction, losses in distribution networks, rapid urban expansion and limited adoption of modern conservation technologies could make reliable supply unattainable for 30 to 50 percent of Tehran’s population within five to ten years.
They caution that without effective winter precipitation, Iran may face broader rationing and possible localized evacuations in the months ahead.
Amir Hayat-Moghaddam, a member of parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, told Rokna news agency that the option is “on the table” and under expert review. “Several meetings have been held since the IAEA Board of Governors adopted its anti-Iran resolution,” he said. “Withdrawal from the NPT is one of the preliminary options, but no final decision has been made. The review of all dimensions and possible consequences is still underway.”
He said a final decision could be announced by Tuesday, adding that any such move would be coordinated between parliament and the Supreme National Security Council. “There is no structural conflict between these institutions. Issues related to national interests are decided jointly,” he said. “Legally, however, withdrawal from international treaties falls within parliament’s authority.”
Separately, the spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said on Saturday that Iran’s parliament has begun drafting a bill on countermeasures in response to the recent International Atomic Energy Agency resolution.
Ebrahim Rezaei said the proposal aims to boost “nuclear and sanctions-related deterrence” and strengthen Iran’s defensive and legal capabilities. “A six-article draft has been prepared covering nuclear and sanctions counteractions as well as strategic, defense and judicial measures,” he told reporters.
Backdrop of renewed nuclear tensions
The discussions come days after the IAEA’s 35-member Board of Governors adopted a resolution urging Iran to provide full access to its nuclear sites and enriched uranium stockpiles. The measure, submitted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany, passed with 19 votes in favor, three against and 12 abstentions.
Iran condemned the vote as “illegal and unjustified” and said it has nullified the inspection accord reached in Cairo in September with IAEA chief Rafael Grossi and Egyptian mediation. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the resolution “killed” the Cairo accord and reflected a pattern of Western escalation.
“The US and the E3 attacked diplomacy just as they attacked our nuclear facilities,” Araghchi wrote on X on Thursday. “Iran is not the party seeking another crisis.”
Tehran says its cooperation with the agency remains within the framework of the NPT but insists that access to bombed facilities cannot resume until safety and legal questions are resolved.
Iran’s long-held position on the NPT
Iran has been a party to the NPT since 1970 and has repeatedly said it does not seek nuclear weapons. Officials in Tehran have described NPT membership as a sign of Iran’s commitment to peaceful nuclear energy, but they have also warned that continued political pressure could force a policy review.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Friday that Western powers were “misusing an international body” and that their actions “undermine the credibility and independence of the Agency.”
In Vienna, Russia’s envoy Mikhail Ulyanov said the situation had reached a “complete deadlock,” blaming the Western sponsors of the resolution for “stalling diplomacy.”
“Like the diplomacy which was assaulted by Israel and the US in June, the Cairo Agreement has been killed by the US and the E3,” Araghchi wrote on X, referring to Britain, France and Germany.
He said the chain of events began when “Iran was suddenly attacked by Israel and then the US” on the eve of a new round of indirect nuclear talks.
“When Iran later signed a deal with the IAEA in Cairo to resume inspections despite the bombings, the E3 pursued UN sanctions against our people under US pressure,” he wrote.
Araghchi said that when Iran began allowing International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to its facilities, “the US and the E3 ganged up to censure Iran” at the agency’s Board of Governors.
“Iran is not the party that seeks to manufacture another crisis,” he added. “The official termination of the Cairo Agreement is the direct outcome of their provocations.”
Tehran says resolution is politically driven
His comments followed Iran’s announcement that it will respond to a resolution passed on Thursday by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors, which Tehran called “illegal and unjustified.” The Foreign Ministry said the measure, backed by Washington and its European allies, was a “political misuse of the Agency” and had nullified the Cairo inspection accord reached in September.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran had officially informed the IAEA that the understanding reached in Cairo was “no longer valid.” “The so-called Cairo accord, which had been achieved through lengthy negotiations and Iran’s goodwill, is now considered void,” he told state media.
The ministry said the United States and the three European countries “ignored Iran’s responsible and good-faith conduct, disrupting the positive path that had emerged between Iran and the Agency, and forced Iran to declare the termination of the September 9 understanding.”
Resolution presses Iran for access after attacks
The IAEA Board of Governors adopted the Western-backed resolution urging Iran to provide full access and information about its nuclear program. Diplomats said the measure passed with 19 votes in favor, three against and 12 abstentions, with Russia, China and Niger voting against it.
The resolution calls on Iran to allow verification of its enriched uranium stockpile and inspections at sites damaged by US and Israeli airstrikes in June. Iran says those attacks killed several nuclear scientists and halted cooperation with the Agency because of security concerns.
Earlier this week, Araghchi said Washington’s approach amounted to “dictation, not negotiation,” accusing the US of trying to achieve through diplomacy what it failed to gain by force. “They want us to accept zero enrichment and limits on our defense capabilities,” he said. “This is not negotiation.”