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."
