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Tucked in the northwest corner of Iran, Lake Urmia was once the second-largest saltwater lake in the world. At its peak, the lake once covered a surface area of 5,000 square kilometers (2,000 square miles), reports Iran's Radio Farda. Its waters attracted migratory birds including flamingos, pelicans, ducks and egrets, according to The Guardian. Tourists came for its turquoise waters, boats and believed therapeutic properties.

But then the lake started to dry out. Over the past 30 years, Lake Urmia has been getting smaller. At one point its size had been reduced by as much as 80%.

Researchers blame a prolonged drought and hot summer temperatures, as well as overuse of water, new dams and irrigation projects that divert water away from the lake, points out NPR.

As the lake has shrunk, most of the birds and tourists have left. Typically, the waters are full of algae, bacteria and brine shrimp that thrive in the highly saline conditions. The water in Lake Urmia is now eight times as salty as the ocean, according to National Geographic, causing these organisms to flourish and turning the once-blue waters a pinkish-red.

Beached boats lie stranded in the muck and remnants of piers stand in the shallow waters that lead nowhere. Salt storms have harmed local villages and farmers, forcing many people to relocate.

"Just 10 years ago, waves splashed against the walls of the villages here, but now the turquoise water has been replaced by an almost endless desert," wrote German photographer Maximillian Mann, describing his Lake Urmia photos in the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards.

"Salt, carried on the wind, covers nearby fields, causing crops to dry up. Robbed of their livelihood, the local population is fleeing to the surrounding towns, and the villages around the lake are dying out."

Remnants of a dilapidated dock on Lake Urmia after 2019 torrential rains have boosted hopes for the lake's survival. (Photo: Solmaz Daryani [CC BY-SA 4.0]/Wikimedia Commons)

But there is some good news.

Torrential rains in the spring of 2019 helped the lake regain water level. According to NASA, the lake surface area reached roughly 3,000 square kilometers (1,200 square miles), nearly doubling its volume from just a year earlier.

Other factors contributing to the revival include engineering to help unblock and desilt feeder rivers, the deliberate release of water from dams in the surrounding hills and better water management, particularly among farmers, Erik Solheim, Head of United Nations Environment, and Gary Lewis, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Iran, write in Medium.

Although the water isn't deep, the rising levels are starting to make a difference.

"It was an emotional experience," Solheim and Lewis write. "Right before us was proof that the environmental problems we create can be fixed."

Originally posted here:
Why Iran's Lake Urmia disappeared and may be coming back - Mother Nature Network

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iranians voted for a new parliament Friday, with turnout seen as a key measure of support for Irans leadership as sanctions weigh on the economy and U.S. pressure isolates the country diplomatically.

The disqualification of more than 7,000 potential candidates, most of them reformists and moderates, raised the possibility of lower-than-usual turnout. Among those disqualified were 90 sitting members of parliament who had wanted to run for re-election.

Voting was extended for five hours, but there was no official announcement on turnout after the polls finally closed late Friday.

Initial results were expected to be announced Saturday. Presidential elections are expected to take place in 2021.

The election comes at a time of growing economic hardship for many in Iran. U.S. sanctions have strangled Irans ability to sell its oil abroad, forcing its economy into recession.

Also looming over the election is the threat of the new coronavirus. Many voters headed to the polls with face masks on.

Iranian health authorities on Friday confirmed two new deaths from the virus, which first emerged in China in December, bringing the total death toll in Iran to four, from among 18 confirmed cases. Authorities say all the cases have links with city of Qom, where the first two elderly patients died on Wednesday. Concerns over the spread of the virus prompted authorities in Iran to close all schools, universities and Shiite seminaries in Qom.

Irans leadership and state media haf urged people to show up and vote, with some framing it as a religious duty. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his ballot at a mosque near his Tehran office shortly after polls opened at 8 a.m.

Anyone who cares about Irans national interests should participate in the election, he said. Earlier in the week, Khamenei said high voter turnout will thwart plots and plans by the U.S. and supporters of Israel against Iran.

After the disqualifications, around 7,000 candidates were left vying for a place in the 290-seat chamber across 208 constituencies.

Tensions with the United States could strengthen hard-liners by reinforcing long-held distrust of the West. A parliament stacked with hard-liners could favor expanding the budget for the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. It could also tilt public policy debates toward hard-liners who are opposed to engagement with the U.S.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who had initially criticized the disqualification of so many moderate would-be candidates, cast his ballot on Friday and urged the public to stage another victory by voting in large numbers. Our enemies will be disappointed more than before, he said.

On the eve of the vote, the Trump administration ratcheted up its campaign of pressure on Iran by imposing sanctions on two senior officials of the Guardian Council, the body of clerics and judges that decides which candidates may run in elections. The U.S. also sanctioned three members of Irans elections supervisory committee, saying all those targeted were responsible for silencing the voice of the Iranian people by rejecting thousands of people from running.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the election as a sham and a vote that is not free or fair.

The 92-year-old head of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who was among those sanctioned on Thursday, mocked the U.S. decision and its apparently limited impact. I am thinking what to do with the money that we have in American funds. Also, we cannot go there for Christmas and other occasions, he was quoted as saying in local media.

Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted in official media saying the election showcases that Iranians are choosing their own fate and do not allow a person sitting in Washington to make decisions for them.

Ali Motahari, one of the pro-reform lawmakers who were barred from defending their seats in this election, said the incoming parliament will not be truly representative of the people. Still, he urged people to vote.

We should still try to find moderate and clear-headed candidates from the existing ones and vote for them, he said.

The parliament in Iran does not have power to dictate major policies, but it does debate the annual budget and the possible impeachment of ministers. Power in Iran ultimately rests with Khamenei, who has final say on all key matters.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington spiked after a U.S. airstrike in January killed Irans top general, Qassem Soleimani. The strike led to a tense confrontation in which Iranian forces accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane after it took off from Tehran, killing all 176 people on board. Most of those killed were Iranian.

The shoot-down, and attempts by officials to initially conceal the cause of the crash sparked public anger and protests in Iran.

Meanwhile, Iranians have seen the price of basic goods skyrocket, inflation and unemployment rise and the local currency plummet since President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from Irans nuclear agreement with world powers and imposed sanctions.

The economic woes faced by ordinary Iranians fueled anti-government protests in November. International human rights groups say at least 300 people were killed in the protests.

Neda Ghorbani, a 31-year-old mother, said she was not voting Friday because shes disappointed with Rouhani and other moderates in government.

We voted in the 2017 (presidential) election hoping that our countrys situation would improve under Rouhanis presidency, but we were wrong and we accept that we made a mistake (by voting), she said.

Local TV stations broadcast images from Qom, around 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, Tehran, showing women and men, some wearing face masks for protection, lining up in separate lines to vote on Friday. Qom is a popular religious destination and a center of learning and religious studies for Shiite Muslims from inside Iran, as well as Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.

The Tehran governor tried to calm fears over the new virus, saying voters didnt have to mark their fingers with ink after voting. Using the ink was optional, said Anoushirvan Bandpay, according to the official IRNA news agency.

People should not be worry about spreading coronavirus, he added.

Current parliament speaker Ali Larijani is stepping down after 11 years and is not running for reelection, though he was shown voting in his city of Qom. Mohammad Baqher Qalibaf, the former mayor of Tehran who is also the former head of the Revolutionary Guard air force, is seen as one of the front-runners to succeed Larijani.

The current parliament, elected in 2016, had more than 100 reformists and moderates, with the rest of the chamber split between independents and hard-liners. Some 90 current lawmakers were also barred from running in Fridays election.

Nearly 58 million Iranians, out of a population of more than 80 million, are eligible to vote. Every Iranian above the age of 18 can vote.

Turnout has been over 50% in previous parliamentary elections. In 2016, it was nearly 62%.

The polls were originally scheduled to close at 6 p.m., but officials extended that to 11 p.m. to give people more time to cast their vote. Friday is a day of rest in Iran, as is the case across most Muslim countries.

___

Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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Iranians vote in parliament elections favoring conservatives - The Associated Press

Iranians are scared and angry. Their government has been lying to them and their media was instructed not to report on the coronavirus outbreak as it rapidly spread from the religious city of Qom to other cities. On Saturday, Tehran was awash with rumors and riots occurred in the city of Talesh on the Caspian sea due to a quarantine.

The situation inside the hospital is very scary and terrifying, one man tweeted. Even the hospital medical staff, some of whom are infected with the coronavirus, are terrified." In Isfahan medical students protested at the local University of Medical Sciences due to lack of protective gear. Iranians are well educated and they know the risks as their government tried over seventy hours to stop the spread of information about the crises.

By Saturday evening at least six people were dead but official figures put the number of infections only in the twenties. In fact rumors were spreading that the numbers could be in the hundreds or a thousand cases. In Iraq the authorities moved to shut the border and stop Iranian pilgrims from coming from Qom. In addition Iran sought to clamp down on travel. A Lebanese woman returning from Qom tested positive in Lebanon. Lebanons Health Minister, who is linked to the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, said everything was in order.

Yet Iranians were urged by their government to congregate in confined spaces on Friday to vote. The regime wanted the turnout to grow beyond the 11 million who were estimated to have voted. The government, seeking to censor information on the spread of the virus, likely contributed to misinformation by pushing the polls to stay open later with a national health emergency looming. Yet Fars News, Tasnim and other news outlets did not warn of the crises. The only information came later on Saturday when reports said that there was price gouging for protective medical masks. Anadolu, a Turkish news agency, photographed dozens of people in Iran already wearing the masks. The government sought to put price controls on masks so people could afford them.

In the afternoon on Saturday officials moved to close all schools on Sunday and Monday. A mayor, named Mortaza Rahmanzeda of a district in Tehran was taken to hospital. Rumors claimed he was badly ill from the virus. Other officials appeared to be concerned they might be sick. Mohsen Rafsanjani, head of the city council of Tehran, said he was visiting a hospital. By the evening Irans media announced universities would close. But media still wasnt allowed to report the reason. Educational facilities, according to Fars News, will be closed in Tehran, Alborz, Qazvin, Markzai, Qom, Hamedan, Isfahan, Gilan and Mazandaran provinces. There are thirty provinces in Iran, but there are the most central. It appears the virus may not have spread to outlying areas, such as the Kurdistan region. But the Kurdistan region of Iraq is taking no chances, quarantining people in Soran and considering to close the border. In Pakistan also some voices are calling for border closures. In Iran some expressed anger at Mahan Air and other airlines for continuing to fly pilgrims.

The Minister of Science spoke out Saturday about the coronavirus precautions. He urged people at University to visit health center as soon as they feel symptoms of a cold, flue or the like. Take the necessary measures to treat them at the centers. In Alborz a university head encouraged most people not to wear a mask. He said that news about the virus must come only from the Ministry of Health and that people should avoid rumors. There are no cases in the province, he claimed, according to ISNA in Iran.

The lack of response by authorities and rumors have caused a tense situation in Iran. It also appears to be contributing to the spread of the virus to other countries. Iraqs Muqtada al-Sadr flew home to Iraq as the virus spread in Qom. Oddly he did not have to be quarantined. Iran is already on edge because of protests last year where the authorities killed 1,500 demonstrators. But the authorities continue to provide little information on the extent of the outbreak. A head of a unit at Qom University said he had received no statistics. Women at a university in Tehran protested the lack of information. In Talesh people continued to protest mysterious closures and quarantines. Tear gas was used outside at least one hospital. In Rasht fires were lit and the authorities cracked down on protests. They resort to oppression instead of a solution to the coronavirus crises, wrote locals.

News programs in the evening in Iran gave advise on wearing masks and cleaning ones hands. But they didnt explain how to best prevent the spread of the virus. They gave only comfort one woman tweeted, complaining of the lack of information.

Iran covered up the downing of a Ukrainian airliner in January and the killing of protests in November. The regime sees no incentive to be honest with its people or the world, since it can act with impunity regardless of the international community and international standards, and still be greeted with a welcome in Europe and most countries. In this respect the response to the virus outbreak is the usual opaque and unclear answers from Tehran as people live in fear and dont know what to do as schools are closed. Neighboring countries are on edge as well.

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Irans government and media lied about coronavirus outbreak, riots erupt - The Jerusalem Post

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif takes part in the panel discussion 'A conversation with Iran' during the 56th Munich Security Conference in Munich on February 15, 2020.

Thomas Kienzle | AFP via Getty Images

MUNICH Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the deadly U.S. strike on Iran's top military leader an "act of terror" and blamed President Donald Trump's advisors.

"This moment is a very dangerous moment because the United States has been misled. I believe President Trump, unfortunately, does not have good advisers," Zarif told an audience Saturday during a discussion at the Munich Security Conference.

"Unfortunately somebody else is trying to mimic John Bolton and promised the president that killing Soleimani would bring people to dance in the streets in Tehran and Baghdad. And that the continuation of maximum pressure would bring us to our knees before his reelection campaign," he said, adding that none of it came to pass.

Iranian mourners gather during the final stage of funeral processions for slain top general Qasem Soleimani, in his hometown Kerman on January 7, 2020.

Atta Kenare | AFP | Getty Images

"That was an act of terror," he said of the Jan. 2 strike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a key military figure of Iranian and Middle East politics. "The United States conducts operations and wants to be immune from the consequences, that doesn't happen," he added.

On the heels of the strike, Iran launched at least a dozen missiles from its territory on Jan. 7 at two military bases in Iraq that house U.S. troops and coalition forces.

A day later from the White House, Trump said that Iran appeared "to be standing down" and warned Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

"As long as I am president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon," Trump said speaking from the grand foyer of the White House.

But he suggested that the U.S. is open to negotiations with Tehran. "We must all work together toward making a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful place," he said on Jan. 8.

He then urged other world powers to break away from the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran and work out a new deal.

The Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and began a policy of "maximum pressure" to reign in Tehran's activities in the Middle East.

And while U.S. sanctions have crippled Iran's economy, slashing its oil exports, Tehran has said it will not negotiate with Washington while the penalties are in place.

"John Kerry and I spent more time together than we did with our wives for two years," Zarif said of the Obama-era agreement at the Munich Security Forum.

"It was a multilateral agreement and President Trump decided that he simply did not like Obama so he could leave. So there's no point in talking over something that you talked about. I mean, you don't buy a horse twice," he added.

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Iran's foreign minister blames Trump's advisors for 'very dangerous moment' in relations with the US - CNBC

Key point:Pahlavis vision is one of nonviolent resistance to Irans clerical regime.

Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has turned up the heat on Tehran. Way up. As part of a maximum pressure campaign aimed at curbing the malign international activities of Irans ruling regime, the White House has dramatically intensified sanctions, blacklisted the countrys clerical army, and put foreign buyers of Iranian crude on notice that they need to pull out of the Iranian market or face potentially catastrophic consequences.

But to what end? President Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he would be willing to negotiate a new framework agreement with Irans ayatollahs to replace the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and do so without preconditions. That may indeed happen, if Irans ayatollahs agree to come back to the diplomatic table. But the massive economic and political pressure now being placed on Iran by the United States could lead to another outcome as well: a collapse of the current Iranian regime. That raises a key question for policymakers: if the United States does indeed succeed in causing a fundamental transformation in Iran, then what should come next?

In this conversation, one personality looms exceedingly large. That individual is Reza Pahlavi, the former crown prince of Iran, who is now the most prominent leader of the secular democratic opposition to the Islamic Republic. Pahlavi was just a couple of years away from inheriting the throne in Tehran when his family was ousted from power by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeinis Islamic Revolution in 1979. In the half-century since, the crown prince has used his perch in exile (first in Morocco and more recently in the Washington, DC suburbs) to publicly oppose Irans clerical elite and articulate a different path forward for his homeland.

Today, Pahlavi remains relevant and highly influential in many Iranian expatriate circles, as well as on the Iranian street, which is where pro-Pahlavi slogans have figured prominently in the protests that have taken place throughout the country since late 2017. But he is less relevant among U.S. policymakers and experts, whothough they undoubtedly know his namegenerally have little familiarity with his vision.

Pahlavi and his supporters are seeking to change that. Of late, as Americas contentious relationship with Iran has once again begun to make headlines, they have redoubled their efforts to engage in earnest with the Washington Beltway. In meetings with various think tanks and assorted policy groups, the crown prince has laid out in detail his ideas about the future of Iran and its place in the world.

Pahlavi believes that the United States faces a binary choice in its Iran policy. The United States can either pursue the status quothe best variant of which envisions achieving some measure of behavioral change from Irans current leadershipor it can throw its weight unequivocally behind the need for a new regime in Tehran. The path that Washington chooses will have a profound impact on a range of issues, from the nuclear file to bilateral relations to Irans position in (and disposition toward) the Middle East, Pahlavi argues.

Here, the desires and aspirations of Irans population matter a great deal. According to Pahlavi, those have changed significantly in the decade since the Green Revolution of 2009. Back then, there remained some semblance of loyal opposition which sought reform of the Islamic Republic rather than its total dismantlement. (Both of the titular leaders of the Green protests, Mehdi Kharroubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, belonged to this camp, despite their revolutionary credentials.) Today, by contrast, Iranians are overwhelmingly united in their desire for a fundamental change in government, as ongoing protests against the Iranian regime make abundantly clear.

But, Pahlavi laments, America is basically alone in its fight against the Iranian regime. Europe is both too craven and too mercantile to take a principled stand against the ayatollahs. Russia, meanwhile, serves as the biggest nemesis of real meaningful change in Iran, with the Kremlin maintaining a deep and abiding stake in the perpetuation of the Islamic Republic, which has become a key strategic partner. However, he maintains, the United States does have an ally in the Iranian people, who are willing to withstand sanctions and economic hardship as long as they perceive that the United States has a long-term strategy to bring fundamental change to the country.

The biggest challenge facing the Iranian opposition, Pahlavi believes, is the fear of the unknown generated by discussions of regime alternatives. To ameliorate this, the Iranian opposition needs to create a roadmap for political transition, as well as some sort of apolitical organization to anticipate future problems and offer up solutions. There appears to be preliminary movement in this direction on the part of Pahlavi and his supporters in the form of a new, apolitical initiative known as the Phoenix Project, which is designed to bring the various strains of the opposition closer to a common vision for a postclerical Iran.

Pahlavi likewise believes that core elements of the regimeincluding elements of the standing army and the religious military, known as the IRGCare not consolidated around the status quo, and can be nudged in the direction of regime change provided that 1) a clear exit strategy is articulated, so they know what theyre getting into, and 2) that at least some of their equities (economic and political) are protected under the new order. To do so, Pahlavi argues, the United States should focus on targeted measures such as asset freezes and travel bans as a way of targeting regime leadership and elites. This would, in his estimation, send a strong signal to the Iranian people that the United States is paying attention and knows who the bad guys are, and also help to generate cleavages within key regime institutions (such as the IRGC).

Then there is the nuclear file. Although he doesnt rule out that a future Iranian government might want to be a nuclear power, Pahlavi argues that such investments for a successor governmentat least in the near termwould be foolish and wasteful, detracting from the necessary institution building and economic stabilization that the country desperately needs. And over the longer term, he maintains, the question of regime character should be the governing factor in how the international community deals with the issue of Irans nuclear ambitions. After all, as Pahlavi puts it, Its not the gun. Its the finger on the trigger.

Fundamentally, Pahlavis vision is one of nonviolent resistance to Irans clerical regime. He forcefully rejects the idea that ordinary Iranians should take up arms against the ayatollahs, and instead believes that it is possible to create a controlled implosion through nonviolent means which would bring new leadership to power. In this process, the crown prince sees himself as something resembling an honest lawyera gray eminence that could throw his substantial gravitas behind the nascent institutions of a posttheocratic Iran. However, one gets the sense that, if asked to rule, Pahlavi would probably not be averse to the idea.

All of that, however, remains purely conceptual. For the moment, Pahlavis message is that the United States needs to fundamentally change how it thinks about Iran. As he sees it, there is no substitute for seriousness on the part of Americas leaders. And if such seriousness does in fact manifest itself, then the crown prince is confident that the United States will find no shortage of allies on the Iranian street.

Ilan Berman is senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. This is the first installment in a series of feature articles exploring the beliefs, ideas and values of different factions within the Iranian opposition. This first appeared last year.

Image: Reuters.

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This Could Be Iran's Next Ruler (Or King?) - The National Interest Online