In an interviewing with state-run media on July 6, head of the executive committee of the so-called Khomeini’s command admitted that the poverty situation in Iran is extremely inappropriate, with 12 million people living below the absolute poverty line and 25 to 30 million people below the poverty line.

Mohammad Mokhber added: “The slope of poverty and poverty reduction in the country is very steep because over the past seven or eight years, the acceleration slope has progressed rapidly.

“Iran is not Burkina Faso (a country in West Africa) but a country with many resources. We have the fourth largest oil reserves in the world, accounting for 9.3% of the world’s oil reserves. Eight barrels of oil are traded in relation to the oil extracted in the world. If we sell $100 billion of oil, we can have $800 billion market, but now we take one barrel per barrel,” he noted.

“We also hold the world’s first gas reservoir accounting for 18.2 percent of the world’s gas reserves,” Mokhber added.

The head of the so-called Khomeini’s command executive committee said: “We have the first place in saffron, pistachio, caviar, barberry and pomegranate in the world. The world’s saffron market is $8.5 billion, but with 95 percent of world’s saffron coming from Iran, we use only $400 million. The center of Saffron in Iran is Northern and Southern Khorassan provinces and the center of Pistachio is Kerman. How is the employment situation in these provinces now?”

“We have the fourth rank in mines in the world. We earn $200 million in foreign earnings from these mines. On the other hand, we produce steel in Cayenat in the northern Khorassan province, while the price per liter of water for steel in that area is about three liters of gasoline.”

He also pointed out that in terms of territorial water, we are among the first 10 countries in the world, and added: “The surface water of the Khuzestan is about the same size of the surface waters of France, Germany and Spain. What do we do with these waters?”

On the other hand, Abbas Akhundi, Minister of Roads and Urban Development of the Government of Hassan Rouhani, on Thursday, July 6, 2017, admitted that the status of Iranian citizens living situation is not appropriate.

“Marginalization it is not limited to Sistan and Baluchistan. Right now, the Iranian urban population is about 59 million, of which 19 million or equivalent to 35 percent of the population are marginalized and people are living in worn-out and deteriorated areas,” he said.

“About 40% of urban population in Sistan and Baluchistan and 35% of the country’s urban population live in marginalized areas in a state of turmoil and distressed situation,” he added.

Rouhani’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development said: “Statistics for the year 2016 compared to the year 2011 show that the population of the country’s rural areas and villages declined by 2% and the urban areas increased by 2%.”

Source » ncr-iran