Iranian authorities have asked some 1.5 million residents of the city of Isfahan to leave the city if they can because of dangerous air pollution.The air quality is not expected to improve for another two days.
Pollution has been particularly bad this year because of the cold,which traps polluted air near the ground unless winds blow it away;millions of cars on the roads of the city that lacks mass transit;and the use of diesel cars spewing untreated carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
With Western sanctions ratcheted up on Iran for failing to halt its suspected nuclear weapons development program,Iran has been forced to convert petrochemical plants into refineries that lack adequate pollution controls.Isfahan is an old,picturesque city of tiled mosques and minarets blanketed with smog.
A year ago,the World Health Organisation listed four Iranian cities on its list of the ten worst polluted cities in the world.
In another development,Iran has been conducting five days of naval maneuvers,Velayat-91,near the strategically significant Strait of Hormuz,through which one fifth of the world's oil supply passes.According to the semi-official Mehr news agency,military spokesman Admiral Amir Rastgari claimed that Iran issued 30 warnings to foreign spy planes,drones and warships approaching the maneuvers,and that the reconnaissance assets distanced themselves from the activity in response.
The naval exercises involved the firing of the new Ghader anti-ship cruise missile,a sea-skimmer with a range of 120 miles/200 kilometers.The Ghader,or "Capable,"was delivered in late 2011.Both the Iranian navy and Revolutionary Guard navy have the weapon in their arsenals.It is claimed to be able to sink large warships.
The Noor anti-ship missile was also fired during the exercises.Video showed the missiles hitting target vessels.The maneuvers took place in an approximately one million square mile area extending from the Strait of Hormuz to the Northern Indian Ocean.
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