Iran president warns Tehran may face evacuation due to drought

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned in a speech broadcast on Friday that the capital Tehran may need evacuating because of water shortages if it doesn't rain before the end of the year.

It was not immediately clear how the capital would be evacuated. Iran as a whole has been affected by dwindling rainfall, but the sprawling megacity of more than 10 million people is particularly vulnerable. On Sunday, the director of the regional water company, Behzad Parsa, warned in state media that there was just two weeks' worth of water left in the main reservoir serving Tehran.

Meanwhile, Tasnim News Agency reported that the country's precipitation level this year had reached just 152 millimetres, a 40 percent decline compared to the 57-year average.