Iran Considers Makran Region as Potential Site for New Capital Amid Controversy

Iran's presidential administration has sparked a heated debate by proposing the remote and underdeveloped Makran region in southeastern Iran as a potential location for the country’s new capital.

“The new capital will definitely be in the south, in the Makran region, and this matter is currently being worked on,” government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said, The Caspian Post reports, citing Iranian media.

On Wednesday, however, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s Executive Deputy Jafar Ghaempanah told reporters that moving the capital to Makran was “only an idea,” adding that no timeline has been established for such a move.

Officials of the Pezeshkian government are the first to publicly propose the Makran region as a viable candidate for relocating the country’s political and administrative center.

Makran is a vast historical and geographical region rather than an official administrative division. It spans a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) coastal strip from southeastern Iran to south-east Pakistan. In Iran, Makran’s coastline lies along the Gulf of Oman, while the Pakistani portion extends along the Arabian Sea.

The Iranian part of Makran constitutes approximately one-fourth of the historical region and is primarily situated within Sistan and Baluchestan Province-Iran's largest but least developed and sparsely populated province. This coastline features several small ports, including Gwatar, Jask, and Sirik. The largest port, Chabahar, is one of Iran’s nine Free Trade-Industrial Zones.

Iran has been considering relocating its capital, Tehran, for over three decades due to various environmental and safety concerns. Among these are severe water shortages and pollution that threaten Tehran’s sustainability.

The most pressing issue, however, is Tehran's vulnerability to earthquakes. The city sits atop two major seismic fault lines, making it highly susceptible to devastating quakes that could obliterate Iran’s political, administrative, and economic hub in seconds.

In May 2015, the Iranian parliament passed a law tasking the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development with conducting studies to propose short-, mid-, and long-term plans for relocating the capital from Tehran. These studies were to be completed within two years but remain unfinished.

In the past three decades, several cities including Shiraz, Esfahan, Hamedan, Semnan, the New City of Pardis in the south of Tehran, Bandar Abbas Port on the Persian Gulf, and Kashan have been proposed as suitable candidates for the future seat of government.