March 17, 2017
The Iranian government has written the United Nations asserting that most of the dry spots that produce the sand and dust blowing into Iranian cities come from other countries, not Iran. The letter pointed to 18.5 million hectares of dry land from which the sand and dust found in Iran originate. It said 2.5 million hectares of such land were in Iran, 8 million in Iraq and 8 million in other countries. An Iranian scientist last year said most of the dust and sand descending on Iranian cities originates in Iran.