March 17, 2023
Iran is not moving the clocks forward an hour on Now Ruz. The Majlis has voted to cease moving clocks forward an hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall.
Clocks will instead remain on standard time all year round.
That means that the difference between US East Coast time and Iran time will be different than previously.
Iran will be now 7-1/2 hours ahead of US East Coast time from the second Sunday in March (when the US moves clocks forward one hour) until the first Sunday in November (when the US moves clocks back).
Iran will be 8-1/2 hours ahead from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March.
Caution-this may change shortly. The US Congress is considering keeping the country on summer time (daylight savings time) all year round. Iran has decided to stay on winter time (standard time) all year round. If the Congress goes to year-round daylight savings time, then Tehran will be 7-1/2 hours ahead of the East Coast all-year round.
As for now, Iran is 7-1/2 hours ahead of the US East Coast until November.
The US has moved the clocks around since 1942, when the two-timing was adopted as a wartime measure. Iran adopted that system in 1956 under the Pahlavi Dynasty, dropped it after the revolution, resumed it in 1991 under President Ali-Akbar-Hashemi-Rafsanjani, then dropped it again under President Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad, but changed its mind a year later and resumed it. It remains to be seen how long the system adopted this year will remain.
