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ceremony held in Tehran on September 15.
He added that the required construction sites and equipment for commencing the project would be provided within the next two months.
The project’s total cost has been estimated at €1.4bn. The provision of the loan had been sought for two years. Iran is to bear the remainder of the costs. Officials expect the plant to produce enough energy for 150,000 residential buildings.
According to Ardakanian, other projects set to leverage Russian capital include the construction of Inche Boroun-Garmsar railroad, expected to be completed by March 2020.
Russia has engaged in delivering other power installations in Iran including the Bushehr nuclear plant.
The Bushehr-2 expansion of the plant has been on the cards for several years. It was initially touted for completion by 2020. The plant is expected to generate 1,000 MW of electricity for southern parts of Iran.
Tehran and Moscow signed a contract for the expansion of the Bushehr site in 2014, a year after Russia got the first phase up and running, but both sides put Bushehr-2 on the back burner until the nuclear deal was signed in November 2015. Since the US unilaterally walked out of the accord in May 2018, foreign investments made in Iran generally have to take into account the threat of US sanctions.
9.1.12 ​Defence sector news
US forces late on March 12 carried out air strikes in​ ​Iraq​ ​against what the Pentagon said were five weapons storage sites run by an Iranian-back militia that​ ​it claimed was behind a rocket attack​ which killed two American and one British soldier at a military camp near Baghdad.
Pentagon spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said the strikes were aimed at Kata’ib Hezbollah, a paramilitary group with strong ties with Tehran.
“This evening, the US conducted defensive precision strikes against Kata’ib Hezbollah facilities across Iraq. These strikes targeted five weapon storage facilities to significantly degrade their ability to conduct future attacks against the US and coalition forces,” Farah said.
“These strikes were defensive, proportional, and in direct response to the threat posed by Iranian-backed Shia militia groups who continue to attack bases hosting ... coalition forces,” she added.
US Defence Secretary Mark Esper told reporters at the Pentagon earlier on March 12 that US President Donald Trump had authorised him to take whatever action he considered necessary.
“You don’t get to shoot at our bases and kill and wound Americans and get away with it,” he said.
43​ IRAN Country Report April 2020 www.intellinews.com