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commercial company Planet Labs which showed a black plume of smoke rising above a launch pad at the space centre in Iran's Semnan Province in the north of the country.
On August 24, US National Public Radio, also citing imagery from Planet Labs, reported that it looked like Iran was getting ready for a space rocket launch. The US has accused Tehran of developing technology to launch satellites into orbit partly to help it develop rockets that could carry nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the accusation. It says a fatwa issued by the supreme leader forbids the country from building a nuclear bomb. None of the ballistic missiles it is developing are designed to carry a nuclear payload, Tehran adds.
David Schmerler, a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told The Associated Press that "whatever happened there, it blew up and you're looking at the smouldering remains of what used to be there".
Iran suffered failed space rocket launches in both January and February this year.
The country launched its first satellite Omid (Hope) in 2009. That was followed by the Rasad (Observation) satellite in June 2011. In 2012, a third domestically made satellite, Navid (Promise), was successfully placed in orbit, according to Iranian officials.
9.1.4​ Transport sector news
Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organisation (PMO) has announced a plan to sell off minor, unprofitable ports to private companies, ILNA reported on September 11.
The Iranian government has invested heavily in several major Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf ports in recent years, but due to a lack of capital smaller ports missed out on the investment bonanza.
According to a memo released by the PMO on September 10, the ports would be sold off to private companies over the next few months following an assessment of their potential value.
Mohammad-Ali Hassanzadeh, the PMO deputy for ports and economic affairs, was quoted as saying: “We have 48 small ports in the country, most of them located at southern sea coastlines. We have finished the comprehensive plan studying their status for transfer to the private sector for investment activity and development.”
Significant investment has been ploughed into ports that are nodes in international transport corridor networks under development, for instance the Russian-led International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and routes favoured by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI envisages using Iran as a hub for connections to other countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. The plan to offload many of the more modest and lossmaking ports comes as increased investment has been announced for a significant upgrade of ​Bandar Anzali port​ on the Caspian Sea.
Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters, controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has won a contract to build a new roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) ferry terminal at the port.
It is estimated that an overall new port area, which will be covered by the Anzali Free Trade Zone (AFTZ), will cost more than IRR1tn (around $87mn at the free market rate), officials said. But, as with other projects implemented by Khatam al-Anbia, the financial details will not be released.
Iran and Turkey are in discussions for the launching of a weekly round
42​ IRAN Country Report​ October 2019 www.intellinews.com