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maximise its potential.
The envoy referred to “pressures” and said India was the only country which continues to “have a rupee-rial trade arrangement where we are financing bilateral trade between our countries”.
There have been previous reports that Iran had grown weary of India’s slowness on developing Chabahar and that there were moves to hand over port operations to New Delhi’s biggest rival, Beijing—but Iran and India have denied that is the case. The Chinese are working with Pakistan to develop a rival port to Chabahar, located a small distance across the border from the Iranian facility.
India’s external affairs ministry said last week that technical and financial issues yet to be finalised by Iran were holding up New Delhi’s participation in a railway project related to Chabahar.
9.1.5​Tourism sector news
Iran is set to launch a 10-language advertising campaign to attract tourists. The languages would include Russian and Chinese, Mehr News Agency reported.
Prior to the US leaving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and reintroducing heavy sanctions, Iran was working on plans to become a regional tourism and transit hub. Those efforts have largely been mothballed, while the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic now poses another huge hurdle to reinvigorating the country’s efforts to draw tourists, but some initiatives are proceeding.
Mohammad-Ebrahim Larijani, a marketing professional in Tehran, reportedly said videos about the country's attractions, historical monuments and resorts would not only be available in Persian but also in English, Arabic, Russian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, German, Chinese, French and Japanese.
Iranian embassies in several countries are also set to play a part in turning potential tourists’ attention to the wonders of ancient sites in Iran including two dozen UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Despite the stringent head covering rules for all women, the country saw a huge spike in visitors to its cities and tourist sites prior to the election of US President Donald Trump in late 2016.
Other countries that like Iran are on routes of the ancient Silk Road have benefitted from the Islamic Republic falling out of favour. They include Uzbekistan, which boasts several ancient Persianate cities including Bukhara and Samarkand.
Iran’s Health Ministry spokesman Sima-Sadat Lari has said 12 provinces
out of 31 in the country are counted as high-risk “red zones” in terms of
coronavirus (COVID-19) delivery, IRNA reported on July 14.
The spokeswoman said 173 patients had died of the coronavirus in the past 24
hours, increasing the overall death toll to 13,211, a decline on the previous
day, which saw more than 200 people die from the virus, according to official
statistics.
Provinces including Khuzestan, West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Khorasan
Razavi, Zanjan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Golestan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Bushehr
and Mazandaran are now under “Red Zone” status, with travelling to and from
those areas severely restricted.
Thirteen other provinces, including: Tehran, Fars, Ardabil, Isfahan, Alborz,
South Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad,
Lorestan, Hamadan, Yazd, Kerman and North Khorasan are also considered
48​ IRAN Country Report August 2020 www.intellinews.com