Gas-rich Iran apologizes to citizens over chaotic shortages
Despite sitting on the world's second-largest gas reserves, Iran has in recent days witnessed the chaotic management of its household gas heating, which is adding further to a host of unaddressed public grievances.
Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji publicly apologized to citizens on Tuesday following week-long disruptions in household gas supplies that left thousands of homes without heating and triggered widespread closures of public service institutions.
In a televised interview, the minister promised that "the situation will not happen again next winter" and acknowledged that some 17,000 households had been left without gas supplies over the past few days.
"Again, I express my apologies to our dear and dignified nation if they had to go through difficulty. But I do promise that with the measures adopted by the government, we will not have gas blackouts next year," Owji said.
The most severe shortages were reported in the country's northeast, particularly the cities of Torbat-e Jaam and Taybad, where angry locals gathered outside the governor's office late on Monday demanding his resignation and chanting against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
