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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.
Iranians enjoy a walk in a park during snowfall in the capital Tehran on Jan. 15, 2023.

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. 

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