President Rayeesi Tours Khuzestan Province, Pledges to Tackle Problems

President Rayeesi made his first provincial trip two days after the formation of his cabinet.

The Iranian president arrived in Khuzestan on Friday morning. He was accompanied by a number of his cabinet members, including the ministers of energy, interior, agriculture and health as well as the head of the Budget and Planning Organization.

"The Iranian nation is indebted to the “good people” of Khuzestan, who defended the country wholeheartedly during the eight-year war waged by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein," President Rayeesi said upon his arrival at the General Qasem Soleimani International Airport in

“The problems in this province sadden everyone,” he added, vowing to launch a concerted campaign to tackle the problems.

“People should know that in the administration, we will put solving the problems of the country in general and solving the problems of Khuzestan in particular on our agenda, and it seems that with the participation of the people, many knots will be untied,” he further said.

People in Khuzestan province rallied in late July to protest shortages of drinking and agricultural water, and the drying up of wetlands and rivers.

It is more than a month that the western regions of Khuzestan have been in a water crisis, and due to the lack of water in the Hur al-Azim wetland, some local people have lost their livestock. A number of young people had been holding mostly peaceful protest rallies in late July and early August in certain regions of Khuzestan province. Yet, Separatist and anti-revolutionary groups had been attempting to provoke rallies into rioting by false-flag operations and through a large disinformation campaign.

Rioters and armed militants disguised among protestors who have been holding rallies to demand solution of their problems related to water shortage and drought in Iran's Southwestern province of Khuzestan killed a number of protestors and a policeman and wounded several others.