Russia to build new Iranian telecoms satellite

Tehran’s government has signed a USD132 million deal with Russian satellite firm Avia Export Company to deploy a telecommunications satellite for the Islamic state. The Zohreh (Venus) orbiter is due to be launched within the next 30 months and will improve existing radio and TV broadcast coverage and telecoms and internet access in remote parts of the country. Iran is also launching its own Mesbah (Lantern) satellite in May this year, which will be used for weather forecasting and locating natural resources.