Battered Tehran rushes to rebuild during fragile truce

Iran's capital has struck deals with private developers to repair and replace tens of thousands of damaged apartments and buildings

The charred skeletons of two cars lay sprawled in front of a blown-out building in an east Tehran neighbourhood devastated by weeks of US-Israeli bombing earlier this year.

But across the street on a recent afternoon was a more orderly view: boxwood bushes planted in pots on a tidy building site, ready for construction to begin.

The lot on Jajroudi Alley was once a five-storey apartment block, struck down as four missiles destroyed a nearby paramilitary base and a slew of residential buildings. It is now one of hundreds earmarked for redevelopment, as municipal authorities race to use the current uneasy lull in hostilities with the US to clear the traces of war from the capital of 10mn people.

The city claims to have repaired most of the more than 50,000 residential units that sustained damage, making repairs that ranged from replaced windows to serious structural reinforcement. The focus is now on the roughly 500 residential buildings, comprising more than 2,000 flats, that were completely destroyed, said Mohammad Azadi, a municipal public relations officer.

The 40-day bombing campaign came to a halt after a fragile ceasefire was agreed in April but there are widespread fears that the war could restart after next week's US midterm elections.

One of the few residents pulled out alive from another building on Jajroudi Alley says he hopes to be given a newly built property after losing his home and the motorbike he used to make a living. For now, he is jobless and living in an unfurnished apartment rented with funds from the city.

"I can't even afford a single chest of drawers. I keep the few clothes I have in a banana box," he said, asking not to be named. "Imagine living somewhere, collecting your belongings over all those years, and then suddenly having everything you owned blown away."

With little funding available from Iran's heavily sanctioned government, the municipality has struck deals with developers to get the new buildings put up: if the companies fund the rebuilding, they can make the structures 50 per cent bigger than before and keep the extra portion for themselves.

Abbas Khazaei, an urban development official at Tehran municipality, estimated reconstruction would take up to two years. "For residents whose homes were destroyed, either the municipality or developers are providing housing deposits and monthly rents until they return to their homes," he said.

Roughly half of all the US-Israeli military operations in the first 40 days of the war targeted Tehran province, which suffered a third of Iran's death toll, according to the provincial governor. Iran's government says more than 3,500 of its citizens have been killed in the war -- 1,500 of whom were civilians.

A UN mission in September said there were "reasonable grounds" to conclude that the US "committed a war crime by launching indiscriminate attacks" on a school and other civilian sites in Iran. The US and Israel rejected the findings, saying their bombing campaign focused on regime and military targets.

During the bombing, Tehran provided accommodation for families whose homes were made uninhabitable, housing more than 9,000 residents in nearly 50 hotels and guest houses.

Maryam, who lost her home in a missile strike in March, which targeted a university professor in her building, said her family of four stayed in a small room in Homa Hotel -- one of Tehran's few five-star hotels -- for three months.

She is now renting an apartment and said she received vouchers to buy household goods and other necessities. "But the assistance was insufficient, given that we had lost everything," she said.

Majid Hosseini, the owner of a Mitsubishi dealership in the neighbourhood, whose home and business were both damaged by the blasts, said the municipality had "assigned a contractor who carried out the debris removal and clean-up, and is now reconstructing our building. We have not paid anything for the reconstruction."

But unlike homes, businesses have received no help. "Different government organisations keep telling us that it is not their responsibility and passing us from one agency to another," Hosseini said.

There has been little progress in negotiations between Tehran and Washington to end hostilities since a memorandum of understanding signed in June unravelled. US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering launching a new intense bombing campaign against Iran after next week's midterms.

Municipal officials said reconstruction would continue unabated even if the conflict kicked off again, having gained experience during an earlier 12-day war last year, which "enabled us to manage things more effectively" this year, Khazaei said. "We are concerned about the possibility of yet another war breaking out, but if it does happen, we will be fully prepared to do our part."

Some residents were set on returning to their ruined neighbourhoods despite the lingering trauma. "Having lived here for 50 years, there is nowhere else I know as home," said the Jajroudi Alley survivor.