Morteza Barari, head of the Iranian Space Agency, made the announcement today at a ceremony marking the country’s national day of space technology.

“Following the interactions between the ICT Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a bid to strengthen Iran’s international cooperation, and through the efforts of our experts at the Iranian Space Agency, the chairmanship of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space – G77 was handed over to Iran this week,” he said.

The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) was established in 1959, with 87 active members as of 2017. Its mission is “to review the scope of international cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space, to devise programs in this field to be undertaken under United Nations auspices, to encourage continued research and the dissemination of information on outer space matters, and to study legal problems arising from the exploration of outer space.”

Elsewhere, Barari announced the establishment of a space-based technology part in Iran last week.

He also maintained that there are six multipurpose stations for receiving satellite images, located in Mahdasht, Chenaran, Bushehr, Qeshm and Salmas. He added that the Space Agency has plans to use the information received from these stations in both domestic satellites and also to render services to the satellites of other countries.