According to Iranian state media, the initial phase of the project will cost about $1 billion and will include building a desalination plant and pipes during the next two years to supply water to the city of Semnan.
The first desalination plant to be built would reportedly have a capacity of 200 million cubic meters per year.
The ambitious project is being handled by the Khatam al-Anbiya group, the industrial arm of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, which have interests in the country's key economic sectors.
