The negotiations with the Turkish energy company, Unit International, to build two natural gas combined cycle power plants in Iran are in the final stage, state TV reported on Tuesday.

"For the details of starting the construction of two power plants by Unit, we have been negotiating for a year and are now in the final stage," Mohsen Tarztalab, managing director of Iran's Thermal Power Plants Holding Company, was quoted as saying.

The projects, with an investment of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, include building a 1,200-MW plant in the central city of Saveh, and an 800-MW plant in Zahedan near the Pakistani border, Tarztalab said.

Negotiations have dragged on since June 2016 when Unit International reached a deal to build seven natural gas power plants in Iran before the two sides cut down the scope of the agreement to two plants.