Iran not to brook meddling in Caspian Sea
An Iranian deputy foreign minister has disapproved of interference of certain Western countries in sovereign issues pertaining to the Caspian Sea.
“The policy of Western countries is to create division between Caspian Sea littoral states,” Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh said in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran on Wednesday.
He added that the West is opposed to the current situation, where the resources of the Caspian Sea are being “justly shared by all littoral states,” and is therefore seeking to sow discord.
“No one has the right to interfere in the sovereign issues of the Caspian Sea,” IRNA quoted the Iranian official as saying.
Akhoundzadeh, who also serves as the presidential advisor for the Caspian Sea affairs, said that littoral states needed to establish a “lasting security” through the adoption of a “strategic approach” in order to make the maximum use of the rich resources of the sea.
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on earth by area, and is variously classed as the world’s largest lake or a full-fledged sea.
The maritime and seabed boundaries of the Caspian Sea have yet to be demarcated among Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan — the five countries bordering the sea.
Despite extensive negotiations, the legal status of the Caspian Sea has been unclear since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Caspian Sea legal regime is based on two agreements signed between Iran and the Soviet Union in 1921 and 1940.
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan — the three new littoral states, established after the collapse of Soviet Russia — do not recognize the prior treaties, triggering a debate on the future status of the sea.
Experts say the US administration views the Caspian Sea region as a strategic zone, since the sea would supply the world’s need in fuel for a very long time.
The Caspian Sea has not been explored thoroughly for oil and gas deposits yet and the extraction of oil and gas resources in the region is not cost-intensive at all, according to analysts.
