World powers source of global crises

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says world powers are the source of crises and danger in the world and have caused global problems with their injustice, bullying and occupations.

In a Thursday meeting with of Azeri clerics, lawmakers and scientist, Ahmadinejad said, “For more than 60 years they have displaced millions of Palestinian people and imprisoned thousands of others by occupying Palestine.”

“Foreigners used the pretext of fighting terrorism and drugs to invade the region; this is while their presence in the region has increased insecurity and drug [trafficking].”

“They kill Pakistanis, and by meddling in Sudan they have created many problems,” Ahmadinejad added.

“By stealing the wealth of nations and [creating] social gap, they (world powers) forced some Asian and African nations to suffer poverty and be deprived of sanitation and education,” the Iranian chief executive said.

He described the relations between Iran and Azerbaijan as amicable and said, “Political, economic and cultural cooperation of the two nations is continuously expanding.”

The Iranian chief executive arrived in the Azeri capital of Baku on Wednesday to attend the third meeting of the leaders of Caspian littoral states in order to negotiate the legal regime of the sea and to discuss relations with Azeri officials.

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on earth by area, 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.