Mehdi Safari

Are you satisfied with the security issues in the Caspian Sea? Does Iran have any proposals concerning this?

One of the decisions passed at the meeting of the littoral states’ presidents in October, 2007, was the preparation of the Convention on the security of the Caspian Sea. It was expected to sign the convention at the next meeting in Baku. The meeting was postponed because of the presidential elections in Azerbaijan, later in Iran and elections in other littoral states. The Azerbaijani side was to prepare the draft program for signing the Convention.

After Azerbaijan prepared and presented the program the meeting was held in September. The convention includes items on customs, structure of the management method in the Caspian, struggle against smuggling of narcotics, human trafficking and organized crimes. This document may be effective for the littoral states. Especially if the Convention is obeyed, it will also be very effective for Iran.

The Convention also covers ecological cleanness of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian Sea should be ecologically clean. We should protect it and create conditions for our peoples to use this wealth. The Caspian Sea should also become the symbol of welfare and prosperity.

How does Iran assess the legal status of the Caspian Sea?

Iran and USSR signed two and treaties about the Caspian status in 1921 and 1940. After the collapse of USSR, new independent countries established by the Caspian Sea put forward necessity of a treaty which contains new and improved conditions about the Caspian status. The foreign ministers of five Caspian littoral states held their first meeting in 1996 in Ashgabat and decided to establish working group of deputy foreign ministers to elaborate Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea.

The legal status considered the number of issues. Defense issues of the Caspian littoral states, navigation, oil and gas, ports, fishing, customs and other issues will be regulated by the status. This is very difficult process and will take much time. The littoral states prefer to solve the problems together. They have held 38-39 meetings so far and all countries showed activeness in the determination of the Caspian legal status.

It shows that everyone works to solve the problem. There are a number of proposals. Of course, we respect positions of all sides and advocate for the justice. We also made our proposals. All countries need to coordinate their proposals, it is not enough that only 2-3 countries have same position for the solution of the problem. We hope that the issue will be solved and legal status of the Caspian Sea will be determined.

Everyone should work to reach a result. I can not say when the process will be finalized. It can take 6 months or 2 years. The next meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of the Caspian littoral states on the status of the sea will be held in Tehran later in April.

APA