Iran is ready to resolve the issue of the Caspian Sea's legal status through talks with other countries in the near future, an Iranian official said this week.
"We do not insist on specific figures on the issue of dividing the Caspian Sea," Iranian Presidential Special Envoy for Caspian Affairs Mohammad Mehdi Akhundzadeh said at a press conference in Tehran yesterday, the ISNA news agency reported. "I do not think it is reasonable to focus on a 20- or 40-percent share. We are in talks with other countries based on treaties dated 1921 and 1940."
According to Akhundzadeh, increasing the intensity of the talks and holding regular meetings will accelerate the process of determining the sea's legal status.
"At the Baku summit, the Caspian littoral states reached an agreement about organizing meetings for special representatives on determining the legal status of the Caspian Sea four times a year," he said.
In November 2003, the Caspian countries signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea.
In July 1998, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to exercise sovereign rights for subsoil use.
On Nov. 29, 2001 and Feb.2 7, 2003, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea.
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea on May 14, 2003.