Will Iran, Russia find solution to Caspian dilemma?
Russian talk of progress aside, Iran and other Caspian Sea states appear locked in a dispute over the world’s largest inland lake.
Nearly three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and following 26 years of tough negotiations, a solution to the legal status of the Caspian Sea appears to be on the horizon.
Speaking after the recent summit of the Caspian Sea littoral states' foreign ministers in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, “We have found solutions to all the remaining major issues related to the preparation of this document [draft Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea]. The text of the meeting is actually ready,” although he provided no further details.
Neither Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif nor his Azerbaijani, Kazakh and Turkmen counterparts have confirmed Lavrov’s statement. However, two senior Iranian diplomats rejected the notion that the demarcation of the Caspian Sea was discussed at the summit in Moscow.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, “The issue of demarcation was not even on the agenda of the meeting,” while Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific Affairs Ebrahim Rahimpour said, “We still haven’t reached an agreement over the division, especially with the two neighboring countries” of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
