A high-ranking Iranian official has reiterated that none of the five Caspian Sea littoral states can unilaterally prospect in the strategic oil-rich sea.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani on Friday told the official Iranian news agency (IRNA) that "none of the littoral states can unilaterally and without (reaching) an (multilateral) agreement with others conduct prospecting in the sea."
The coastal states of the Caspian Sea, namely Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, are still to come up with a formula for the legal regime of the Caspian Sea for the exploitation of its resources.
Ahani’s remarks came after a two-day meeting of deputy foreign ministers from the Caspian sea's littoral states in Almaty, Kazakhstan, concluded.
"We should make effort to turn the sea into the sea of peace and friendship and any militarization of the sea is rejected," he said.
Ahani added that the littoral states should solve the in-between disputes through talks under "constructive" circumstances.
Ahani's trip to Almaty came after Azeri President Heydar Aliyev postponed a two-day trip to Tehran scheduled for last Monday.
Aliyev's visit had been intended to resolve a dispute over how to divide oil drilling rights in the Caspian Sea, especially after an Iranian warship in July threatened to open fire on an Azeri oil research vessel in a sector of the Caspian sea claimed by both.
The confrontation brought relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, its neighbour to the south, to a new low.
Iran calls for a condominium or common sovereignty over the sea and has made it known that it considers any unilateral deals for energy explorations in the Caspian Sea as null and void before the issue of legal regime of the inland waters is settled – Albawaba.com
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