Iranian Defense Minister stresses during meeting with Ilham Aliyev that Caspian Sea must be kept out of arms race
The problems regarding the Caspian Sea must be settled through peaceful negotiations, Hossein Dehghan, the Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics of Iran, said, according to the Iranian information agency IMNA.
The head of the Defense office of Iran met Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev during his official visit to Baku today. During the meeting, issues regarding the bilateral and regional issues were discussed.
Referring to the disagreements between Iran and Azerbaijan regarding the legal status of the Caspian Sea, Hossein Dehghan said, “The Caspian Sea must be kept out of arms race. All the issues concerning the sea must be solely discussed by the Caspian countries and the existing problems must be solved through peaceful negotiations.”
The disagreements regarding the Caspian Sea status emerged in the Caspian countries following the collapse of the USSR. Iran claims that the sea must be divided into 5 equal parts and excludes any other option.
Apart from the legal point, Iran and Azerbaijan have also got serious disagreements concerning the control over the oil fields in the Caspian Sea and ecological issues. Speculating on the circumstance that the legal status of the sea has not been solved yet, Azerbaijan claims that the gas field Sardar Jangal discovered and operated by Iran, does not belong to Iran and is situated in the common water domain of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
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