The current situation is by no means a good time for agreement on the Caspian Sea regime/ do not repeat past mistakes

International Institute of Khazar Sea Studies (IIKSS) –  Recently on Monday 16 July 2018 the 73rd Special Expert Meeting of the Center for Central Eurasia Studies, entitled "Caspian Sea, delimitation of maritime zones, geopolitics" was held at Tehran University in collaboration with the General Law Department of University of Tehran and the International Institute of Khazar Sea Studies (IIKSS) and with presence of Dr. Elaheh Koolaee the Director of the Center for Central Eurasia Studies, Dr. Bagher Mirbasi and Dr.Sasan Seyrafi the professors from the University of Tehran, Dr. Maysam Araee Daronkola  the member of the faculty of the University and the director of the International Institute of Khazar Sea Studies (IIKSS) and Armin Talat, the Ph.D. student from Allameh Tabataba'i University.

The nature of the legal issues of the Caspian Sea is politica

Dr. Elaheh Koolaee a professor at the University of Tehran's Department of Regional Studies at the beginning of the meeting, pointed out the importance of the Caspian region and said: “although today the issue of the Caspian Sea status is apparently a legal issue, but this is not legal in nature and is a completely political issue. In such a situation, the power factors are very important.”

Geopolitical balance with Russia

The professor at the University of Tehran continued, “It should be noted that the Azerbaijan Republic and the rest of the countries gradually began to create a geopolitical balance to restrain Russia from 1994, because Russia was paying attention to the concept of "Near abroad", and it was an opportunity for countries to create a balance between Russia and the United States in order to secure their national interests and receive privileges. All the countries separated from the Soviet Union have benefited more or less from the benefits of such a policy, but Iran has not used such a policy as a neighboring country of the "Near abroad. The power factor has steadily changed, but Iran has not created a bargaining chip to take its share in the Caspian Sea. At the moment, the key question is what kind of pressure levers and instruments for bargaining with each of these countries has Iran created?

Current situations are not the right time to agree

Dr. Elaheh Koolaee warned in the end: “Due to neglect of the important role of power factors and because of the neglect of the methods for receiving privileges in international relations, we reached from 19% during the Khatami era to 11-13% during the Ahmadinejad era. But what should be done in the current sensitive situation? Given that Mr. Lavrov has announced that there is a possibility of an agreement on the Caspian Sea at the upcoming Summit of Caspian States' Leaders, I warn that the current situation is not a suitable time for agreement. The constitution of Iran states that no state has the right to ignore territorial interests and rights of the nation. Given the relations we have with Russia and ongoing negotiations between the United States and this country, the current situation, is by no means a good time to sign any document.

Translator: Mohsen Hamidi - Expert on Central Asia and Caucasus, translator of Russian language and member of the Scientific Council of the International Institute of Khazar Sea Studies (IIKSS)

Links to the original pages:

https://www.tasnimnews.com/fa/news/1397/04/27/1779079
http://www.iikss.com/fa/index.php/route/news_det/MTA1NDI