Azernews.Az

Iran`s lack of effort delays the creation of the North-South corridor that will be one of the region`s biggest and most significant transport routes, according to a senior Russian official.

Russia`s deputy transport minister, Valery Okulov, told APA news agency during a visit to Baku last week that though Russia and Azerbaijan ``have solved all organizational issues`` regarding construction of a railway line under the North-South project, Iran ``is not being active enough``.

``In Russia and Azerbaijan, legislative acts for establishing a trilateral joint venture have been passed and a consultancy that will evaluate the project and draft a feasibility study selected,`` Okulov said. ``But recently -- approximately, in the past six months -- we are witnessing that the activeness of our Iranian counterparts has significantly decreased. This situation is causing uncertainty over the terms of the project implementation.``

The North-South project envisions connecting Europe by railways, roads, sea and air to India and southeastern Asia through Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran. Most of the operations under the $400 million project are to be carried out in Iran, which has no railway link to its border with Azerbaijan.

The agreement on the project was signed by Russia, Iran, India and Oman in 2001. Azerbaijan joined the project in 2005.

Azerbaijan has said construction of its section of the railway could be completed over two years. According to Okulov, this timeframe is both suitable and realistic.

``But for this to happen, construction work needs to be launched. And to start it, we need to resolve outstanding issues with our Iranian counterparts,`` the Russian deputy transport minister said.

Okulov declined to comment in detail on the reasons of Iran`s conduct, but did not rule out that political issues are involved.

``There could be some political aspects here...I would not like to interfere with political issues, but I can say for certain that technically, the project [implementation] is realistic and there is a great need for it both in Azerbaijan and Russia.``

Azerbaijan Railways deputy head Gurban Nazirov confirms that Iran is delaying work on the North-South transport corridor. According to him, after a trilateral agreement was signed, Russia and Azerbaijan completed preparations for setting up a joint venture, while Tehran failed to do so.

``They have not been able to pass a firm decision on both the overall project and creating a JV,`` Nazirov said. ``In fact, the Iranian side was to submit a draft project on [building] the railway section in Iran, but even that was not done.``

Nazirov said that when Iran is asked about reasons of the delay, it gives uncertain answers.

``They reply that `we will make a decision`, `we will look at it and then tell you`, so, there is no concrete answer,`` Nazirov said. ``Iran`s failing to pass a firm decision has now begun to impede realization of the project.``

Nazirov said the delay could indeed be linked to political issues. ``Perhaps, this is due to the current situation in Iran, but Iran has repeatedly said it was interested in realizing this project.``

Trilateral talks on the issue scheduled for the first quarter of 2012 did not take place as Iran did not attend. Nazirov commented, ``The Iranian side re-scheduled the meeting, but has not cited a specific date so far.``