Iran has no conflict with other Caspian states: naval commander
Iran does not have a conflict with any of the other Caspian littoral countries, an Iranian naval commander, Captain Khordad Hakimi, said on Thursday.
"Our goal is to protect the Caspian Sea without foreign interference," Hakimi was quoted by İRNA news agency as saying.
He said the Iranian fleet covers only 20 per cent of the resource-rich Caspian Sea territory claimed by Iran and ensures safe operation of oil companies in the offshore fields.
Iran will commission ships and boats equipped with missiles in the Caspian Sea in the near future, Hakimi added.
Azerbaijan, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement in 2001 on dividing the Caspian's northern area into national sectors, with Azerbaijan and Russia each possessing 19 percent, while the Central Asian state received 29 percent. However, Iran and Turkmenistan did not sign the agreement.
Iran wants all resources shared equally among the five states, even though its coast accounts for less than 14 percent.
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