Ecology Ministry: No agreements on redirecting course of Araz River to Lake Urmia
There are no agreements on redirecting the course of the Araz River to Lake Urmia, the Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Firdovsi Aliyev said on Tuesday.
Azerbaijan itself suffers from a lack of water and in this regard the government acts on the basis of national interests, Aliyev said.
A project to direct 600 million cubic meters of water from the Araz River into Lake Urmia was launched during a visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and members of the government to Tabriz in 2010. It was planned to allocate $1.2 billion to implement this project.
"Azerbaijan has joined a number of international conventions in the environmental field and in this issue the country will act according to the requirements of these conventions," the deputy minister said. "Since this is a political issue, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources passed its proposals to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry."
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