Azernews.Az

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev has criticized Iran, saying its insistence to equally divide the Caspian Sea among the coastal nations -- which also include Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenistan -- would amount to a redrawing of the existing borders and is the main hurdle to signing a convention on the basin’s legal status.

Nazarbayev wrote in the "Path of Kazakhstan" book that Iran is essentially seeking "to expand its territory at the expense of the other regional countries".

He expressed hope, however, that the talks on the Caspian status issue would be successfully completed.

"In any case, groundwork has been laid to successfully finalize the process…There should be no hastiness in resolving issues like the Caspian status. I am confident that the interests of all five littoral states will be taken into consideration in the negotiating process."

Kazakhstan signed an agreement with Azerbaijan and Russia in 2001 on dividing the Caspian’s northern area into national sectors, gaining 29 percent of the seabed, while Azerbaijan and Russia each received 19 percent. However, Iran and Turkmenistan did not sign the agreement.

Though its coast accounts for less than 14 percent of the seabed, Iran wants all resources shared equally among the five coastal states.