Iran to mull determination of Iranian part of Caspian Sea
The situation with the legal status of the Caspian Sea and which part of the sea must be considered Iranian, will be discussed during a conference in Sari town, in the Mazandaran province on Dec. 14-15, İRNA news agency reported referring to the head of the committee on the Caspian Sea under Iran's parliamentary committee, Mehdi Sanaei, as saying.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and other members of the government and parliament are expected to attend the conference.
The littoral states (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Iran) signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea in November 2003.
In July 1998, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to exercise sovereign rights for subsoil use.
On Nov. 29, 2001 and Feb. 27, 2003, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on the delimitation of adjacent sections of the Caspian Sea on May 14, 2003.