Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has commented on the submission of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea to parliament for ratification, APA's Tehran bureau reports.
Baghaei said the submission to the Iranian parliament of the Convention, signed by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan in 2018, is not related to the war or external developments.
"The final decision on the document, in accordance with the Constitution, rests with parliament," Baghaei emphasized.
According to him, decisions on the ratification of international documents are made on the basis of national interests and expediency.
Baghaei noted that over the past 7-8 years, no final decision had been made on submitting the document to parliament. However, following a comprehensive assessment within the government and the Foreign Ministry, it has now been deemed appropriate to submit the Convention to parliament.
The Foreign Ministry official said that linking the submission of the Convention to parliament with the war is unfounded.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson also commented on various figures cited regarding Iran's share of the Caspian Sea's seabed and subsoil resources. He noted that the key issue in this regard is determining the baseline, and that this issue is not addressed in the Convention.
Baghaei said that the issue of the baseline should be discussed separately, including within the framework of Iran's bilateral negotiations with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. According to him, negotiations in this direction have begun and stalled at certain stages, but the process is continuing.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the Convention creates a general framework for the legal status of the Caspian Sea and that one of its important provisions is preventing the militarization of the sea.
"The document cannot be implemented unless all five countries sign it," Baghaei added.
In his opinion, it is natural for the other four Caspian littoral states to be interested in the document entering into force sooner.
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