Analysis by Kimia Sanati

TEHRAN, Feb 11 (IPS) - The unresolved issue of dividing the Caspian Sea among its five littoral states has become a sensitive one for many Iranians who allege a concession to Russia may be in the making by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, in return for supporting Iran’s nuclear policies.

In a recent statement, 370 prominent Iranian political and social figures warned against ‘adventurism’ by the Ahmadinejad administration in its foreign policy, including the issue of the division of the Caspian Sea.

(The Caspian Sea littoral states) ‘’have chosen the most suitable time for putting forth their illegitimate claims... The Iranian nation is now under political pressure and economic sanctions for its nuclear dossier as well as for the unrestrained policies of the government in its foreign policy…We the signatories of this letter are greatly concerned about actions and decisions, hidden from the eyes of the nation, that are taken as a result of weakness in (exercising) national sovereignty," the statement said.

Iran lost the right to have a fleet in the Caspian Sea through a treaty signed in 1828 with the Czarist Russia, following defeat in war. The treaty also put an end to Iranian sovereignty over many cities in the west of the Caspian Sea and is therefore considered a despicable one by Iranian historians. Iran’s rights were restored a century later when a friendship treaty was signed with the Soviet Union in 1921.

An agreement on trade and transportation in the Caspian Sea was also signed between Iran and the Soviet Union in 1940 which gave common sovereignty of the sea and equal fishing and shipping rights to both countries.

The 1940 agreement set the two countries’ exclusive fishing territory at 10 miles but did not establish the limits of their territorial waters or distinguish between transportation and military fleet. The manner of utilisation of seabed resources was not discussed in either the treaty of 1921 or the agreement of 1940.

On the basis of the 1921 treaty and the 1940 agreement many Iranian politicians and historians claim the sea had been divided equally between Iran and the former Soviet Union.

It is also widely believed that the two countries had had equal rights to all of the sea’s resources on the basis of the said agreements. Advocates of the view believe the Soviet Union’s share should be divided among the successor states that emerged in 1991.

Thirty one political parties, that advocate this view, have demanded that the government refrain from making any bilateral agreements with any of the littoral states, namely Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

Controversy over the issue deepened in January when foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters that Iran never had 50 percent share of the sea and that it had never been allowed by the Soviets to pass the hypothetical line, known as Hosseingholi-Astara line, that marks Iran’s share at 11.3 percent. Foreign ministry spokesman Hosseini had to underline the next day that Iran would never consent to anything less than 20 percent as its legitimate share of the Caspian.

Foreign minister Mottaki was later summoned by the parliament’s National Security Committee for explanations, and when he failed to convince them with his answers, his impeachment was proposed by a number of minority reformist parliamentarians. The impeachment, however, has yet not been put on the agenda of the parliament by the presiding board.

"The fact that Iran and the Soviet Union were given joint sovereignty of the Caspian Sea in the treaties has given rise to the wrong assumption that the sea should be divided on a 50-50 basis between Iran on the one hand and the former Soviet republics on the other in all respects, and particularly that half the oil and gas resources belong to Iran," an analyst in Tehran told IPS.

"In fact the manner of exploitation of the seabed resources was purposely left out from those treaties by Iran who was then not strong enough to secure its best interests against its powerful northern neighbor. Starting from a wrong assumption will not help but trying to secure the country’s best interests without making concessions to achieve other no less important goals is what Iran must now strive to accomplish in any deals it makes regarding the Caspian Sea issue," he added.

The problem of division of the Caspian Sea sprang up with the collapse the Soviet Union in 1991 when four new states took the place of the Soviet Union around the world’s largest enclosed body of water.

Following the formation of the new states both Iran and Russia maintained that the treaties made between Iran and the Soviet Union regarding the Caspian Sea were still to be respected and that the five littoral states should have common sovereignty of the sea.

The three states of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, however, demanded a completely new legal regime for the Caspian Sea and the sea’s legal regime has practically been in limbo since the collapse.

"The previous agreements between Iran and the Soviet Union belong to history now," the Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev told the third summit of heads of the five Caspian Sea littoral states in Tehran on Oct. 16.

The Tehran summit that was attended by all heads of the Caspian Sea littoral states, including president Vladimir Putin, failed to reach any agreement on the manner of division of the sea but a declaration issued stated that the Caspian Sea legal regime could only be approved through the littoral states’ consensus and that a final agreement on the seabed demarcation was to be made by all bordering states later.

The heads of the littoral states also agreed that the sea should only be used for peaceful purposes and the use of militaries in mutual relations was to be avoided. The littoral states will not let any country use their soil for military attack against any of the other littoral states, the declaration proclaimed.

The Caspian Sea is estimated to contain the world’s third largest reserves of oil and gas. Most of the licensed oil fields of the Caspian Sea lay in Azerbaijan’s section of the sea while more proven and anticipated oil and gas reserve that have yet not been exploited are scattered in all areas of the sea.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are presently exploiting the Caspian oil resources. The region produces approximately between 1.6 to 2 percent of the world output. Iran has so far commissioned several studies by international companies such as Shell and London and Scottish Marine Oil Company but has not yet begun actual exploitation of any of the oil and gas fields, some of them in dispute with Azerbaijan.

The sea has also major transportation potentials. The United States and European Union have energy security concerns and have been pushing for trans-Caspian pipelines across the Caspian Sea to carry Turkmen and Kazakh oil and gas to the West. The proposed pipeline will thus bypass Russian territory.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union some of its former republics have separately divided the Caspian Sea among themselves. Russia and Kazakhstan agreed to divide the northern part of the sea along the median line on Jun 6, 1998. Later in January 2001 Russia and Azerbaijan made a similar division of the seabed. The area thus divided accounts for 54 percent of the seabed and surface waters.

Iran and Turkmenistan that have the shortest shorelines advocate the division of the sea into equal parts (20 percent each) among the five littoral states while the other three countries generally favour a division corresponding to the length of each country’s shoreline.

If the seabed is divided proportionate to the shoreline of each country Kazakhstan will have the greatest share of 28.6 percent while Iran whose shoreline is the shortest, approximately 60 km, will have to be content with only 13 percent. Iran then stands to be deprived of some disputed oil and gas fields that will go to Azerbaijan.

"The Russians have a dual approach to the Caspian Sea issues. While advocating equal rights of the littoral states to use the surface waters they call for division of the seabed because common use of surface waters will naturally allow the Russian military fleet in the Caspian to roam freely about the Caspian," the analyst told IPS.

"This has become ever more vital for the Russians in the face of expansion of U.S. influence in the region as a result of the strong military ties it has established with Azerbaijan and efforts to make military cooperation deals with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan," he said.

"The concern of various political parties and individuals in Iran over concessions being made to Russia on the Caspian Sea issue may not be unfounded as President Ahmadinejad has shown he is prepared to sacrifice many other causes to achieve his goal of making Iran one of the members of the nuclear club," the analyst in Tehran told IPS.

(END/2008)