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Eurasia
August 17, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 25
states to agree on the rules of the game concerning oil and gas reserves and transit pipelines".
Other points included in the convention are that the use of the waters will be regularly discussed at the level of deputy foreign ministers, with the first meeting to be held within six months and that Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan will be allowed to build a trans-Caspian gas pipeline to transport hydrocarbons from Central Asia to the European Union. But experts say the pipeline will be a long time coming as it is not the more economically efficient option for selling Caspian oil.
The convention also formally awards each country the right to lay pipelines and cables in their own Caspian sector, though environmental approval is required from all five countries for such work. But for any pipeline projects in the Southern Caspian to go ahead, the participating countries will first need to divide the seabed.
The convention also bans the deployment of military bases of third countries in the Caspian Sea at Russia’s insistence. In the next two years, Moscow could significantly increase its naval forces in the Caspian region. They are already the most powerful there, according to reports. All the countries bordering the Caspian Sea have plans to
Zarif to Trump: Iran oil ban will fail, “world
is sick & tired of US unilateralism”
bne IntelliNews
Mocking Donald Trump’s "tantrums and CAPPED TWEETS", Iran’s foreign minister has declared that the US president’s attempt at preventing Iran from exporting crude oil has no chance of suc- ceeding.
strengthen their navy in the region.
In further remarks on the military side of the agreement, Iranian President Rouhani praised the part of the agreement that excludes any foreign military presence in the Caspian, but in his closing statement mentioned that it should include ship- ment of foreign militaries' cargo across the Cas- pian, according to RFE/RL. He did not specify any countries but was almost certainly referring to the agreement the US has to ship cargo from Azerbai- jan to Kazakhstan’s Aqtau and Quryq ports.
History under the Persian Empire
Iranians are generally quite sensitive about
the future of the Caspian Sea—given its history under the Persian Empire and the ceding to Russia 200 years ago of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan under the Treaties of Turkmenchay and Golestan—and following the summit social media channels in Iran were ablaze with speculation
that Rouhani had handed over territory deemed Iranian to Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, while granting Russia rights to use the Caspian Sea as the sole defender of the body of water.
According to Western estimates, there are reserves of 30bn tonnes of oil and 145 trillion cubic meters of gas under the Caspian Sea.
Zarif (right), seen with his deputy Abbas Araghchi, is proving fast on the draw when it comes to battling Trump on Twitter.
In an interview with the Iran newspaper, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said the Trump administration's stated aim of cutting Iranian oil exports to zero with the use of a second wave of sanctions to be brought in on November 4 was "meaningless" and "impossible".