PNN – Tasnim News Agency’s Center for Strategic Studies has published a report regarding the threat posed by the Caspian Sea convention to Iran’s interests and territorial integrity.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network; the agency’s Center for Strategic Studies has examined key aspects of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea and its threatening implications for national interests.
According to this report, the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea—signed by the five littoral states in Aktau in 2018 and subsequently submitted to the Islamic Consultative Assembly for ratification after an eight-year hiatus—faces fundamental ambiguities and shortcomings. Although drafted to establish a framework for cooperation and management of this body of water, it fails to resolve critical legal aspects of the Caspian Sea, particularly the delimitation of the seabed and subsoil. An analysis of the convention’s legal and political dimensions indicates that its ratification, absent the resolution of outstanding issues, could entail long-term consequences for the national interests, strategic security, and historical rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Caspian Sea.
The peculiar distinction drawn between the legal regimes governing the water column and the seabed, the deferral of seabed and subsoil boundary determinations to future bilateral agreements, the lack of a finalized baseline, the disregard for the principle of equity in delimitation, the omission of references to the historical documents of 1921 and 1940, and the legal ambiguities surrounding certain security provisions within the convention all threaten to undermine Iran’s legal standing and economic interests in the Caspian Sea. Simultaneously, geopolitical developments in the Caucasus—most notably the Zangezur Corridor—along with the entry and growing influence of the United States and the Zionist regime among other Caspian littoral states, the sea’s vast oil reserves, and efforts to develop new transit corridors, have compounded the strategic importance of resolving the Caspian’s legal regime.
Accordingly, the attached report examines in detail why ratifying the current convention—prior to resolving the status of the seabed and subsoil, agreeing on the baseline, finalizing the four supplementary agreements, and guaranteeing adherence to the principle of equity—is incompatible with Iran’s strategic interests. Consequently, the report’s primary recommendation is to postpone the ratification process until these preconditions are met; the Islamic Republic of Iran should pursue a strategy grounded in legal sequencing and active diplomacy to realize these conditions. Given the trajectory of regional dynamics, achieving these preconditions through cooperation with the Russian Federation is entirely feasible, and the current period appears highly opportune for pursuing this objective.