🔶Review of the Caspian Convention in the Majles; Who does the Caspian Sea belong to??

🔻A report by Amir Sultan‌zadeh

At the same time as the Majles of the Islamic Consultative Assembly is reviewing the bill to add Iran to the Caspian Sea legal status convention and approving it in one urgent session, many questions have been raised about the nature of this document, its legal effects, and its relation to Iran’s historical rights in this body of water.

The question regarding Iran’s share of the Caspian Sea is a challenging one. Lack of clarity, concern about reactions arising from nationalist feelings, and public unawareness have caused discussion of this issue to become an emotional matter rather than a legal question. Sometimes it is said that Iran’s share of the Caspian was 50 percent and has been lost. At other times, reference is made to a 20 percent share; meaning that the five coastal countries should divide this water area among themselves equally.

But the reality is that the legal and geographical question of the Caspian cannot be explained by these figures. The Caspian Sea is neither, like international waters, a free sea, nor just a lake that can be easily divided among several countries. Its status is complex; a combination of sovereign rights, navigation, fishing, security, the seabed, underground resources, and bilateral or multilateral agreements.

Iran, Russia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan are the five coastal states of the Caspian Sea. Each of these countries views the Caspian through the lenses of geography, security, the economy, and energy. For this reason, the question of ownership of the Caspian is not only a historical or emotional debate; it is a legal, political, security, and economic case.l