Iran’s acceptance of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea is subject to approval by parliament, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
Axar.az reports, citing IRNA, that Araghchi said the issue of Iran’s share of the Caspian Sea was not addressed in the convention due to disagreements over the baseline and the division of the seabed and subsoil.
“The issue of Iran’s share has been completely excluded from the convention and has been left to bilateral and trilateral negotiations,” Araghchi said.
He added that countries including Russia were seeking the swift implementation of the convention.
“One of the features of this convention is that there will be no foreign military forces in the Caspian Sea,” Araghchi said.
On the Strait of Hormuz, Araghchi said Iran and Oman were close to reaching an agreement on a temporary navigation route through the strategic waterway.
“Negotiations have been held between the military and naval forces of the two countries based on the existing maps, and once these negotiations are concluded, the new route will be determined,” he said.
Araghchi said discussions with Oman on the legal mechanism and management of the Strait of Hormuz were ongoing, but reopening the waterway was subject to other conditions, including the United States compensating for violations of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding.
He said the previous traffic separation scheme (TSS) was no longer acceptable to Iran and that a new TSS needed to be established, adding that technical and legal complexities meant that the two sides were currently discussing a temporary route.