THE TEHRAN SUMMIT, OR THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT’S VISIT TO IRAN
Abstract
On 16 October, 2007, Tehran hosted the second summit of the Caspian states attended by Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Iran. The importance of this international event is thrown into bolder relief by the failure (recognized as such by observers and analysts, as well as the leaders of the countries involved) of the first Caspian summit convened in Ashghabad in April 2002, at which the participants agreed on few issues and failed to arrive at an agreed final document.
In 2002, the world and regional situation were very different; three of the countries were headed by different people: Iran, by Mohammad Khatami; Azerbaijan, by Heydar Aliev; and Turkmenistan, by Saparmurat Niyazov.
They got together in the capital of Turkmenistan to discuss the Caspian’s status and the way its water area and the natural reserves should be divided—issues that surfaced when the Soviet Union died and the littoral Soviet Union republics became independent. In Soviet times, they shared the Caspian’s reserves with all the other people of a single state. The Soviet Union’s disintegration created numerous border problems; the fuel- and fish (mainly sturgeon)-rich Caspian acquired its share of post-Soviet problems.
The Iranian leaders, for example, were out to capitalize on this in order to claim larger share of the Caspian than before: they argued that, under the new conditions, the water body should be divided into five equal parts.
The post-Soviet states, however, refused to accept this. They insisted that the national zones should correspond to the lengths of the littoral line. In this case Kazakhstan would have received 28 percent; Russia, 18 to 19 percent; Turkmenistan, 19 percent; Azerbaijan, 21 percent, and Iran (along the Huseynkali-Astara line), 11.4 to 13 percent. Tehran preferred to look at the Caspian as a lake to be divided, in full accordance with international law, into equal shares (20 percent each). Iran also argued that it should get 50 percent of the Caspian, since the former Soviet republics, which appropriated the Soviet state’s rights and shouldered its duties, should be satisfied with the other half.
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References
See: “Sammit v Ashkhabade: Piatero v odnoy lodke, ne schitaia SShA,” available at [http://www.yandex.cc/articles/
/04/23/caspian/].
See: E. Kravchenko, A. Tikhonov, “Prikaspiyskaia piaterka sygrala vpustuiu,” Finansovye izvestia, 7 April, 2004,available at [http://www.finiz.ru/economic/article819294].
“Kaspiy budet podelen po sovetskoy modeli,” available at [http://iran.ru/rus/bulletins/politic/2004-13/#19023].
M. Kozyrev, A. Nikol’skiy, “Kaspiy pod pritselom,” Vedomosty, available at [http://www.smi.ru/02/04/26/
html]. Iran was displeased about the fact that in post-Soviet times mineral riches were being extracted in the Cas-pian very much because America had suggested this. A month or more before the summit, Steven Mann, special advisor to the U.S. State Secretary on Caspian energy diplomacy, during a visit to Kazakhstan, declared that the Caspian mineral re-sources should be actively extracted even before the status of the water body had been determined (see: “Sammit v Ashkhabade: Piatero v odnoy lodke, ne schitaia SShA”).
On 26 March, 2002 in Moscow, speaking at an international conference on the Caspian’s legal status, Steven Mann announced that the United States was no rival to Russia in the Caspian (see: “SShA poobeshchali ne meshat Rossii v Kaspi-yskom regione,” available at [http://lenta.ru/economy/2002/02/26/caspian/]).
RIA Novosti, 6 April, 2004.
See: Tehran Times, 16 oktobr, 2007.
See: Hamshahri, 16 oktobr, 2007; Tehran Times, 17 oktobr, 2007.
See: Donya ye eqtasad, 16 oktobr, 2007.
The observers pointed out that Russia and Kazakhstan had disagreed on more issues than the others: they disagreed over the bioresources quota and the need to add a clause on the freedom of transit in the Caspian (transit of energy fuels and pipelines on the seabed) to the Convention. The president of Kazakhstan insisted that the routes should be agreed with the countries, the national sectors of which would be directly involved in the project. Russia, in turn, believed that the five littoral states should agree on the Transcaspian pipelines. The president of Kazakhstan wanted the sea to be a demilitarized zone and suggested that military involvement on the sea should be limited to the border units in the sea. President Putin was against the division of the Caspian into “zones” and “borders” and described security and protection of bioresources as top priorities. The president of Russia pointed out that the development of the pipeline system should be carried out within the Caspian Five framework on the basis of consensus. “Environmental safety should be the yardstick of all projects, especially in the energy sphere,” said President Putin who obviously had in mind the Transcaspian Pipeline Project actively promot-ed by the United States (see: N. Melikova, “Neagressivny Kaspiy. Rossia, Azerbaidzhan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkme-nia ukrepliaiut ekonomicheskie sviazi,” available at [http://www.ng.ru/world/2007-10-17/1_tegeran.html]).
Hamshahri, 16 oktobr, 2007.
In her interview to Die Welt, Angela Merkel described Iran as a regional hazard and a threat to Europe and the world. She favored more severe sanctions if the talks on the nuclear issue stalled. Vladimir Putin described his position on the sanctions with a great deal of sarcasm: “It is useless to scare the Iranian leaders or the Iranian people—they are not easily frightened” (N. Melikova, “Tehran-007. ‘V Wisbadene govorili preimushchestvenno ob Irane,’” available at [http://
ww.ng.ru/politics/2007-10-16/1_tegeran.html]).
M. Sadri, “Chera safar e putin mohem ast” (Why Putin’s Visit Important), Donya ye eqtesad, 16 oktobr, 2007.
“Halge ye tehran qotb re jadid e eqtesad e jahan” (The Tehran Summit as Another Pole of World Economy), Iran,17 oktobr, 2007; “Ruz e tarikhi ye Khazar” (Historic Day of the Caspian), Iran, 17 oktobr, 2007.
See, for example: Keyhan international, Tehran Times, Iran Daily, Ettelaat, Keyhan, Jomhuri ye eslami, Tehran e emruz, Resalat, Jam e jam, Zaman, Etemad e melli, Aftab e yazd, Iran, and other newspapers of 17 October, 2007.
Etemad e melli, 17 October, 2007. Mazandaran is a littoral historical area and province in northern Iran. Moham-mad Khatami described the Caspian as Lake Mazandaran even during his visit to Azerbaijan in May 2002 after the first Caspian summit.
“5 Presidents Agree on Joint Security,” Iran Daily, 17 October, 2007.
See: “Visit Putina v Iran: vzgliad iz Israelia,” available at [http://mnenia.zahav.ru/ArticlePage.aspx?articleID=4829].
See: “Putin v Irane poobeshchal dostroit Busherskuiu AES, no sroki ne utochnil,” available at [http://www.newsru.
om/world/16oct2007/atoms.html].
See: R. Beeston, “Comment: Putin Visit Kills Off Sanctions Drive,” Times Online, 16 October, 2007, available at [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2672044.ece].
See: “Iran priznal uspeshnymi proshedshie nakanune v Irake vybory,” available at [http://www.centrasia.ru/
ewsA.php4?st=1107196320].
See: Resalat, 2 oktobr, 2007.
Ibidem.
E. Kulai, “Ekhtelafha ye iran va orupa, abzar e monasseb e bazi ye rusiye” (Russia can Use the Contradictions between Iran, on the One Hand, and America and Europe, on the Other, for its Own Game), Etemad e meli, 17 oktobr, 2007.
n 2001 Ms. Kulai was chairperson of the Iranian-Russian Parliamentary Friendship group of the Islamic Council Assem-bly (Mejlis). In 2002, she was an observer of the subcommittee of the Iranian parliament for Caspian affairs and member of the Majlis national security and foreign policy commission.
Ch. Clover, G. Dinmore, “Iran and Russia to Discuss Caspian Shares,” Financial Times, 1 March, 2001, availa-ble at [http://iskran.iip.net/review/mar01/1ft1.html].
See: A.B. Peyvandi Zade, “Ettesal e darya ye mazanderan be darya ye siyah aamal e hakemiyat e rusiye ya afza-yesh e tranzit dar mantaqe” (Will the Joining of the Mazandaran Sea to the Black Sea Promote Russia’s Integrity or Increase Regional Transits?), Khorasan, 21 oktobr, 2007.
See: Expert channel Federal Press, available at [http://www.fedpress.ru/federal/socium/world/id_71717.html].
See: “Shok e khabari ye estefa ye larijani” (The News-Provoked Shock, or Larijani’s Retirement), Khorasan,21 oktobr, 2007.
See: “Khoda hafezi ye diplomat e hastei” (The Farewell of the Nuclear Diplomat), Tehran e emruz, Oct.21.2007.
“Kif e rusi” (The Russian Briefcase), Tehran e emruz, Oct.16.2007.
The site [http://al-gadir.kz/]. There are Shi‘a sites in Russia as well: [http://imamat-news.ru/], [al-shia.ru/],
shianet.ru/].
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