Aktau, Aug.12.– Russia, Iran, and a handful of other countries made a diplomatic breakthrough on Sunday to solve a dispute that has dragged on for decades.
Leaders from five countries—Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan—officially signed an agreement to determine the fate of the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest body of inland water that’s been in dispute since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Until 1991, the maritime area was shared between the Soviet Union and Iran. But when the superpower split into 15 separate countries, questions emerged over who should control the Caspian Sea’s resources, and whether it is actually a sea or a lake.
During the Soviet era the Caspian Sea was considered a lake. After the fall of the Soviet Union, however, the successor countries changed their tune and began calling it a sea. Only Iran argued that it was a lake, and consequently that it could not be ruled the United Nations Law of the Sea.
Ultimately, the new agreement signed Sunday was a compromise. It gave the Caspian Sea “special legal status,” ...
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