Baku, Azerbaijan August 8
By Farhad Daneshvar, Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
Iran has urged cooperation with Caspian Sea littoral states, Azerbaijan in particular, to fight the environmental damages that threaten the sea.
“There have been four protocols to a convention that was signed in 2003 on protecting the environment, only one of which has been implemented. We hope that through cooperation with Azerbaijan, we will manage to carry out the rest,” Iran’s Environment Department chief Masumeh Ebtekar told Trend August 8.
“The most urgent need is to think something about the contamination of the water that is caused by oil explorations in the area. We should make due arrangements to create rapid response facilities to be used to contain pollutions upon maritime accidents,” she said while in Baku accompanying President Hassan Rouhani on a two-day visit.
“In this trip we insisted that the convention be activated and start operation as soon as possible.”
“The Caspian Sea is a closed body of water. It has had a rich variety of aquatic creatures, which is still partially the case, but it has been harmed greatly.”
Ebtekar noted that since the two neighbor countries share large portions of the coastline, their environmental efforts will be vital to the Caspian Sea. “In Iran some 10 million people live in the vicinity of the Caspian coastline. Baku also is situated by the sea. So, the two countries can do a lot together as regards the sea,” she stated.
Rouhani arrived in Baku August 7 heading a large governmental body to discuss various fields of cooperation with Azerbaijan. The two countries on the first day of the visit signed several documents for cooperation in fields varying from industries to environment, banking, transport, etc.
