Critical Attitude of Moscow and Tehran to Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline Remains

Baku / 08.13.19 / Turan: Iran is against the construction of a gas pipeline through the Caspian Sea for environmental reasons. This was stated on August 12 by the representative of the National Iranian Gas Company Behruz Namdari, speaking at the Caspian Economic Forum in Avaza, Turkmenistan.

"The construction of a gas pipeline from east to west of the Caspian Sea can cause severe damage to the ecology of the region .... Iran is opposed to its construction," RIA Novosti quoted Namdari as saying. At the same time, he suggested that Baku and Ashgabat use the Iranian infrastructure to transport gas to Europe.

At the same time in Moscow, Sergei Prikhodko, deputy head of the Apparatus of the Government of Russia, also made it clear that Russia is against the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project for environmental reasons.

"Large projects in the Caspian should undergo an impartial environmental review," he said on August 12.

The protocol on environmental impact assessment, signed earlier by the five Caspian littoral countries, according to him, "enshrines the right of each of the states located on the Caspian coast to participate in a comprehensive environmental review of marine activities of a trans-boundary nature that could potentially affect" the nature of the Caspian Sea.

Recall that exactly a year ago, the leaders of the Caspian littoral countries signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea. According to this document, such projects should be agreed only by countries through whose territorial waters the gas pipeline will pass.

Ashgabat and Baku are planning to lay a gas pipeline across the bottom of the Caspian Sea from the coast of Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan and then through Turkey to the European Union. -02D-