khalijefars News, Blogs, Art and Community
We begin tonight’s edition of A Window to the Fatherland with Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh reading one of his poems from the book of his collected works.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
We continue the program with looking at the agreement by the leaders of the five states bordering the Caspian Sea on its legal status, with our special guest of every Thursday, Dr. Mohsen Sazegara.
Dr. Mohsen Sazegara:
Since last Sunday after Hassan Rouhani as the head of the Iranian government signed this shameful agreement I have been feeling very unwell as this man has simply given away a part of our country that has been there for millenniums.
I feel as if someone has raped my country. And still worse, the regime keeps lying about what has actually happened as a result of this disgraceful agreement.
I had already heard that Khamenei had been asking for the Russian’s reassurance to back his son Mujtaba to succeed him but I never thought he would go to such low and sell out our country for this wicked purpose. When he instructed Iran’s foreign ministry 20 years ago that they should look to the Russians as the country’s strategic partners I did not consider it as a sell out to Moscow. But now I am of the belief that Khamenei is truly a traitor to Iran and the Iranians.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
And of course you heard how Rajab Safarov of Russia has confessed that Moscow was quite happy to stick to the 50-50 share of the Caspian Sea’s rights but the Iranian side had refused to accept it.
Dr. Mohsen Sazegara:
I have studied all Iran’s conventions with its neighbours throughout history and it is a fact that our right to navigation and shipping in the waters of theCaspian Sea had been denied before and were only returned to us after Lenincame to power in Russia.
However, the rights to the oil and gas resources of the sea were left unsolved, as then the existence of these resources were not known to either country.
The first time this issue came up was in 1991 and then in 1996 when Iran complained to the UN about the unauthorized explorations by the republics of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In one meeting Putin had shouted at Khatami who was then the president of the Islamic republic regime, and threatened that the next day he would solve this dispute with Iran by signing a separate deal with its former republics. Putin had never accepted the 1940 agreement that divided the Caspian Sea’s rights in equal parts between Iran and Russia.
Now, and according to this new agreement, Iran and Turkmenistan jointly own 36% of the Caspian Sea, and when you give Turkmenistan its 25% share, we are left with only 11% for Iran. And this is effectively what Hassan Rouhani has agreed to and signed.
Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh:
The history books in years to come will mention the fact that on this day Ali Khamenei gave away part of our country to the Russians and his stooges Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Javad Zarif carried out this act of treason against Iran for him.
