At a special two-day session of the Caspian Sea Working Group that ended in Tehran yesterday, deputy foreign ministers and experts of the five littoral states explored avenues to reinforce regional stability and determine the legal regime of the sea. The meeting was a follow-up to the Ashkhabad Summit that was held in April to discuss the legal regime of the sea.

These working sessions have been held continuously held since 1996 in a rotating form in the capitals of the states.

The main problem regarding the Caspian issue is drawing a formula for the legal regime of the sea, and the disputes over energy resources of the sea.

This is while certain Caspian states, including the Islamic Republic, believe that the new Caspian Sea legal regime should be based on the 1921 and 1940 agreements between Iran and Soviet Union until.

Iran, in fact, favors equitable sharing of the sea's resources, while other Caspian littoral states, such as Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, advocate dividing the sea unfairly based on the length of each countries' coastline.

This difference of stances has been the source of many disputes regarding the energy resources of the Caspian Sea.

Iran's legal stances regarding the Caspian issue is based on the principle of cooperation among the five littoral states, and relying on the norms and basics of modern international law. Iran supports the consensus among Caspian littoral states that is totally in line with the standards of modern law.

However, three other Caspian states are pursuing short-term interests in their efforts to draw up the legal regime of the sea.

Russia and Azerbaijan seem to have adopted more flexible stances regarding the Caspian legal regime and seem to be already more realistic towards the issue.

It has been reported in Azeri media that Baku is in favor of joint exploitation of the sea's disputed resources. Besides, there has been reports in Russia that Moscow is devising a new approach regarding the sea resources.

However, as long as a new legal regime is not formulated, the interests of the littoral states can never be considered as guaranteed, and no agreement to the effect can ever promote regional peace and stability in the long term.

Therefore, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan must adopt more realistic stances in drawing up a new legal regime for the sea so that all Caspian states will have equal rights to utilize, exploit and export the energy resources of the sea in their efforts toward achieving economic development and prosperity.