TEHRAN – Iranian MP Mustafa Nakhaei has said the Islamic Republic will not back down from its rights in the Arash gas field, underlining that Iran doubts that Saudi Arabia has a share in the field. 

Nakhaei, who is the spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s Energy Committee, has criticized the Iranian authorities for not taking measures to exploit the Arash gas field.

“We have many joint fields with neighboring countries, and in all development programs, attention and focus on joint fields have been emphasized. Our lack of planning and focus on the joint Arash gas field in all the past years has caused competing countries to take action to develop it, but unfortunately, we have not done anything special about it,” he told parliamentary news agency ICANA. 

He added, “About 60 years have passed since the discovery of this common field and there are very valuable gas resources, to some extent gas condensates and a little oil in it.”

Nakhaei pointed out, “In the past years, we should have resolved the disputes with competing countries in the joint Arash gas field and planned for its development, but unfortunately, we have not taken any action for this.”

“Despite all the mentioned conditions, it is clear that Iran will not neglect its interests in the Arash field in any way, and no official of the Islamic Republic of Iran has the right to turn a blind eye on or neglect the country's interests in this gas field and its development,” he said. 

The Iranian lawmaker added, “We have differences in the Arash joint field, which we have to resolve in the first step by negotiating in a diplomatic framework. If for any reason the negotiations do not reach a conclusion, we will pursue it in a specific legal framework with the presence of international institutions.”

He stated that demarcating the water boundaries of each country's share in this joint gas field and finally deciding how to develop the field should be brought up in negotiations and resolved.

“Considering the improvement of relations with the neighboring countries, it is better to solve the problems first in a diplomatic framework and through negotiations just as we negotiated with Turkmenistan and Iraq and solved many problems,” he noted.

The lawmaker said Iran has doubts whether Saudi Arabia has a share in the field, adding that no country should be allowed to develop the Arash gas field until all disputes are settled and each country’s rights are determined. 

The remarks come amid a dispute between Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait over the Arash field, which is known in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as Al-Durra. Recently, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia said the field exclusively belongs to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and that Iran has no share in it, a claim that Iran rejected. 

Also, Iran has expressed readiness to begin developing the field. Amid all this, the foreign ministers of Iran and Kuwait have met in Baku on the sidelines of a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement. But it’s not clear if the two top diplomats discussed the shared gas field.