TEHRAN –The first meeting of the heads of delegations and expert groups of Iran and Armenia to address the problem of pollution in the border Aras River was held from March 4-6 in Jolfa, northwestern East Azarbaijan province.

The meeting was in line with the 25th meeting of the representatives of the two countries, which was held in Yerevan on November 15 -16 last year, IRNA reported.

Stretching to 1,072 kilometers, Aras River is one of the largest rivers in the Caucasus, and one of the most important rivers in Iran which besides attracting tourism and positive ecosystem effects, has important potential for fishing.

The river has become a source of pollution posing threats to people’s lives residing northwestern part of the country due to the flow of heavy metals out of the Armenian factories over the past decade.

Iraj Heshmati, the deputy head of the Department of Environment, and Gayane Gabrielyan, the Armenian deputy environment minister, headed the meeting.

Highlighting Armenia’s determination to solve the environmental problems emerging from Armenian mines, Gabrielyan announced that the two sides will jointly solve the problem.

Heshmati, for his part, referred to the joint actions taken by the two countries in the past years, especially the approval of the road map to prevent pollutants from entering the Aras River.

He also presented a report on the measures taken so far, such as establishing a national working group and holding regular meetings.

MOU signed to remove pollution in a year

During the November meeting, Iran’s ambassador to Armenia, Mehdi Sobhani, and Armenia’s head of the Department of Environment, Hakob Simidyan, were also present.

The two countries announced their readiness for cooperation and technical consultation to completely stop the discharge of industrial wastewater into the river.

Accordingly, the officials agreed to take action to resolve the issue of mineral and industrial pollution and completely stop the flow of pollution into Aras River within a year.

The two parties also agreed to conduct several joint investigations by three expert groups, including the joint expert group on mines, particularly copper and molybdenum, the joint expert group for monitoring the water quality of Aras River, and the joint monitoring and supervision expert group.

MT/MG