IRAN SHOWS ITS TEETHES TO AZERBAIJAN
By Parviz Sahra’i, an IPS Special Correspondent
PARIS-TEHRAN-BAKU 25 July (IPS) The theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran the
staunchly secularist Republic pf Azerbaijan moved closer to a military showdown
after Iranian navy ship forced foreign oil firms operating in a disputed oil
zones between the two countries to stop operation.
The action was reported after an Iranian military plane had forced earlier an Azerbaijani warship which had approached Iranian waters in the Caspian Sea to retreat, the Iranian State radio said Tuesday amid growing tension between the two dominantly Shi’a Muslims neighbours.
The reports came just hours after the Azerbaijani Turan news agency said an Iranian warship entered Azerbaijan's territorial waters in the southern Caspian to warn off a vessel doing research for the British Petroleum Company BP.
"A warplane belonging to Iran’s Naval Force was circling over the Geofizik-III and Alif Hajiyev vessels conducting exploration works in Azerbaijan’s Alov structure at around 1:42 p.m. July 23. The structure is located 150kjm southeast off the Azeri capital Baku. After the warplane left the scene, an Iranian warship approached Geofizik-III and demanded the Azeri vessel to leave the Alov structure for 7.8 km northwards", Turan reported.
"The Iranian navy said they would use all means available if the Azeri vessel didn’t obey. At the same time, Iranians cleared their ship for action. After such developments, Iran’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Ahad Qazai was urgently invited to the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan early July 24 in connection with the incident and was presented a note of protest", the Azeri agency added.
This was the first time in decades that the usually peaceful Caspian Sea, the world’s largest lake becomes the theatre of possible military showdown, casting shadow over multi-billion-dollar investments by Western oil companies in developing the Caspian resources.
"The warship demanded that the research vessel Geophysic-3 move several kilometres (miles) away from the area, even though researchers had legal permission for their work", the agency said.
The research ship had to leave after the Iranian ship aimed its guns at the Geophysic-3 and threatened to use force, Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said, handing a protest note to the Iranian Ambassador in Baku, calling for explanation on the incident.
"The government of Azerbaijan expresses a decisive protest against the actions of the Iranian military in the Azeri sector of the Caspian," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
"These actions contradict the friendly spirit of relations between the two countries and could damage them. Azerbaijan is awaiting an explanation from Tehran in connection with the incident", the statement said.
The Iranian ship trained its guns at the research vessel and put them on stand-by to fire, Azeri officials said. The crew of the Geophysic-3 were ordered to leave the area, on the grounds that they were in Iranian territorial waters.
After contacting officials on shore by radio, the crew gave in to the Iranian demands, turned their vessel around and headed back to port in Baku, said the officials.
Azeri Prime Minister Artur Rasizadeh accused Iran of having "seriously violated international norms" and urged Iran to stop "aggressive and impudent" actions which may "seriously harm" bilateral relations.
Following the Iran threats, the Western oil companies, which have committed billions of dollars to developing the Caspian, made it clear they wanted no part in any international dispute and appealed to the two countries to resolve the issue.
"The decision (to stop work and pack) was taken in the best interests of the vessel and of the crew to leave the area," a spokeswoman for BP Amoco told AFP.
She said BP Amoco had decided to suspend all maritime operations in the Alov-Sharg-Araz field "in the light of what happened" and would be "evaluating options" about how to proceed in the future.
"But all other BP operations in the Caspian Sea would continue as normal", she added.
In Tehran, the British ambassador Nick Browne assured the Secretary of the Supreme Council for National Security (SCNS) Hojjatoleslam Hasan Rohani that British companies, and the privately-owned British Petroleum in particular, had no intention of resuming oil drilling in a section of the Caspian Sea disputed by Azerbaijan and Iran.
This was the first time that the Azerbaijan was so blunt in speaking to its Iranian neighbour, observers noted.
Iran decided to take military action against Azerbaijan after it said it had summoned the Azeri Charge d’Affaires in Tehran to lodge a "strong" protest over reports that the Azeri and foreign oil firms have started exploration studies in the "Alborz" oil zone of the Caspian Sea that Iran claim to be under its full and total sovereignty.
An Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs had told the Azeri charge that Iran would oppose by all means all "unauthorised" oil activities in this region.
The dispute between the two neighbours comes from the fact that while Iran insist on the equal sharing of the Sea’s resources, the other four littoral states, namely Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have almost divided the Caspian shores and sea bed according to each one’s border length, shrinking Iran’s share to 13 per cent instead of 20.
The standoff in the Caspian happened just three days after Mr. Ruhani made an official visit to Baku and appealed for closer relations.
"We are surprised by all of this, to put it mildly" said Novruz Mamedov, adviser on foreign affairs to Azeri president Heydar Aliyev.
"Azerbaijan has not done anything illegal," he told the French news agency Agence France Press (AFP) in a telephone interview. "There was research work going on in the Azeri sector of the Caspian."
"We have been working in that sector of the Caspian for more than fity years. The paradox is that ... Iran also tries to attract foreign investors into its sector of the Caspian, But when we do the same thing, you get the impression they are envious," he said.
However, an official with SOCAR told AFP on Tuesday that BP Amoco could be in breach of its contract to develop the field if it did not resume exploration work there.
Mamedov.
The diplomatic row with Iran comes at a time when development of the Caspian's oil resources, with the participation of Western oil majors, is just starting to take off.
A consortium led by BP Amoco, the biggest foreign operator in the Azeri sector, is ramping up work on the massive Azer-Chirag-Guneshli field.
Also plans are gathering pace for a new pipeline which will transport Caspian oil out to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. The estimated cost of the pipeline is 2.9 billion dollars.
Turkey said Monday that under heavy pressures from the United States, it might not buy gas from Iran, as agreed in 1966.
The delivery of Iran gas to Turkey should start as from 30 July, but Ankara now says it might back off from project.
As Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Vilayat Guilyev would assure that his country would not "give in" to Iranian threats, about 50 protesters from a group that wants the Azeri-populated north of Iran to be ceded to Azerbaijan, picketed the Iranian embassy on Tuesday.
Speaking on Tuesday with AFP after an Iranian warship had forces an Azeri oil research vessel to abandon works, the Minister said Iran's proposals for sharing out the Caspian remained "unacceptable".
"We will not get into a war but we will stand up for our rights," Guliyev said, adding: "Whatever Iran's reaction, I can say in advance that Azerbaijan will not step back from its position, as international law and global practice is on our side".
"This issue can only be resolved by means of negotiations," Guliyev said. "At the end of the day it is in the interests of all the Caspian states that this summit happens and that they take part.
"If there are steps forward made at the summit, and the leaders of the Caspian states are of a mind to co-operate with each other and not come up with baseless demands, then that is already a success" he observed.
Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan, Ahad Qazai, repeated Tehran's claims that the research vessel, chartered by oil multinational BP Amoco, was trespassing in an area which rightfully belongs to Iran.
"Azerbaijan is a fraternal Muslim nation", Qazai told a press conference in Baku. "There can be temporary misunderstandings between such countries but that misunderstanding should not affect relations."
Expressing concern at the escalation of tension between Tehran and Baku, Iran experts again warned Iran on "plots" looming over its head.
"In order to defend themselves against Iranian provocations and propaganda, Turkey and Israel, led and encouraged by Washington, are attracting Iran into a deadly trap, with consequences going as far as bringing the disintegration of Iran", commented Mr. Mohammad Arrasi, a US-based Iranian expert on the Caucasus. ENDS IRAN AZERBAIJAN OIL DISPUTE 25701