Iran emphasizes ‘peacefully’ resolving Arash gas field dispute
Iran restated its position on the disputed Arash gas field in the Persian Gulf with an Iranian vice president stressing on the ‘integrated and joint’ extraction with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from the field, warning Tehran will start drilling in the field if Kuwait does so.
Emphasizing that the ownership dispute with Kuwait should be “peacefully resolved,” the Iranian Vice President for Legal Affairs Mohammad Dehqan told ISNA that a part of the gas and oil field belongs to Iran.
He said his country believes in ‘integrated and joint’ extraction with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia from the disputed gas field, warning Tehran will start drilling in the field if Kuwait does so.
Following Kuwait’s repeated claim over the Arash gas field on Wednesday, Dehqan referred to not having a maritime border with Kuwait, adding that Iran discovered that field and has drilled rigs there many years ago without taking advantage of it so we won’t create tensions with our neighbors,” Dehghan clarified.
“However, we have not utilized it so far to prevent any challenges with Kuwait and neighboring countries,” he said.
Iran argues that nearly 40 percent of the gas field is located in the territorial waters of Iran, but Kuwait had presented a different border demarcation that puts the entire field within the neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and denies Iran has any right over the field.
Dehqan hit out at Kuwait for not proposing “any constructive idea so far” and for making agreements with Saudi Arabia on the issue.
Iran began talks with Kuwait in 2000 to develop the gas field in the Persian Gulf, but no agreements were reached.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson on Wednesday also dismissed Kuwait’s “interfering” opinions about Iran’s three islands in the Persian Gulf, and about the Arash oil and gas field, reminding the Arab state that one-sided claims would not entitle it to any rights.
In a statement on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani brushed aside the communiqué issued at the conclusion of the Kuwaiti emir’s visit to the United Arab Emirates regarding the three Iranian islands of the Lesser Tunb, the Greater Tunb and Abu Musa as well as Kuwait’s claim to the Arash gas field.
Kanaani rejected the interfering clauses of the Kuwaiti emir’s statement, saying Iran has stressed time and again that the three islands – the Lesser Tunb, the Greater Tunb and Abu Musa – are integral and eternal parts of Iranian territory.
The Islamic Republic of Iran never regards its territorial integrity as negotiable, the spokesman underlined.
As for the repetition of Kuwait’s claim on the Arash field in that statement, Kanaani noted, “We have said many times that making unilateral claims in such statements does not create any rights for the claimant.”
He pointed to previous talks between Iran and Kuwait, saying technical and legal negotiations are the best and most appropriate way to deal with the issue.
Based on its historical rights and records of bilateral negotiations with Kuwait, Iran is ready to continue talks with the Kuwaiti government over a framework that would entail respect for mutual interests, he added.