Iran Press/ Iran news: "We have a bitter experience with the environment in the south of the country in the Persian Gulf because the Persian Gulf littoral states do not have enough political will to protect it. So today we are facing hundreds of environmental problems " Issa Kalantari, Iran's Environment Department's Cheif told at a meeting with the environment ministers of the five Caspian littoral states on Tuesday 9 June.
Kalantari said: "I hope the Caspian littoral states to have the needed will for environmental preservation, Iran is located on the southern side of the Caspian Sea, so the pollution of other countries enters our shores, and if the Secretariat of the Tehran Convention followed these issues on a daily basis, it would not add to the Caspian problems.
Kalantari emphasized that on Caspian sea environment preservation adding "Let's not destroy this legacy of future generations."
He added, "With a bilateral agreement, the problems of the Caspian Sea cannot be solved. I hope that an active secretariat will be formed as soon as possible, which could reach an agreement at the sixth summit in Baku.
Iran's environment top official further stated that given that the Caspian Sea is enclosed, if all countries want to enter, they will certainly waste their resources, but if the secretariat is established, the countries can enter synergistically.
"Certainly the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) with its 50 years of experience can help in this regard. All countries must work together on the issues of the Caspian Sea, including pollution and biodiversity because Iran is on the south side," Kalantari said, noting that the Caspian Sea is located so that the pollution of other countries on our shores accumulates to a great extent creating many problems.
Environment ministries from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan who also participated in the conference emphasized the importance of The Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea known as the Tehran Convention adopted in 2003 among Caspian Sea states.
In April 2019, The UN Environment Programme has warned that the Caspian "suffers from an enormous burden of pollution from oil extraction and refining, offshore oil fields, radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants and huge volumes of untreated sewage and industrial waste introduced mainly by the Volga River".
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is an endorheic basin located between Europe and Asia, to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the broad steppe of Central Asia.
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