Sharif Digital Repository

Caspian Sea - the largest enclosed body of water on earth - is the subject of one of the world's most intractable disputes, involving five coastal states of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. The conflict over the legal status of this multinational water body emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then the parties have been negotiating without reaching an agreement on the ownerships of waters, and the oil and natural gas beneath them. As long as there is no new agreement on how to share the Caspian Sea among the five states, the two old Iran-USSR treaties may continue to govern the Caspian Sea. Based on these treaties, each state's territorial... 

Caspian Sea is currently a subject of one of the world's most intractable disputes, involving five coastal states of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. The conflict over the legal status of this multinational water body emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then the parties have been negotiating without reaching an agreement on the ownerships of waters, and the oil and natural gas beneath them. Although different division methods have been suggested so far for sharing the Caspian Sea, the gains of the countries from sea area and valuable resources remain unclear as the proposed methods are either focused on the areal shares or on the oil and gas shares....