Official: Tehran Suitable For Becoming Environment Event Venue

Moscow, Dec. 15, IRNA – Tehran should become the venue for the secretariat of the framework convention for the protection of the marine environment of the Caspian Sea, a senior Iranian official said here on Thursday. Speaking to reporters, Vice President and Head of Environmental Protection Organization Mohammad Javad Mohammadizadeh underlined that 'since the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea has been launched in Tehran, Iran believes that its secretariat in Geneva should be transfered to Tehran.” 'All leaders of the five Caspian Sea littoral states, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, have consensus on changing Caspian Sea ecological protection convention secretariat’s venue,” he said. Mohammadizadeh noted that Iran shares 8 million of 15 million population living around the Caspian Sea and the protection of its environment is very important to Tehran. “Iran has earmarked $450 million for the removal of pollutions from the Caspian Sea coast,” he added. In the meantime, speaking to reporters, UN Environment Program (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner declared UN support for the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea. Vice president and head of environmental protection organization of Iran represented Tehran at the fourth session of the convention for ecological protection of the Caspian Sea in Moscow. Environmental Ministers of Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan signed an agreement for protection of the Caspian Sea from pollution from ground sources. From now on, the five countries will work on preventing pollution from factories, sewage and other sources from entering the Caspian Sea. The document was drafted and agreed during two days of talks at the fourth session of the convention for ecological protection of the Caspian Sea in Moscow. Experts from international environmental organizations attended the conference. Around 15 million people live along the Caspian Sea and more than half of them are Iranians. Caspian nations have been injecting money into programs to protect and preserve the biodiversity and ecology of the Caspian, which has been damaged by chemical and petroleum pollutants. This was the second protocol signed by the five Caspian nations. They signed a convention in Tehran in 2004 and agreed to develop four protocols for ecological protection of the Caspian. The first protocol for regional cooperation in oil spilling incidents was signed in Kazakhstan last year. Representatives of all five Caspian nations agreed it was a historic day for the Caspian Sea. It took six years of negotiations and international cooperation to sign the second protocol, significant for the Caspian environment. Having achieved a productive outcome, the conference is deemed a success by all participants./end