Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea

The Office of Legal Affairs

Room DC2-0450, United Nations

New York, NY 10017, US

Dear International Community:

Whereas numerous letters and petitions from Iranians from inside and out side Iran have been issued regarding Iran’s Caspian Sea, the international community has remained regrettably seemingly silent. Iranians are deeply concerned about mischievous Islamic Republic Occupied Iran behavior that has continued to dwindle Iran’s natural resources with catastrophic consequences of more than 50% of Iranians living under poverty line with some resorting to graves as homes.

Since August 11,2018, Iranians through various media have vehemently voiced contest to the recent treaty orchestrated by the Russian government; without any Iranians’ consents and signed behind closed doors with the occupying regime relinquishing most of Iran’s Caspian Sea right to Russia.  Many have emphasized this treaty was signed absent any legitimate Iranian representative While the nation is under severe duress due to forty year failure policies of occupying regime’s  Shi’a expansionism.  The Islamic Republic has  created ecological and environmental disasters for Iranians by allowing illegal oil drilling’s by Russia from the  Caspian basin with the most pollution dumping into the sea from Russians industrial escapades without any accountability. the occupying regime has never protected Iran’s interests due to their ideological mission for  global theocracy and innate lack of National Territorial concept to act on behalf of Iranians. Islamic Republic Occupied Iran explicit foregoing of iran’s territorial integrity to Russia while Iranians Rights could have  been very well protected under international treaties and specifically under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a violation of Iranians basic access to human Rights to their natural resources.

According to Rajab Safarov, an advisor to Russia’s special Caspian Sea working group, it was The Islamic Republic Occupying Regime that offered to reduce Iran’s share from 50 percent to 10 Percent whereby only the Russian Navy will sail the Caspian Sea. Iranians , emphatically implore the international community to hear their outcry regarding their basic human rights access to their resources and are Nation without Representation in any such treaties. Declaring  the Islamic Republic Leaders and its illegitimate Parliament subject to treason and Human Rights violations must be considered due to many lives impacted by their criminal activities.

Legal solution has been proposed on prior letters and petitions to establish grounds to enforce Iran’s true Constitution 1906 and its reforms of 1963 (the White Revolution) and empower Iranians to preserve  Iran’s territorial integrity and prevent another global catastrophe.

With Respect,

Signatories:

Marjaneh Rouhani, MD, Political Activist, USA

Nahid Shahin, Political Activist, Canada

Shabnam Assadollahi, Former child prisoner in Iran, Human Rights Activist, Freelance, Canada

Mahboubeh Hosseinpour, Political Activist, USA

Soheila Kamali, Political Activist, England

Moj Banks, PharmD, USA

Mina Rezvani, Political Activist, USA

Rozita Manteghi, Women’s Rights Activist, France

Shokouh Ershadi, Human Rights Activist, Journalist, Sweden

Pari Askari, Political Activist, Journalist, Holland

Sima Tajdini, Human Rights Activist, Canada

Roxanne Ganji, Political Activist, Journalist, USA

Pouran Giti Behi, Political Activist, USA

Sara Basti, Ploitical Activist, Germany

Faranak Azad, Political Activist, USA

Rouya Abdi, Political Activist, Journalist, Germany

Sara Safiri, Political Activist, England

Maliheh Rouzbeh, Women’s Rights Activist, USA

Fatemeh Minayee, Women’s Rights Activist, USA

Firouzeh Ghaffarpour, Political Activist, USA

Fariba Majdnia, Women’s Rights Activist, Denmark

Zahra Aziz, Human Rights, Activist, Germany

Mehnoush Bakhtiari, Author and Human Rights Activist, Sweden

Sefideh Sami, Women’s Rights Activist, Norway

Vida Tehrani, Women’s Rights Activist, Sweden

Rozita Ras, Political Activist, UK

Tatiana Mahmoudi, Child Educator, Canada

Masoumeh Alavi

Delnavaz Jahankhah

Soheila Flatoun

Soudabeh Tadj

Laleh Bani-Saeid,

Mahnaz Ganjali, Political Activist, Author and Journalist, USA

Golnaz Soroush, Political Activist, Australia

Mahnaz Abbaspour, Canada

Sara Arjand, Political Activist, Germany

Fariba Shirvani, Political Activist, France

Shamsi Famil, Political Activist, USA

Donya Azad, Political Activist, Holland

Faranak Mah, Political Activist, USA

Parisima Pashayie Raad- Nelson, Political Activist, Canada

Parvaneh Tavali, Political Activist, USA

Satggin Jalali, Political Activist, USA

Fariba Mansourian, Political Activist, France

Maryam Hemmati, Political Activist, Canada

Kendra Malczyk, Human Rights Activist, USA

Dr Hooshang Lahooti – Principal Scientist and Lecturer, Sydney Medical School, Nepean Campus, the University of Sydney, Australia

Javid Javan, PhD, Political Activist, USA

Nik Jafarzadeh , Political Activist, Germany

.Sia Ayrom Houston TX

Ahmad Mostafalou, MD, Political Activist, Canada

Babak Heravi, Political Activist, Multi-Media, USA

Kaveh Taheri, Turkey-based Iranian journalist and former political prisoner in Iran

Farnoosh Aghili, Turkey

Fereydon Abdollahyan, Political activist, Human Rights activist, UK

Arash H. Hourmaznia, Human rights advocate, Netherlands

Maj. Mostafa Arab,PhD

Kamran Alford

Reza jayez

Shahriar Hashemi Beverly Hills, California, USA

Reza Rafati

Slater Bakhtavar, Attorney, Foreign policy analyst, Political activist

Poupak Pournazari, Canada

Ali kimiai, Political activist, USA

Vahid Abazari, UK

Saeed Ahmadi, Political activist, USA

Farah Sanei, Deutschland

Fardosht Amirpanahi

Firooz Behseresht

Parviz Khazaei,  member of Amnesty International Liechtenstein and Switzerland

Dr. Abbas Akrami, Political Prisoner and Political Activist, Iran

Ali Rafei, Political Prisoner and Political Activist, Dubai

Ali Shahabi, Political Activist

Nooshin Khajeh

Farhad Zibabeen

Ahmad Mardani

Khosro Sheyda, Musician and Producer London, UK

Alfred Abramian, Political Activist, Sydney, Australia

Siavash Harart

Ahmad Namdari

Naser Diako

Amir Shafiy,  Director of CSC company management consultant,UK

Bahram Kondori, Political Activist, USA

Kaveh Khosromehr, Political Analyst, Europe

Mehrang Moradi, political Activist/Business man USA

Gary Izad Panah, Paltical Activist USA

Shahryar Hashemi_political Activist/Business Man USA

Siavash Azari, Political Activist, Journalist USA

Cyrus Falatoon, Political Activist, Production Engineer USA

Alireza Vafaei, University Lecturer, Australia

Sharar konourTabrizi, Political Activist Cyprus

Anna S

Afahin Payravi

Saied Moradi

Fateh Slaehi Raz

Kaveh Khosromehr, Political Analyst, Europe

Mehrang Moradi, political Activist, Businessman USA

Gary Izad Panah, Political Activist USA

Shahryar Hashemi, political Activist, Businessman USA

Siavash Azari, Political Activist, Journalist USA

Cyrus Falatoon, Political Activist, Production Engineer USA

Ali Mohseni , PhD

Sonya Mohseni,  PhD

Nathan Mohseni, MD

Hossein Tasbaz

Nazanin Danesh

Reza Jayez

Ramin

Matt Behi

To add your name to this letter, please visit apadanamedia.organd simply put your name in the comment box. Thank you!

The post Iranians’ Outcry #RussiaGetOutOfIran appeared first on APADANA MEDIA.

In 2015 when President Hassan Rouhani advertised his “nuke deal” with the Obama administration as “the greatest diplomatic victory in the history of Islam,” few people realized that he had, in fact, endorsed a neo-colonial document that put key aspects of Iran’s economic, industrial, scientific and security policies under the tutelage of six foreign powers led by the United States.

For several reasons, the “nuke deal” did not provoke the popular explosion in Iran that some analysts expected. To start with no one had signed that deal which meant it was neither a treaty nor a binding international agreement but a wish list. Nor was it put through the legislative process to give it legal authority. More importantly, perhaps, the text did not offer a readily recognizable and concrete image of the humiliation the “Islamic Republic” had accepted in the name of Iran.

Rouhani’s euphoria that “even the Americans have recognized our right to enrich uranium” sounded good to some who did not know that the right to enrich uranium is recognized for all nations by international law. Having got away with that odious exercise, Rouhani and his team decided to do a similar favor to Vladimir Putin. This came last year when Rouhani flew to Kazakhstan to sign a Russian text on the Caspian Sea.

The text, in 24 articles, suffers from a crisis of identity.

It is not clear whether it is a treaty or a draft for a future accord. It offers no definition of the Caspian, either as a lake or a sea – a definition that would automatically establish its status under existing international maritime laws and conventions. It pretends to establish the legal status of the Caspian Sea without tackling the crucial issue of sovereignty.

In its preamble, the text refers to “changes and processes that have occurred in the Caspian region at the geopolitical and national levels”, and insists on “the need to strengthen the legal regime of the Caspian Sea.”

Leaving aside the confusion between “Caspian region” and “Caspian Sea” the text implies that a legal regime already exists but needs to be strengthened.

So, what is that legal regime?

It is shaped by three treaties between Iran, the Tsarist Russia and, finally, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Under those treaties, Iran and Russia (in its two epiphanies) have joint sovereignty over the Caspian Sea. The treaties do not mention the figure 50-50 and, in reality for many decades, the Caspian was a Russian lake for all practical purposes. Nevertheless, the treaties show that Iran and Russia were the only two sovereign powers in the Caspian.

That could be challenged with the internationally recognized legal principle of change, notably by the emergence of “successor states” or “rebus sic stantibus” in Latin.

The Russian text does not do so. For if it did it would have to accept that the four Caspian littoral states that emerged from the disintegration of the USSR would have to share their half of sovereignty among themselves, leaving Iran’s share as unchanged.

To muddy the waters, the text, which, according to its first article, is the exclusive work of The General Department of Navigation and Oceanography of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, ignores the issue of sovereignty altogether and goes straight for ascertaining the share of littoral states in the ownership of the body of water.

In that context, Iran with the shortest coastline on the sea ends up with the smallest share, just around 11 percent.

However, sovereignty and ownership are two different concepts.

You may own an apartment in Paris and be recognized as proprietor. However, the sovereignty of the area in which your apartment is located belongs to the French Republic. Several Scottish islands are owned by individuals but are still under British sovereignty.

The relationship between sovereignty and ownership comes in numerous forms. The entire state of the Vatican is sovereign but located in the middle of the Italian capital Rome and subject to its municipal rules. The Republic of San Marino, on the Italian coastline has a similar status while Monaco’s real estate is 80 percent owned by foreigners without the princely family losing their sovereignty. Andora is owned by Andorans but under joint French and Spanish sovereignty. Initially, the Congo was the private property of Leopold I, the Belgian King, who, in the absence of a sovereign status, treated the vast territory as he pleased.

Sovereignty could also be exercised long distance. New Caledonia, in the Pacific Ocean, is under French sovereignty as are the Falkland Islands under the British, both being thousands of miles away from their respective sovereign authorities. Closer to the Caspian we have the Shah-i-Mardan enclave in Kyrgyzstan that is under the sovereignty of neighboring Uzbekistan to the west.

To make sure that this is an exclusively Russian document, the text uses Russian terminology, measurements and even pseudo-legalistic shibboleths instead of internationally recognized concepts, terms and references codified in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

What is the good of ownership, and property rights, if we do not know which sovereign authority shall enforce them?

Because this is a Russian text, in the preparation of which other littoral states played no part, the implication may be that Russia is the sole sovereign power, and thus ultimate arbiter of disputes in the Caspian Sea. If that assumption is correct, we may conclude that Russia has acquired a colonial advantage that it could not obtain even when Iran was weak, famine-stricken and war-broken under the Qajar Dynasty.

With this text, Russia secures two other advantages.

First, it gains control of pipelines transiting the Caspian Basin’s immense oil and gas reserves to world markets, notably Europe. That would push Iran, which is the economic route for those pipelines, out of competition. Russia will retain its principal card in facing Western powers.

Russia, already the only significant military force in the Caspian, will retain its monopoly by forbidding other littoral states to build a military presence with the help of non-littoral allies.

In trying to push this text through, President Vladimir Putin is acting like a tactician seeking quick advantage even though that may produce a strategic loss. Shaken by the consequences of their childish adventures, the mullahs of Tehran may swallow this Russian brew. However, I doubt that any future Iranian government worth its salt would not spit it out.

BY Amir Taheri Prominent Scholar Journalist. Mr. Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books. Mr. Taheri is the most sought after guest by Farsi speaking media. He promotes global peace and stability through his various publications and speeches around the world.

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