A preliminary deal between Iran and Oman has been concluded to define the Islamic Republic’s longest maritime border with a Persian Gulf littoral state, a deputy foreign minister said.
“Despite attempts by certain regional and non-regional countries to stir up existing conflicts and hurt the Islamic Republic of Iran’s diplomatic relations with its neighbors, in a historic development, one of the most important and sensitive agreements was finalized with a Persian Gulf neighbor, the first since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in which Iran’s longest sea border in the Sea of Oman was determined,” Abbas Araqchi also said on Tuesday.
The deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs noted that negotiations on the delimitation of borders have always been among the most controversial and challenging ones with a high possibility of failure even between close allies, IRNA reported.
“But the Islamic Republic of Iran and Oman drew on their close and good neighborly bilateral ties and demonstrated goodwill to successfully complete complicated and difficult technical and legal talks on border demarcation, which marks a milestone in the history of bilateral relations,” he said.
The agreement delimits the sea border between the two countries, which stretches 450 kilometers.
It was initially agreed between Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Oman’s Minister of Interior Sayyid Hamoud bin Faisal al Busaidi in May 2015.
They released a joint statement to the media then, which read, “The agreement on delimitation was reached thanks to good historical relations and mutual respect as well as reciprocal cooperation and understanding … and it is [formulated] based on related international regulations and in a fair manner so that the rights of both sides are preserved.”
