Iran requires recognition of Saddam's agreement in exchange for sitting with Baghdad to solve the wa

[size=52]Iran requires recognition of Saddam's agreement in exchange for sitting with Baghdad to solve the water issue[/size]

[size=45]After draining more than forty large, medium and small rivers in Iraq, Iran refuses to negotiate with the Iraqi side to solve the problem of the water crisis, stipulating that Baghdad accepts its prior recognition of the canceled Algiers Agreement in return for its agreement to sit at the negotiating table.[/size]
[size=45]Dhafer Abdullah Hussein, head of the Iraqi Geologists Syndicate, said in an interview with Al-Mada that the water crisis between Baghdad and Tehran revolves around the Iraqi government's refusal to recognize the Algiers Agreement concluded between then Vice President Saddam Hussein and the Shah of Iran, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, who ceded half of the Shatt al-Arab.[/size]
[size=45]On the sixth of March of the year 1975, the Algiers Agreement was signed between Iraq and Iran, which included a set of clauses and paragraphs, the most important of which is the sharing of the Shatt al-Arab between the two countries, in addition to that it also contained protocols to organize the process of distributing water coming from Iranian lands towards Iraqi lands.[/size]
[size=45]And the former regime's president canceled this agreement in 1980, which sparked the first Gulf War, which lasted for 8 years. Hussein continued, "Iran requires the Iraqi government to recognize the Algiers Agreement in exchange for its agreement to sit with it at the negotiating table to discuss the water crisis," explaining that all successive governments from 2003, until this moment, are afraid of recognizing the Algiers Agreement because they have waived Iraq's rights.[/size]
[size=45]The former President Jalal Talabani considered the Algiers agreement signed between Baghdad and Tehran in 1975, regarding the delimitation of the borders between the two countries in the Shatt al-Arab, as null and void. The head of the Geologists Syndicate, who was previously a consultant in the Ministry of Water Resources, added that "the government, according to these disputes and intersections, cannot do everything," noting that "this agreement is recognized by the United Nations and cannot be canceled." He pointed out that "Iran has not conducted any negotiations with Iraq since 2003 until the present time regarding the water file, after stipulating the prior recognition of the agreement in exchange for starting negotiations." In this regard, Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rashid al-Hamdani said about a week ago that Iran's cutting of two rivers affected the water quality in the Shatt al-Arab, stressing the need for diplomatic action to obtain Iraq's water rights.[/size]
[size=45]The minister added, "If Iran insists not to cooperate with Iraq regarding the water crisis in accordance with international conventions, we will have to resort to UNESCO, the United Nations and human rights to obtain our rights from the common tributaries and streams with Iran, and this is what we do not wish for."[/size]
[size=45]For his part, Adel Al-Mukhtar, an expert in agricultural affairs, said in a statement to Al-Mada that “the Ministry of Water Resources is unable to move towards internationalizing the water issue with Iran,” noting that if Iraq files a complaint in this regard, Iran will submit the signed and internationally recognized agreement. Iraq has been suffering for years from a continuous decline in water revenues across the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the water scarcity crisis has also been exacerbated by the low amounts of rain falling in the country over the past years.[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Mukhtar indicated that "in the event of an Iraqi movement towards international courts, this file should be referred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for follow-up," calling for solving problems, disputes and intersections with Iran and all Iraq's neighboring countries through diplomatic and peaceful means away from international courts "from which we will not gain anything."[/size]
[size=45]The large and small rivers and tributaries from Iran meet nearly a third of Iraq's needs, such as the Lower Zab River, which feeds Lake Dukan, which in turn flows to feed the Tigris River, Diyala River and other rivers and other tributaries.[/size]
[size=45]And the Ministry of Water Resources announced earlier that Iran “completely cut off water from Iraq,” stressing that “water releases from Iran have reached zero,” while referring to “taking solutions to mitigate the damage of water scarcity in Diyala Governorate” in eastern Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mukhtar pointed out that “the total of large, medium and small rivers that Iran has cut off from Iraqi lands is estimated at 42, such as Karkha and Karun, and some of them are seasonal,” adding that all of these rivers were cut by the Iranian side.[/size]
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