AFP: A tripartite meeting between Gulf neighbours Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will be held to resolve a decades-old dispute over maritime borders, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said Tuesday.
KUWAIT CITY, October 11, 2011 (AFP) – A tripartite meeting between Gulf neighbours Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will be held to resolve a decades-old dispute over maritime borders, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said Tuesday.
“Its basically a technical issue but it will need a political decision from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait,” Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah told a press conference following a meeting with his Iranian counterpart.
“A proposal to hold a tripartite Iranian, Saudi and Kuwaiti meeting was made and Iran has agreed in principle,” Sheikh Mohammad said without announcing a date for the meeting.
The Kuwaiti minister said his meeting with Ali Akbar Salehi focused almost entirely on the maritime border issue known as the continental shelf “which is a thorn in the Iranian-Kuwaiti ties.”
The two nations have been locked in talks for several years over demarcating the sea border, which is also shared by Saudi Arabia, without any progress.
The dispute over the shelf, which includes the Dorra gas field, dates back to the 1960s.
Recoverable gas reserves from Dorra are estimated at some 200 billion cubic metres (seven trillion cubic feet).
