“We at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are not satisfied with the construction of a Turkish dam on the border waters and we declare loudly that this action by Turkey is not acceptable to us and we oppose it,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.
Abdollahian added that over the past two months, he has raised the issue to his Turkish counterpart “at least three times” asking him to “pay serious attention to the construction of dams on the Aras River as a neighbor.”
The Iranian foreign minister’s statement comes less than a week after he stressed the importance of accelerating cooperation in the form of a “Joint Water Committee” to address climate change and ongoing water issues in a phone call with his Turkish counterpart.
Iran and Turkey hold control over a large portion of water flowing into Iraq. Both governments have over the years built several dams, minimizing Iraq’s main sources of water. However, Turkey building a dam on the Aras River bordering Iran would also jeopardize Iranian access to water.
While Iraq and Syria, which also share the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, have signed up to the UN Watercourses Convention of 1997, neighboring Turkey and Iran have not.
The convention governs trans-boundary water resources, however only a few dozen states are party to the convention, under which nations are obligated to respect and equitably share their neighbors’ water resources.
