Iran officially invites Kuwait for renewed talks on disputed gas field: Envoy

Iran’s Ambassador to Kuwait says Tehran has officially invited the Arab neighbor to resume negotiations on the dispute over the joint Arash natural gas field in the Persian Gulf.

In an interview with Kuwait’s Al Rai newspaper, Mohammad Irani said an official invitation had been submitted to the Persian Gulf kingdom for a resumption of the talks from the point where they stopped in 2014.

He said Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Abdollahian had also held a phone conversation with his Kuwaiti counterpart, Ahmad al-Nasser al-Mohammad Al Sabah, over the issue.

Iran has repeatedly expressed readiness for negotiations with all Persian Gulf littoral states on “any unresolved issue” in the region, the envoy added.

The disputed Arash gas field is located in the Persian Gulf and shared by Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Recently, Kuwait announced a plan to extract 1 billion standard cubic feet per day of gas and 84,000 barrels per day of condensate from the field under an agreement signed with Saudi Arabia. Iran dismissed the agreement as “illegal.”

Kuwait has claimed that Arash, known as Durra in Arabic, is “entirely a Kuwaiti and Saudi field,” and that the issue to be settled with Iran is just the demarcation of the area.

Iran, however, says it has a stake in the field and the two Arab neighbors should not develop the area until the demarcation issue is resolved.

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