In the conditions of growing uncertainty at the world oil market, related with Iraqi conflict the situation with Caspian oil continues to remain indefinite as well.

Last weeks were saturated with the information, to some extent reflecting the political and economic facets of the problem: Russian company "Lukoil" left the project "Azeri-chirag-Guneshli", a scandal in "Tengizchevroil", a possibility that the American company "Kerr McGee" will leave Kazakhstan, an active opposition of Russian company "Transneft" to the "quality bank" at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline and other.

In relation with this quite characteristic was the news about the transfer of the date of the meeting between representatives of five Caspian countries at the level of deputy foreign ministers. The eigth meeting of the working group, previously planned on 19-20 November in Baku dedicated to the issues of the legal status of Caspian Sea, was transferred at the beginning of December, moreover that decision was not final as of yet and could be changed in the future. At the preceding, July meeting of the working group in Teheran, the "consensus" solution of the problem, as it is known, in fact did not move from the dead point.

According to the official information, the date of the meeting in Baku was changed due to technical reasons. Khalaf Khalafov sticks to the same point of view, having made a statement recently that Baku and Teheran soon will be able to sign an agreement on Caspian Sea. "I don't exclude a possibility that during the official visit of Mohammad, President of Iran, to Azerbaijan a bliateral agreement will be signed on Caspian Sea", Kh.Khalafov supposed. According to the Azeri diplomat, until now the negotiation process in this area was fruitful: "If such intensity of negotiations remains the same there is a possibility that the positions of both countries on this issue will come closer and we shall try to prepare such document by Mohammad Khatami's arrival". Quite surprising, but Khalafov observed that he didn't have any information that Iranian authorities had expressed a protest against Azeri-Russian agreement on Caspian Sea division, signed in September. "On the contrary, when it was signed the press secretary of MFA of Iran expressed a hope that in the future bilateral agreements will play a positive role in the rapprochement of all Caspian Sea", - the deputy head of Azeri MFA stressed. It must be said that it was quite a strange statement - virtually right away after signing Azeri-Iranian agreement, IRNA distributed information, reflecting the view of MFA of Iran: "There can be no agreements bewteen separate Caspian States: the legal status is defined by a general accord of all five countries". Besides, on 30 September President Mohammad Khatami expressed his official reaction on signing bilateral agreement between Azerbaijan and Russia. In his statement President Khatami stressed that for Iran any unilateral activities in Caspian Sea "cannot be acceptable". Any decisions in this area must be "just". The accord of all five sides is necessary when they are made. Moreover, (possibly, especially for Azeri MFA representatives), during the last two months the special representative of Iranian President for Caspian Sea Mehti Safari, continuously emphasised that the Teheran positions conserning the legal status of Caspian Sea remained invariable.

However, hardly the deputy head of Azeri foreign authority would compromise himself by exposing a deliberately fake information. Rather, here again the discord and oscillations among Iranian administration on the whole number of principal issues of politics, reflecting the unstable inner situation in the country. Quite revealing in this respect is the information, circulated in October by Iranian mass media about the debates in Iranian mejlis, which streeses that the deputies, "supporting the President", once again criticised the foreign authority and personally Kemal Harrazi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, for their unsuccessful efforts to make Iran's demands in the region fulfilled.

In the interview to ISNA agency Hassan Fatkhee, Iranian expert for international problems observed: "In relation with the fact that our diplomatic body is headed by the people, who don't know any national interests of the country or don't have an idea about the diplomacy, in any case, we were, step by step giving up and our share decreased from 50% to 20%. But even in such conditions the coastal countries, having concluded bilateral agreements, did not consider it necessary to take into account Iran's right for 20 per cent share placing thus, Capian Sea on the verge of serious political confrontation". The radicality of H.Fatkhee, undoubtedly, is conditioned by general patriotic sentiments in the country, which are influenced to a big extent by the unresolved Caspian problem. Another famous Iranian specialist, the chief advisor of Iranian government for the problems of Centrel Asia and Caucasus, Akbar Valee-zade confessed: "In achieving the targets that we pursued in the region we failed completely. We have to change our policy in the region. We were building our relations with some countries from economic positions, but even in this case, due to the whole number of obstacles we couldn't achieve success. Iran and Azerbaijan stand on diametrically opposing positions with regard to Caspian problems". Considering the necessity of changing the policies in the region, a definite part of Iranian official persons today puts efforts into a search for compromise and softer formulations, which was reflected in the position of the press service of Iranian MFA, at which Kh.Khalafov referred. Russian estimation of what was going on was given by a special representative of the President of RF, Victor Kalyuzhniy, who previously had observed that: "the last meeting of the working group showed that Iranian administration sought flexibility and practical efficiency".

At the meeting with mass media Kh.Khalafov expressed a certainty that even after bilateral agreements on Caspian Sea with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, Russia will continue to actively seek solution of that problem between all five countries and won't leave Azerbaijan "alone against Iran and Turkmenistan". Last Wednesday Media-Press agency distributed information that Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan "are going to sign a trilateral agreement about the crossing point for the division of the bottom of Caspian Sea with the purpose of realising sovereign rights for mineral resources use". As it's been reported this subject was included into the agenda of a forthcoming meeting of the working group for Caspian Sea, planned for 10-12 December in Baku. Obviously, the main reason for the delay of this meeting were preliminary "consultations" with Kazakhstani and Azeri sides in Moscow, where, according to the Media-Press source, "a proximity of positions was observed".

Ashgabat remains neutral, preferring to make half-demagogic statements sometimes. On 22 November, according to CNA, the Foreign Information Department of Turkmen President reported that the country administration "continues to stick to the agreement between heads of Caspian States that all issues related with the definition of jurisdiction on Caspian Sea, must be resolved by means of consensus, considering interests and opinions of all Caspian States".