The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced early Thursday morning that the ownership of natural resources in the divided submerged area, "including the entire Durra field, is a shared ownership between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Kuwait only, and they alone have full sovereign rights to exploit the resources in that area."
The statement added that both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait "renew their prior and repeated calls to the Islamic Republic of Iran to negotiate over the eastern border of the divided submerged area with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as a single negotiating party, and the Islamic Republic of Iran as another party, in accordance with the provisions of international law and principles of good neighborliness."
Previously, Iran claimed that it has rights to the Durra field and described an agreement made by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait last year to develop the field as "illegal." Iran stated on Sunday that "it will pursue its rights in the Durra field if the other two parties refrain from cooperation," shortly after the Kuwaiti oil minister indicated that Kuwait would begin drilling and production without waiting for a delineation of borders with Iran.
