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Iran is peeved at its northern neighbors over a decision to exclude the Islamic Republic from a meeting of Caspian Sea states on Thursday. 

Iran's top diplomat, Manouchehr Mottaki, said today he was outraged that Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan plan to meet in the Kazakh city of Aktau without Iran, according to the website of Iran's state-owned English-language Press TV satellite news channel.

"In our view the meeting runs contrary to Iran's national interests," Mottaki said.

Iran has stewed for years as Russia and its former Soviet satellite states gobble up more and more of the Caspian Sea's resources. 

The four countries attending the Aktau meeting, described as an "informal" summit to discuss "subregional cooperation," say they don't plan to make any decisions on the status of the sea or the division of the seabed, an official representative of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry told  Azerbaijan's Trend news agency.