US: Iraq not 'pushed around' by Iran

By ANNE GEARAN and LARA JAKES (AP) – 2 hours ago

BAGHDAD — Iraq is "not going to be pushed around" by Iran, the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq said Saturday following an Iranian takeover of an oil well along the two nations' disputed border.

U.S. officials said they approved of Iraq's speedy defense of its sovereignty amid ongoing concerns over Iran's influence on its Mideast neighbor.

"It does speak to the overall view here that they are not going to be pushed around by Iran," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill told reporters.

Iranian forces earlier this week crossed into Iraq, seizing an oil well just over the border in the southern Maysan province. The takeover — which included planting an Iranian flag on the well — was met by protests from Baghdad.

It served as a dramatic display of the sometimes tense relations between the wary allies.

Iraqi authorities on Saturday prevented media representatives from visiting the area at the al-Fakkah oil field, located about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad.

Top Iraqi national security officials said the well was clearly in Iraqi territory and demanded that the Iranians leave immediately.

High-level diplomatic talks between Iraq and Iran are continuing, said Iraqi deputy foreign minister Labid Abbawi.

"The situation this morning is the same: the Iranians have not withdrawn from the well," Abbawi told The Associated Press. "We are still sticking to our position in demanding an immediate withdrawal of Iranian forces from the oil well."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Rahmin Mehmanparast denied that Tehran had seized the oil well and sought only to reduce tensions between the neighbors, accusing foreign media of spreading false news to "disrupt good relations" between Tehran and Baghdad.

"Diplomatic and technical mechanisms" were the way to deal with the issue, said Hasan Kazemi Qomi, the ambassador to Iraq, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.

Army Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told reporters that the Iranian forces had withdrawn from the oil well as of Saturday morning. But an oil worker at the field said five Iranians remain inside the well, and the Iranian flag still flew above it.

The worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, said Iranian troops were watching the well from a hillside on Iran's side of the border.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official, meanwhile, said Iraqi troops and border guards have moved to a staging ground about a kilometer from the well, awaiting orders. The official, who was at the scene, was not authorized to discuss the situation with the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was not clear as well what kind of Iranian forces had been at the well. An Iraqi official and an eyewitness described them as soldiers. The Iraqi government spokesman described them only as an armed Iranians.

Earlier Saturday, the top American military official said the oil well takeover appeared to be the latest example of Iran flexing its influence over Iraq and other Mideast nations. However, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen called it an issue for the Iraqi government to settle, and said there were no plans by the United States to intervene.

Once bitter enemies, Iraq and Iran settled into a more positive, if still uneasy, relationship after a Shiite-led government came to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

"I continue to worry about the influence of Iran," Mullen, in Iraq for a two-day visit with U.S. and Iraqi authorities, said at a news conference in Baghdad. "I still think it's important that Iran have a constructive, positive influence in this region and globally. And there are just too many examples where that is not the case."

Odierno also said Iran continues to fund and train fighters in Iraq, as well as send weapons and equipment over the border — although less frequently now than in the past.

Analysts said it was too early to say whether the incident would mushroom into greater tension but said it could raise concerns with oil companies looking to invest in Iraq.

Oil prices rose slightly after news of the incident.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Iraq tells Iran to get soldiers out of oilfield

The Irish Times - Saturday, December 19, 2009

BAGHDAD – Iraq yesterday demanded that Iran immediately withdraw its soldiers from a disputed oilfield on the two countries’ border, but Tehran denied any incursion.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said 11 Iranian soldiers had taken control of the Fakka oilfield in a remote desert area of southeastern Iraq, in a “violation of Iraqi sovereignty”.

“Iraq demands the immediate withdrawal from well No 4 and the Fakka oilfield, which belongs to Iraq. Iraq is looking for a peaceful and diplomatic settlement to this issue,” he said.

Mr Dabbagh did not give a deadline for withdrawal and did not say what Iraq would do if Iran failed to comply. Officials have summoned Tehran’s envoy in Iraq to discuss the matter, he said.

Iraqi officials said the Iranian soldiers crossed into Iraqi territory yesterday and raised the Iranian flag at Fakka, whose ownership is disputed by Iran.

Iraqi deputy interior minister Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji said the incursion was the latest of several this week at the field, some 300km (185 miles) southeast of Baghdad in Maysan province.

“At 3.30 this afternoon, 11 Iranian [soldiers] infiltrated the Iran-Iraq border and took control of the oil well. They raised the Iranian flag, and they are still there,” he said.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency later quoted the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) as rejecting the report.

“The company denies Iranian soldiers taking control of any oil well inside Iraqi territory,” Mehr quoted NIOC as saying.

Mr Khafaji said the well was in Iraqi territory.

“This well is located on Iraqi land, 300 metres (328 yards) inside Iraq. It is disputed between Iran and Iraq. There was an agreement between the two countries’ oil ministers to fix this problem diplomatically,” he said.

A senior engineer from Maysan Oil Company, which operates the field, said Iranian troops had taken temporary control of one of the field’s seven wells, an inoperative well in a disputed border area, four or five times this year.

“Iranian forces come to this well periodically, and then at daybreak they withdraw. They are provoking us . . . I don’t know why this is a big deal this time,” he said, on condition of anonymity.

The incident came a few days after the Iraqi oil ministry awarded leading global energy firms contracts to operate seven oil fields in its second tender since the 2003 US invasion.

Iraq, whose oil sector is scarred by years of sanctions and war, says such deals may eventually lift capacity to 12 million barrels per day, putting it nearly on par with Saudi Arabia and far above Iran’s output of about four million barrels per day.

But as US troops prepare to withdraw by 2012, foreign firms must grapple with persistent violence, political feuds and legal uncertainties dogging large-scale investments.

The government has been struggling to respond to a spate of attacks, the last of which killed up to 112 last week in Baghdad, aimed at destabilising Iraq ahead of March 7th elections.

Ties between Iraq and neighbouring Iran, which fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, have improved since a Shia-led government took over in Baghdad following the ousting of Sunni Arab leader Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Yet relations are tested in areas such as eastern Maysan, just one of many flashpoints of continuing disagreement over shared borders between the majority Shia Muslim neighbours.

The bilateral relationship is all the more delicate given Washington and Tehran’s standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme and the presence of 115,000 US soldiers on Iraqi soil.

US officials said they were aware of the border incident but there were no US forces in the area.

Iraqi interior minister Jawad al-Bolani told al-Arabiya TV: “Iraq will not give up its oil wealth, no matter the reason.” – (Reuters)