Bekijk Volledige Versie : Iran is weer los
Iraq asks Iran to withdraw troops from oil field
Iraq has demanded the immediate withdrawal of Iranian troops who it says have crossed into Iraqi territory and taken control of an oil well.
An Iraqi government spokesman condemned the alleged incursion but said Baghdad was committed to resolving the issue by diplomatic means.
The Iraqis say 11 Iranian soldiers were involved and that they had raised the Iranian flag over the Fakkah oil field.
The National Iranian Oil Company denied that there had been an incursion.
But Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister, Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji, said the Iranians were in control of the well.
"[At 1530] 11 Iranian soldiers infiltrated the Iran-Iraq border and took control of the oil well," he told Reuters news agency.
"They raised the Iranian flag and they are still there until this moment."
He said there had been no military response from Iraqi forces.
"We are awaiting orders from our leader," he added.
Similar incidents have happened before along the border, which has never been properly defined since the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s - although relations between the two neighbours are now cordial.
In de tijd van Saddam hadden ze dat niet gedurfd.
In de tijd van Saddam hadden ze dat niet gedurfd.
Heeft daar niets mee te maken. Het gaat niet om de olie maar om het spel. Schaken.
Heeft daar niets mee te maken. Het gaat niet om de olie maar om het spel. Schaken.
Dat geloof ik wel. Maar de kwestie is wie het spel het meest meedogenloos durft te spelen. Ik denk dat dat nu Iran is, nu het regime op instorten staat.
Heeft daar niets mee te maken. Het gaat niet om de olie maar om het spel. Schaken.
Waar gaat het spel over? Ze waren toch zulke dikke vriendjes nu, met die grotendeels sji'itische regering? En ze waren toch zo tegen dat Iraakse imperialisme?
Iran rejects reports of Iraqi oil well seizure as attempt to harm ties
TEHRAN, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Saturday rejected the reports that an Iraqi oil well was taken over by Iranian armed forces as an attempt to harm the relations between the two neighboring countries, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"Foreign media made unfounded allegation ... and attempted to disrupt friendly relations between Iran and Iraq by propaganda campaign," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying.
"Iran and Iraq currently enjoy friendly and excellent ties," he said. "Those who are not satisfied with such friendly ties between the two countries try to create rift by spreading improper language."
Mehmanparast pointed out that "such technical issues which are quite natural would be resolved by the two countries officials through exchange of views."
Iran's foreign ministry and other relative bodies are now investigating the case, he added.
Some Iraqi and Western media reported Friday that Iranian forces had crossed into Iraq and seized the No. 4 oil well from the al-Fakkah oilfield in Iraq's Maysan province.
Iraq's state-run al-Sabah newspaper on Saturday quoted the government spokesmen Ali al-Dabbagh as saying that the Iraqi Security Council has "stressed that the incident is a violation to Iraq's sovereignty and territories and called upon Iran to pull out its troops from the well."
The al-Fakkah oilfield was first drilled by Iraqis in 1979 as part of the Iraqi territories before the Iraqi-Iranian eight-years war in 1980.
However, the oilfield is now considered a shared one and both Iran and Iraq have the right to pump from it, but the Iraqis consider the well No. 4 theirs.
Ja joh, het is gewoon Zo Maar verzonnen :hihi:
Iran rejects reports of Iraqi oil well seizure as attempt to harm ties
:zozo:
Iran acknowledges oil well takeover
By Aresu Eqbali (AFP) – 6 hours ago
TEHRAN — Iran on Saturday acknowledged its takeover of an oil well on the Iraqi border but insisted the well lies on its land, playing down the fallout from the first such incident since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
"Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran," the armed forces command said in a statement, quoted by Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam satellite television.
On Friday, Iraq's state-owned South Oil Co in the southeastern city of Amara said "an Iranian force arrived at the field ... It took control of Well 4 and raised the Iranian flag even though the well lies inside Iraqi territory."
Baghdad has demanded that "Tehran pull back the armed men who occupied well No 4" and condemned the incident as "a violation of Iraqi sovereignty."
It was the first serious incident between the two neighbours since the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, whose forces fought a 1980-1988 war against Iran.
Many leaders of Shiite parties who were exiled to Iran during the Saddam era are now in power in Baghdad.
"It's a sovereignty issue" which has to be resolved by Iraqi leaders, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, told reporters during a visit to Baghdad.
But Iran's foreign ministry's spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast accused "external sources" of working to damage relations between Tehran and Baghdad, the official IRNA news agency reported.
And a senior Iranian MP also tried to play down the dispute.
"The claim that Iran has occupied an Iraqi oil well is strongly rejected," Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, told IRNA.
The issue was "being examined through diplomatic channels," he said, blaming "foreign media for such propaganda."
In Baghdad, Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Hajj Hamud told AFP that an Iranian unit made up of around a dozen soldiers and technicians was still posted at the disputed well on Saturday.
"We summoned Iran's ambassador to Baghdad yesterday (Friday) to tell him that this attack is unacceptable and our ambassador to Tehran delivered a note to their foreign ministry to ask them to pull out their troops," he said.
Hamud said it was the first time Well 4 had been taken over. "In the past, the Iranians would try to prevent our technicians from working on the well ... by firing in their direction," he said, adding Iraq had dug the well in 1974.
The Iraqi official said the incident came a month before a joint commission starts work on demarcating the two countries' land and sea border along the Shatt al-Arab waterway in the south.
Well 4 is in the Fauqa Field, part of a cluster of oilfields which Iraq unsuccessfully put up for auction to oil majors in June. The field has estimated reserves of 1.55 million barrels.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, meanwhile, said 11 Iranian soldiers were involved and that Baghdad was demanding the removal of the Iranian flag.
In southern Iraq, a US military spokesman told AFP that the incident at Well 4 was non-violent but the latest in a series of such activity along the frontier.
"The oilfield is in disputed territory in between Iranian and Iraqi border forts," said the officer at Contingency Operating Base Adder, just outside the city of Nasiriyah.
The well lies about 500 metres (yards) from an Iranian border fort and about one kilometre from an Iraqi border fort, US Colonel Peter Newell said.
But it falls on the Iraqi side of a border agreed between the two countries, according to the US officer, who added that there were five other fields in disputed territory.
World oil prices rose on Friday, with markets edgy over the dispute.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for January, rose 71 cents to close at 73.36 dollars a barrel, while in London, Brent North Sea crude for February delivery settled 38 cents higher at 73.75 dollars a barrel.
Zie je?
Dit soort gedraaikont, of onhandigheid, wat zal het zijn, geeft een land een slechte naam. Zo'n land is toch niet meer serieus te nemen?
Mij maakt het geen reet uit welke hele of halve arabier de olie oppompt. Het komt toch hierheen.
Iran 'withdraws' from disputed well
Iranian troops have withdrawn partially from a disputed oil well in the border region with Iraq, the Iraqi government has said.
Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman, said that a group of Iranian troops who had allegedly seized control of the well last week had pulled back in the early hours of Sunday morning.
"The Iranian flag has been lowered," Dabbagh told Al Jazeera. "The Iranian troops have pulled back 50 metres, but they have not gone back to where they were before."
Maysam Lafta, the provincial chief of security and defence, said: "The Iranian troops left overnight and the workers of the oil company returned to the well on Sunday."
Iraq considers the well to be part of its al-Fauqa oil field.
Iran's armed forces, however, issued a statement on Saturday saying that, in Tehran's view, there had been no incursion into Iraq as the oil well was within Iranian borders.
"Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran," the statement said.
Foreign ministers from both countries late on Saturday discussed a "misunderstanding" between the countries' border guards.
Iraq's state-owned South Oil Company in the southeastern city of Amara said on Friday that an Iranian unit had taken control of the the well.
Baghdad demanded that Tehran pull back the soldiers who they said had "occupied" the disputed well, and condemned the incident as "a violation of Iraqi sovereignty".
The al-Fauqa field is one of several oil rich areas that Iraq unsuccessfully put up for auction to oil companies in June. The field has estimated reserves of 1.55 million barrels.
Muhammad al-Hajj Hamud, Iraq's deputy foreign minister, said it was the first time the well had been taken over during years of tension.
"In the past, the Iranians would try to prevent our technicians from working on the well ... by firing in their direction," he said, adding that Iraq had dug the well in 1974.
A joint commission is set to start work on demarcating the two countries' land and sea border along the Shatt al-Arab waterway in the south next month.
The well lies about 500 metres from an Iranian border fort and about one kilometre from an Iraqi border fort, US Colonel Peter Newell said.
Aljazeera.net
Knullig gedoe van Iran. Ze realiseren zich opeens dat het toch wel not-done is? Wat een geknoei.
Bottomline: Irak is onder bezetting van een agressor!
Acties van Iran zijn dus totaal legitiem.
Maakt toch niet uit of iran zich terugtrekt, die olie komt toch niet ten goede van de iraakse bevolking.