Iran yesterday acknowledged its takeover of a disputed oil well in a border region with Iraq, but insisted the well lies inside Iranian territory, trying to play down any diplomatic fallout.
“Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran,” the Iranian armed forces command said in a statement, quoted by the Arabic-language Al-Alam satellite TV.
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.”
However, Iranian Foreign ministry’s spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast yesterday accused “external sources” of working to damage relations between Tehran and Baghdad, the official IRNA news agency reported, while a senior Iranian MP also tried to play down the dispute.
“The claim that Iran has occupied an Iraqi oil well is strongly rejected,” said Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission.
The issue was “being examined through diplomatic channels,” he said, blaming “foreign media for such propaganda.”
Well 4 is in the Fauqa Field, part of a cluster of oilfields that Iraq unsuccessfully put up for auction to oil majors in June. The field has estimated reserves of 1.55 million barrels.
On Friday, the National Iranian Oil Company denied that border guards had taken control of the well.
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