Iran troops make partial pullback from disputed area

Baghdad: Iranian troops have withdrawn partially from a disputed oil well claimed by both Tehran and Baghdad, an Iraqi spokesman said yesterday, possibly defusing a border feud straining the two countries' delicate ties.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh said a small group of Iranian troops who had taken over an oil well in a remote region along the Iran-Iraq border last week were no longer in control of the well, which Iraq considers part of its Al Fakkah oilfield.

Flag lowered

"The Iranian flag has been lowered. The Iranian troops have pulled back 50 metres, but they have not gone back to where they were before. The Iraqi government asked for the troops to go back to where they were," Al Dabbagh said.

Al Dabbagh said a joint committee would begin to look at demarcating the border in the desert area southeast of Baghdad.

The border flare-up kicked off a storm of emergency meetings and bilateral phone calls, with Baghdad calling for an immediate withdrawal of foreign troops while at the same time seeking to contain damage to its charged relationship with its neighbour.

In a phone conversation on Saturday evening, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari underlined the need for a meeting "with the intention of enforcing bilateral border agreements", Iranian state broadcaster Irib reported.

Global oil prices climbed on Friday following initial media reports that Iranian troops had commandeered an Iraqi oil well. The news was all the more worrisome as Iraq prepares to sign giant contracts with leading global oil firms, a milestone in its efforts to turn around its oil sector and secure foreign cash despite ongoing violence.

As the Iraqi government moves firmly out of the post-war US shadow, even Iraqi officials friendly with Tehran cannot afford to be seen as bowing to any foreign powers, especially Iran, in the months leading to parliamentary elections on March 7.

Even after Al Dabbagh's announcement, there was confusion in southern Iraq about the status of the Iranian troops, reflecting the difficulty of defining clear borders in such a remote, uninhabited area. Border outposts dot the Iraqi side of the border, where Iranian facilities can be seen in the distance across bare expanses of sand and dirt.

Sarhan Al Mousawi, a member of the Maysan provincial council, said he believed the Iranian forces had withdrawn entirely to the Iranian side of the border.

Iran and Iraq have a long history of border feuds, including one that escalated into a bloody eight-year war in the 1980s.

The relationship warmed after Saddam Hussain's ouster in 2003, when fellow Shiite Muslims took over in Baghdad and the countries' trade and religious tourism picked up.

According to Iraqis, the field is one of seven that comprise Al Fakkah, a relatively small field that now produces about 10,000 barrels of oil per day. But Iraqi officials say the well in question has only been operative briefly in the late 1970s.

Iraq's Oil Ministry offered global companies a development contract for Al Fakkah and nearby fields in an energy auction in June but a Chinese consortium declined the ministry's proposed fee for running the fields. The government is hoping that a host of new deals, some of which are due to be initialled this week, will transform the outdated oil industry and boost production capacity.