Iran Claims Seizure of Iraqi Oil Well was a “Misunderstanding”
Point-of-view of a soldier guarding the Fakka oil wells near Amara, Iraq, not far from the Iranian border where the incident occurred. (image: theglobeandmail.com)
Last week, a border skirmish between Iran and Iraq over an oil well in Iraq’s eastern Maysan province has ended peacefully, and Iranian officials are now calling the incident a “misunderstanding.”
Reuters reported on Tuesday that the Iranian and Iraqi foreign ministers have come to an “understanding” and that Iran’s foreign ministry is calling for the formation of an expert committee to address the border issues between the two countries. Iran and Iraq fought a war from 1980-1988 that was sparked by a border dispute and have a history of territorial conflict; news of the incident sparked a moderate rise in global oil prices on Friday, as speculators anticipated the possibility of a new conflict. A meeting of the proposed committee could do much to end this type of price fluctuation in the future, by settling once and for all some of the lingering disputes between the two oil-producing neighbors and OPEC members.
