AFP reports Iranian forces yesterday entered Iraqi territory at dawn, and took control of a southern Iraqi oil well in a disputed section of the border.
According to Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Haj Aziz, Iranian troops seized oil well No. 4 in the East Maysan oil field Thursday night, positioning tanks around the well, which is in the al-Fakah region, 280 miles south of Baghdad.
An Iraqi official however, played down the incident, saying the area was abandoned and right on a disputed border section which was never clearly delineated after the war between the two countries in the 1980s.
According to AFP, an Iraqi oil ministry delegation is to travel to the area on Saturday to assess the situation.
A US military spokesman told the paper that there has been no violence related to this incident. “We trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran”, the spokesman said.
Crude oil rose as much as +$2.02, or 2.7%, to $74.67 a barrel on the NYSE.
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Annnnnd, we all go back to Iraq.