Iran violates Iraq border
2009-12-26 20:22
Baghdad - Iran has been violating Iraq's borders since 2006, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in comments aired on Saturday, a week after Iranian troops took over an oil well in disputed territory.
"Violations by the Iranians started in 2006," Zebari told MPs in the statement broadcast by the state-funded Al-Iraqiya television channel.
"Technicians used to go to the wells and Iranians annoyed them, opened fire on them, arrested them", he said.
"We have a large number of issues with Iran dating back to 2003, many of them a result of the Iraq-Iran war, such as borders, water, mine fields... The biggest file in the ministry of foreign affairs is the Iran file."
On December 18, Iraq's state-owned South Oil Co said about a dozen Iranian troops and technicians had arrived at the field, taken control of Well 4 and raised the Iranian flag. They eventually withdrew days later.
The takeover was one of the most serious incidents between the two neighbours since the US led invasion of 2003 toppled now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, which fought a devastating 1980-1988 war against Iran.
Many leaders of Shiite parties who were exiled in Iran during the Saddam era are now in power in Baghdad. The two countries share a 1 458km border.