Posted on 12/19/2009 3:45:05 PM PST by La Enchiladita
Iran confirmed Saturday that its forces had taken over East Maysan oil field, located on the Iran-Iraq border. The move caused a 2.4% spike in oil prices.
"The Iranian forces are on Iranian soil, as defined by known international borders. This oil field is Iran's" said an Iranian armed forces statement quoted by the Islamic Republic Arab-language television station, al-Alam.
Proprietary of the East Maysan oil field had been the center of a dispute between Tehran and Bagdad for a lengthy period of time.
Iraq's Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji said the move was the latest in a series of Iranian incursions over the past few days, which focused on the Fauqa oil field, some 186 miles south of Bagdad.
The invasion followed an agreement between the Iraqi Oil Ministry and several of the world's leading oil energy companies, to operate seven oil fields.
Iraq slammed the incursion as a violation of its sovereignty and demanded Iran withdraws its troops immediately. This is the first major incident between Iran and Iraq since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
(Excerpt) Read more at ynetnews.com ...
Appreciate your responses. I vaguely recalled the U.S. was going to supply them with some fighter planes (outmoded for our use). It behooves the Iraqi government to be prepared, as Iran will continue to test them.
I’m also surprised how many posters here do not seem to be aware that Iraq is self-governing now.
Anyway, at this time, apparently Iran blinked: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/world/middleeast/21iraq.html
“Border disputes between the countries, which set off the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, have become more common in recent months as Iraq has moved to sell development rights to fields near the Iranian border, including Fakka.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/world/middleeast/21iraq.html
They had just auctioned off a bunch of the rights just before the incursion. No American companies got any. So much for war for oil.
Exactly... isn’t that something? And there it is in black-and-white in the NY Slimes. Don’t expect any retractions of accusations, however. The move on crowd have moved on to other lies.
We never even got a lousy tee shirt.
I wonder what foreign company just bought the oil well that the Iranians took over? heh
China.
I come across the occasional FReeper who thinks we are still at war with Iraq.
There is a proposal to give them some of the 136 F-16s that the USAF is decomissioning in 2010.
No mention of a follow up since October.
Still possible. Would make the US a front runner in selling new F16s to replace them.
IMoD has talked about buying 96 [5 squadrons worth] of F16s.
Start of delivery of new F-16s can’t happen prior to 2013 at earliest and we are supposed to be gone in 2012...
China bought that oil well? Oh boy! That could be interesting.
What a waste of our involvement it would be if Iraq is not able to beef up their military as planned; one of the many, many reasons the current U.S. administration makes me very nervous.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.