Iraq masses troops on Iran border amid oil well row

[Chris]

Iraq masses troops on Iran border amid oil well row
By Associated Press

Iraqi troops massed Saturday near an oil well on the border in a standoff with Iranian forces that seized control of the site in a sudden flare up of tension between the two uneasy neighbors. Iranian forces earlier this week crossed into Iraq, seizing an oil well just over the border in the southern Maysan province. The takeover - which included planting an Iranian flag on the well - was met by protests from Baghdad. The Iraqi troops and border guards were waiting for further orders at a staging ground about a kilometer from oil well No. 4 at the al-Fakkah oil field, said an Interior Ministry official at the site who was not authorized to talk to the media. Iraq is not going to be pushed around by Iran, the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq said Saturday following an the Iranian oil well takeover.

more...........Iraq masses troops on Iran border amid oil well row - Haaretz - Israel News

[Chris]

Iranian troops cross border and seize disputed oilfield
Saturday, 19 December 2009
The Times
Alice Fordham in Baghdad

Iranian soldiers crossed the Iraqi border into disputed territory yesterday, and took control of an oilfield whose ownership has been in doubt since the end of the war between the two countries in the 1980s. “At 3:30 this afternoon, 11 Iranian [soldiers] infiltrated the Iran-Iraq border and took control of the oil well. They raised the Iranian flag, and they are still there until this moment,” said Ahmed Ali al Khafaji, Iraq’s Deputy Interior Minister. The well is one of several in the Fakka oil field, which was part of a group offered to foreign investors in June, but no contract was awarded.

Jawad al Bolani, the Iraqi Interior Minister, made a televised statement declaring that “Iraq will not give up its oil wealth”. The US played down the incursion into disputed territory, noting that such incidents were not unusual. “There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran,” a US military official in an operating base in southern Iraq said.

more............Iran Focus

[micah719]

Goodness gracious......11 soldiers, one measly infantry section. Any self respecting LA street gang could clean this up....why is it even in the news, if it isn't unusual?

[Navyblue]

Maybe the eleven who took the oil well site used to be an LA street gang.

If Iran, and Iraq get into another shooting war, that would sure mess up what appears to be a fast track approach to Tribulation, and could de-rail the End Times for a year or more.

And the plot thickens.

In Messiah. Arley

[Sean Osborne]

Iraq is going to seriously kick Iranian behind if this erupts into ground combat.

This is a deliberate provocation of Iraqi sovereignty and a distraction meant to cause very serious problems for the Iranian counter-revolutionaries. It's a good method by which the Iranian counter-revolutionaries can be shot-on-sight as an anti-regime fifth column.

The numbers of those involved are insignificant. They are pawns. It is the ultimate tactical objective of this gambit which is significant. Iranians are good chess players, but this is a calculated move they will probably regret.

[Chris]

Iran Focus

Mullen: 'concerned' about Iran's influence in Iraq
Saturday, 19 December 2009
The Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — America's top military officer says there's no evidence that the takeover of an oil well in southern Iraq by Iranian forces is an attempt to influence Iraq's upcoming elections. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Saturday he nonetheless remains concerned about Iran's influence over its Mideast neighbors. Mullen told a Baghdad news conference that the United States was watching the incident at the al-Fakkah oil field on the disputed Iran-Iraq border. But Mullen said the U.S. had no plans to intervene in the diplomatic and economic spat. He said he was encourage by the Iraqi government's steps to ease tension.

[Chris]

Officials: Iranian troops have left disputed Iraqi oil well | Headlines News | Jerusalem Post

Officials: Iranian troops have left disputed Iraqi oil well
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD

Iraqi oil workers are back at the disputed oil well in southern Iraq that was seized by Iranian forces earlier this week, sources said on Sunday afternoon. Two Iraqi government officials and a worker at the site said Iraqi army troops escorted the workers Sunday morning to well No. 4, about 50 meters from the Iranian border. A senior Oil Ministry official in Baghdad also confirmed that Iranian troops left the well. All four sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. About 11 Iraqi oil employees returned to the well. Troops raised the Iraqi flag on the oil well where the Iranian flag had flown earlier.

[Sean Osborne]

Officials: Iranian troops have left disputed Iraqi oil well

Al-Mahdi or no al-Mahdi, the Iranians know a check-mate when they see one.