Iran Forces Occupy Iraqi Oil Well, Border Guard Says

[VandeWiel]

Stratfor geeft aan dat de bezetting van een oliebron in Irak door Iran een waarschuwing is voor de Verenigde Staten dat Iran preventief en als eerste aan kan vallen wanneer ze een aanstaande aanval van de VS of Israel vreest. Het uitgangspunt is dat Iran alleen in staat is iets te doen tegen een Amerikaanse aanval als ze eerst zelf aanvalt, anders zou de VS in een eerste slag de mogelijkheden van Iran wegnemen.

Mogelijkheden van een tegenaanval van Iran liggen in het plaatsen van mijnen in de Perzische Golf, het inschakelen van Hezbollah voor vergeldingsacties en dus ook het binnenvallen van Irak om de olieproductie te verstoren.

Eind december komen een aantal ultimatums aan Iran ten einde en worden daarna mogelijk nieuwe sancties ingesteld.

Zie: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091221_iranian_incursion_context?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=091221&utm_content=GIRimage

[Elzenga]

US alarm after Iran troops seize Iraq Fakkah oil field

US forces are due to gradually pull out of Iraq by the end of 2011
America's top military officer has voiced concern about an incursion by Iran into Iraq that ended with Iranian soldiers seizing an Iraqi oil well.
Admiral Mike Mullen said he had spoken to Iraq's defence minister, but it was for leaders in Tehran and Baghdad to resolve the dispute.
Officials from both countries have said they want a diplomatic solution.
The Iranian troops are believed to have now left the Fakkah oil field, which is close to the Iranian border.
Similar incidents have happened before along the border, which has never been properly defined since the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s - although relations between the two neighbours are now cordial.

'No military escalation'
The Iraqis said about a dozen Iranian soldiers had been involved in the incursion and that they had raised the Iranian flag over the oil field.
   
I worry a great deal about Iran's view of destabilising this region as well and specifically... focusing on an oil field  
Adm Mike Mullen
According to General Ray Odierno, commander of US forces in Iraq, the Iranian forces had left the oil well as of Saturday morning, reports AP news agency.
"All of us are concerned about the influence of Iran," Adm Mullen told a news conference in Baghdad.
"I worry a great deal about Iran's view of destabilising this region as well and specifically... focusing on an oil field."
He continued: "But my understanding is this is sovereign Iraqi territory and is something for leaders in Iraq to resolve."
Earlier, Iran's armed forces apparently confirmed the incursion, in a statement quoted by Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam satellite television.
"Our forces are on our own soil and, based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran," they said.
Oil prices rose on Friday amid reports about the commandeered well in Maysan province.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters news agency: "We call for calm and for a peaceful solution to this matter, far from any military escalation."
US forces are due to stay in Iraq until elections in March 2010, and then gradually pull out, with complete withdrawal scheduled by the end of 2011.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8422997.stm

[VandeWiel]

Hiermee is overigens de mythe dat Iran nooit een land is binnengevallen.... een Mythe  

Er is nogal wat ruis rond deze berichten, maar de Iraqi's zitten er behoorlijk mee in de maag. Tegenstanders van een nucleair Iran vragen zich af wat er zou gebeuren als Iran zoiets dergelijks zou doen wanneer ze in het bezit zijn van A-wapens en tegenstanders van het vertrek van de VS vragen zich af of Irak dit alleen wel aan kan. Ik heb nog maar weinig blijde berichten gevonden, maar er lijkt genoeg over gesproken te worden om ze als waar aan te nemen.



Iran troops still on Iraqi soil: Iraqi politician
By Fadel Mouchatat (AFP) – 4 hours ago


AMARA, Iraq — Iranian troops remained inside Iraq territory on Monday despite pulling back from an oil well along the two countries' disputed frontier, a local politician told AFP.

Oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad, meanwhile, said the oil well had not yet been developed and that no Iraqis had worked to extract crude from it before Iran took it over last week.

"The Iranians withdrew from the well and took down the Iranian flag," Mayssam Lafta, the Maysan provincial council member charged with security and defence, told AFP.
"But they are still on Iraqi soil."

The well, known as Oil Well 4, is situated in Maysan.
According to Lafta, the Iranians are positioned 50 metres (yards) east of the well, while Iraqi forces are "surrounding the well."
The oil ministry spokesman said the well had "not been developed" and added that no workers would be going to it because it was not in use.
Iraqi officials say the well lies 100 metres (yards) inside Iraqi territory. Iran insists it lies on its side of the border.
On Friday, an official of Iraq's state-owned South Oil Company in the Maysan provincial capital Amara said that a dozen Iranian troops and technicians had arrived at the field, taken control of Well 4 and raised the Iranian flag.

One SOC employee spoke of how he and his colleagues had faced harassment and intimidation from Iranian forces for several years on visits to the well.
"Usually when we have gone there, we have gone as a group, with engineers and technicians," said Hassan Abu Qassim, a 40-year-old SOC technician.

"Iranian forces would shout in our direction when we go there, to make us afraid, and warn us not to approach. The last time we went was in the summer, and the Iranians shouted at us and did not want us to go nearby."
It was the first serious incident 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.
Well 4 is in the Fauqa Field, part of a cluster of oilfields which Iraq unsuccessfully put up for auction to oil majors in June. The field has estimated reserves of 1.55 million barrels.
The tensions between the two oil producing countries come as OPEC readies for a meeting in Angola on Tuesday.




http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iNUVQ0Qplse834QusHGr7Vc41M1g

[VandeWiel]

Bizar verhaal. Blijkbaar probeert Iran een Opec meeting te beïnvloeden. Olieprijs stijgt als gevolg van deze actie.



Iran Forces Occupy Iraqi Oil Well, Border Guard Says


Iranian forces yesterday entered Iraqi territory at dawn, and occupied well number 4 in the East Maysan oil field, Border Guard General Zafer Nazmi said.

The Iranian forces positioned tanks around the well, which is in the al-Fakah region, 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Baghdad. The two neighbors have disputed the border of southeast Iraq for decades.

"They positioned tanks around it and dug trenches," General Nazmi said by phone from Basra. "They are still there, they raised the flag."

East Maysan in southern Iraq is an old oil field that is no longer in production, according to Nazmi. Iraq is the third largest oil producer in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Energy analysts and traders were surprised at the news, which comes days before Iran and Iraq meet fellow members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries at a Dec. 22 meeting in Luanda, Angola.

Crude oil for January delivery rose as much as $2.04, or 2.8 percent, to $74.69 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded at $74.58 a barrel at 2:19 p.m. London time.

Iran and Iraq waged an eight-year war that ended in 1988, with much of the fighting along the border between southern Iraq and Iran. Iraq has this year signed contracts with several foreign companies to develop its oil fields to revive production.

OPEC Meeting

"From a geopolitical perspective it is a surprising development in terms of timing, considering the upcoming OPEC meeting," said Harry Tchilinguirian, senior oil analyst with BNP Paribas SA in London.

"If verified, the incursion only goes to highlight the still very uncertain conditions on the ground in Iraq that have been impeding the recovery of the country's oil sector," Tchilinguirian said.

Iraq's National Security Council will hold a meeting to discuss the situation, state-run television al-Iraqiya said. Iraq's al-Hurra television station also reported that Iranian forces crossed the border into Iraq, citing the U.S. army saying the incident was not violent.

Baghdad-based government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh didn't immediately respond to e-mails and mobile telephone calls seeking comment. Calls to Iran's presidential office, Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Defense were not answered. Friday is the weekend in Iran. A spokesman for the Iranian embassy in London declined to comment.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agf4nF7wPGXc&pos=8