WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- A senior Iraqi delegation in Iran isn't directly focused on recent allegations of misconduct in the Iraqi oil sector -- including an Iranian takeover of some fields -- but rather settling cross-border rows leftover from war two decades ago.
Although oil disputes were expected to be a portion of the agenda, Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labeed Abbawi told United Press International the main issue is a disputed border -- agreed to in 1975 and violated in the Iran-Iraq war, during which a half-million people on both sides were killed.
Another legacy of the war are unexploded mines on land and -- along with sunken ships -- in the troubled Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet in southern Iraq and flow toward the Persian Gulf. The Shatt al-Arab became the line of demarcation between Iraq and Iran.
"I think this is an issue that has mired the relationship for many years before, and we want to settle this ... once and for all … for better relations between Iran and Iraq," Abbawi said.
Iranian and Iraqi media reports from the meeting say a technical agreement was reached over the 1975 Algiers Accord and the sides will work to implement new accepted borders.
"Of course, there are some areas which are disputed areas which have some oil wells but the main thing is not the wells but the border line," Abbawi said. "A delegation from the Ministry of Oil would be discussing the oil wells with the Iranians at a later stage."
Iran and Iraq have the second- and third-largest proven oil reserves in the world. Iraq is highly underexplored, and initial predictions are that its reserves may surpass Saudi Arabia's.
Faraj Moussa, the deputy chief of Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, earlier this month accused Iran of taking over 15 oil wells in the south, forcefully blocking Iraqi workers' access and pumping oil back to Iran through a yet-to-be-built pipeline. What's clear is that much is unclear, from the allegations to the government's response, most of which is embedded in media accounts.
Although such claims have been simmering for at least a year, according to sources UPI spoke to, a thorough investigation into charges against Iran and a smuggling racket has been called for but never acted upon. Corruption is considered endemic in Iraq, and billions of dollars a year are believed lost in the oil and fuels black market. Moussa has blamed specific political parties in Iraq. He was removed as acting chief and is now widely dismissed by political leadership.
Iraq's Foreign Ministry then said it forwarded a letter of warning from Iraq's Oil Ministry to Tehran to stop any activity on oil fields in dispute.
Iraq Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani told the Voices of Iraq news agency, "There are no Iranian forces in the region," following a visit to the Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq near the border between Iran and the provinces of Missan and Basra in Iraq. Shahristani told al-Sumaria TV that Iranian Border Guards are preventing Iraqis from working on the Abu Gharab oil field in northern Missan along the Iran border and potentially a shared field.
Iraqi national security adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said there's no proof of Iranian wrongdoing, the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reports, and Iran has issued statements denying allegations and calling for meetings.
Such disputes have occurred with other neighbors, most prominently Kuwait, and similar allegations are one reason given for Saddam Hussein's invasion in 1990. Muhammad-Ali Zainy, an analyst with the Center for Global Energy Studies in London, told UPI it's highly unlikely Iran is drilling from its territory into oil in Iraq, a capital-, labor- and time-consuming venture.
Abdul-Hadi al-Hasani, deputy chair of the Iraqi Parliament's Energy Committee, said a report authored by an independent company "to assess historical rights" on oil fields along the Kuwait-Iraq border is "almost at final stages."
Such discussions with Iran haven't taken place yet, he told UPI, though allegations have been "going on for some time." He said the Oil Ministry needs to form a committee now. "We will be happy to accompany as well as members of Parliament to meet our counterparts."
Former Iraq Oil Minister Issam Chalabi said Naft Khanah, northeast of Baghdad, is the only official shared field with Iran, potentially Abu Gharab, and definitely not Majnoon, potentially Iraq's largest oil field.
"Iran is trying to push Iraqis to accept the fact that it is a joint field and that it should not be developed," Chalabi said, until there is an agreement on developing the field together.
"This is a dispute over oil rights in a border region between two sovereign states," said Multi-National Forces-Iraq press officer Maj. Brad Leighton. "It is a diplomatic issue between Iraq and Iran, not a security issue."
Missan province controls its security as of April 2007, Leighton said. "The only way we would get involved in the security of (Missan) is if the Iraqis asked us for help for something they could not handle themselves."
James Placke, a Middle East expert for Cambridge Energy Research Associates who spent three decades in key foreign posts at the State Department, said the oil and gas-related dispute between Iraq and Iran "is not new."
"In the past, they've been able to work these things out; it's a process of negotiations and accommodation," Placke told a Houston energy conference last week. "I would say given the present structure of the Iraq government it should be relatively easier to find an accommodation today than it has in the past. There is bound to be friction between neighbors that are in some respects competitive more than complimentary. But I don't think it's going to become a major problem."
Under Saddam Hussein's strong arm, Iraq's Shiites were among the repressed people, killed for real or perceived attempts at rebellion. Now the Shiites, the majority of Iraqis, are in charge. The two most powerful parties have close ties to Iran's Shiite majority leadership.
"The Iranians have some of the best set of political ties with the government in Baghdad," Jane's Iran expert Alex Vatanka told UPI. "I don't see that changing any time soon." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Iraq next month, a major step in relations.
Those political ties mean economic ties as well, Vatanka said. "Obviously, energy collaboration will need more than just political goodwill," he added, including "socioeconomic deprivation" along each other's most war-torn border areas, and the legacy of unexploded ordnance.
"Because of these landmines, Iraq has lost access to thousands of hectares of farmland," Environment Minister Narmin Othman told the U.N. Humanitarian Bureau's press office, "and has been unable to invest properly in its oil fields."
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