Iran-Iraq meet on border issues

QASR-E SHIRIN, Iran, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The formal demarcation of the Iranian border with Iraq will help settle disputes over oil fields straddling the border, officials said in Iran.

A joint Iraqi-Iranian delegation met in the Iranian border town of Qasr-e Shirin to discuss a formal demarcation of the border. Formal markings defining the border were destroyed during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

Engineers accompanied Iranian troops to take control of well No. 4 at the Fakkah oil field in Maysan province Dec. 18. Iranian forces eventually pulled back, but only about 160 feet from their original location.

Iraq says the oil field lies within its territory, through the Iranian side disputes the claim. Iranian news outlets, however, blamed Western media for exaggerating the severity of the issue.

Mohammed Hammood, the deputy Iraqi foreign minister, said border demarcation was a bilateral issue that transcended politics, Iraq's daily newspaper Azzaman reports.

"The delegation is purely technical and has nothing to do with politics," he said. "It includes representatives from the ministries of foreign affairs, water resources, defense and interior."

Iranian troops allegedly crossed into Iraq's eastern province of Diyala during the weekend, through provincial authorities did not confirm the reports.