BAGHDAD, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Iraq established a special committee to find a way forward to settle disputes following the Iranian seizure of an oil well in Maysan province, officials said.
Abdulkarim al-Aibi, the inspector general for the Iraqi Oil Ministry, said the country set up a committee to develop ways to share oil fields that straddle the border with Iran, Iraq's Azzaman news service reports.
Iran and Iraq have yet to establish an official border because of disputes from the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1975 ceded a portion of Iraqi territory and half of the Shatt al-Arab waterway in response to an Iranian-backed Kurdish uprising, the report said.
Iranian forces in mid December seized a well at al-Fakkah field in Maysan province and raised the Iranian flag at the site before diplomatic efforts quieted the situation.
Aibi said there were only two non-producing fields -- Huwaiza and Khana Jinoubi -- that Iraq shares with Iran.
The inspector general said al-Fakkah was situated clearly inside Iraqi territory.
He added the committee planned to travel to Tehran "soon" to discuss the matter with Iranian officials.
