Anchor Rising: Mid-east Oil Well Tagging

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December 18, 2009

Foreign Affairs

Mid-east Oil Well Tagging

Marc Comtois

The headline caught my attention: "Iranian forces take over Iraq oil well." Yikes. Then I read the story...and the real situation is described by U.S. Colonel Peter Newell:

"What happens is, periodically, about every three or four months, the oil ministry guys from Iraq will go ... to fix something or do some maintenance. They'll paint it in Iraqi colours and throw an Iraqi flag up.

"They'll hang out there for a while, until they get tired, and as soon as they go away, the Iranians come down the hill and paint it Iranian colours and raise an Iranian flag. It happened about three months ago and it will probably happen again."

For sure, the wells are in disputed territory, which has been a constant point of negotiation between Iran and Iraq. But the actual "actions on the ground" make it seem more akin to a graffiti turf war.

11:30 AM | TrackBack (0)

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Personally, I think we should panic over this ...

Posted by: Monique at December 18, 2009 12:48 PM

Yes, when will Iran learn to respect the territorial boundaries of other nations ? You guys crack me up.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.

Posted by: Russ at December 18, 2009 3:02 PM

I'd be more sympathetic to Iran if they weren't slant drilling across the Iraqi border, like Saddam used to do to Kuwait before GW I.

Wait. No I wouldn't.

Posted by: EMT at December 20, 2009 11:14 AM