Analysis: Oil part of Iraq-Iran war talks

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