Iran and Iraq have begun talks to try to resolve a dispute over an inactive oil well in a sensitive area along the nearly 1,500-km border between the two countries, their foreign ministers said Thursday. Iraq's Hoshiyar Zebari met Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki in a move to cool tensions between the neighbors after a small contingent of Iranian troops moved into an oilfield inside Iraqi territory last month and Iraq vowed it would not give up an inch of its land. Their comments at a news conference after the meeting made clear the essence of the dispute had not been resolved. Mottaki said Iranian troops had been told to withdraw “to their original locations,” but Zebari indicated they had not moved far enough. “The Iranian troops brought down the Iranian flag and withdrew (only) to a certain distance,” Zebari said. The seizure of the well, which Iraq claims as part of its Fakka oilfield in southeastern Maysan province, triggered protests from Baghdad and jitters on world oil markets. Zebari said the two sides had agreed to “normalize border conditions and put back things as they were.”
