fauqa oil
Inside Iraq

Baghdad-Tehran relations

What does Iran’s seizure of a disputed oil well reveal about Iran-Iraq relations?

Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has come in for criticism from opposition groups over what they describe as his “weak response” to Iran’s seizure of the al-Fakkah oil well.

Iraqis say that the 1975 border demarcation agreement indicates that the oil well, which is located in a remote area along the Iraq-Iran border, is on Iraqi land but last month 11 armed Iranians reportedly took over the well, dug in and raised an Iranian flag.

On this week’s Inside Iraq, we ask: What was behind Iran’s seizure of the disputed oil well and what does the incident tells us about relations between Baghdad and Tehran?

Our guests are: Issam al-Chalabi; the former Iraqi oil minister, and Seyed Mohammad Marandi, the head of North American studies at the University of Tehran.

This episode of Inside Iraq aired from Friday, January 8.