Iraq, Iran agree to talk over borders from next week
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Iraq and Iran agreed on Thursday to hold meetings starting from next week to mark their disputed borders, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said.
"There will be meetings starting from next week for the joint border committee between Iraq and Iran," Zebari told reporters at a joint new conference with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki who arrived in Baghdad earlier in the day.
In the following weeks, the joint technical committees would continue talks on the demarcation of land borders between the two countries as well as maritime borders, Zebari said at the conference in the Foreign Ministry building in Baghdad.
For his part, Mottaki said some of his country's border guards took over a disputed area, but "some orders have been issued to the Iranian forces to return to their original positions."
He also said that he considers joint oil fields on some border areas as a chance for further cooperation that would serve the bilateral interests.
On Dec. 18, Iranian troops crossed into Iraq and seized the oil well No. 4 in the Fakkah oil field in Maysan province in southern Iraq, but later the troops pulled out and stationed near the oil field.
The Iranian move raised tension between the two countries and Iraqis in several cities have held demonstrations demanding that their government take actions.
Mottaki's two-day visit to Iraq is his first since September and he is scheduled to meet with top Iraqi officials to discuss security cooperation and definition of the borders between the two countries.
