US: Iraq not 'pushed around' by Iran

[December 19, 2009]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iraq is "not going to be pushed around" by Iran, the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq said Saturday following an Iranian takeover of an oil well along the two nations' disputed border.

 U.S. officials said they agreed with Iraq's speedy defense of its sovereignty amid ongoing concern over Iran's influence on its Mideast neighbor.

"It does speak to the overall view here that they are not going to be pushed around by Iran," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Chris Hill told reporters Saturday.

Armed Iranian forces earlier this week crossed into Iraq, seizing an oil well just over the border in southern Iraq's Maysan province. The takeover - which included planting an Iranian flag on the well - was met by protests from Baghdad.

It served as a dramatic display of the sometimes tenuous relations between the wary allies.

Iraqi authorities on Saturday prevented media representatives from visiting the area at the al-Fakkah oil field, located about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad.

Army Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, said the Iranian forces were gone from the oil well as of Saturday morning.

But an oil worker at the field said five Iranians remain inside the well, and the Iranian flag still flew above it. The worker, who did not want to be identified for fear of retribution, said Iranian troops were watching the well from a hillside on Iran's side of the border.

An Iraqi interior ministry official said some Iraqi troops, soldiers and border guards have moved to a staging ground about one kilometer from the seized well, awaiting orders for action. The official, who was at the scene, was not authorized to discuss the situation with the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Earlier Saturday, the top American military official said the oil well takeover appeared to be the latest example of Iran flexing its influence over Iraq and other Mideast nations. However, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen called it an issue for the Iraqi government to settle, and said there were no plans by the United States to intervene.

Once bitter enemies, Iraq and Iran settled into a more positive, if still uneasy, relationship after a Shiite-led government came to power following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

"I continue to worry about the influence of Iran," Mullen, in Iraq for a two-day visit with U.S. and Iraqi authorities, said at a news conference in Baghdad. "There are certainly expectations as a neighbor that there's a relationship, and there are some positive aspects of that. But most of them are pretty negative."

Odierno also said Iran continues to fund and train foreign fighters in Iraq, as well as send weapons and equipment over the border - although less frequently now than in the past.

[Associated Press; By ANNE GEARAN and LARA JAKES]

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