Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Monday that Iraq has serious problems with Iran on defining their land and sea borders despite improved bilateral ties between the two countries, Xinhua reported.
"We have very serious problems with Iran over demarcations of land, sea and coastal borders," Zebari said in an interview with the Iraqi television of al-Sharqiya.
"For long time, we have tried to convince Iran to move forward to solve the dispute over Shaat al-Arab channel, in order to avoid problems, but we failed," Zebari said.
Iraq and Iran have fought or eight years in 1980's because of disputes over land, sea and coastal borders, including the dispute over 120 km waterway of Shatt al-Arab that formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra province in southern Iraq.
Ties between Iraq and Iran have improved after the U.S.-led invasion, but disputes persisted by the presence of the U.S. troops in Iraq and its support to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government.