Iran on Saturday rejected the reports that an Iraqi oil well was taken over by Iranian armed forces as an attempt to harm the relations between the two neighboring countries, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"Foreign media made unfounded allegation ... and attempted to disrupt friendly relations between Iran and Iraq by propaganda campaign," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying, Xinhua reported.
"Iran and Iraq currently enjoy friendly and excellent ties," he said. "Those who are not satisfied with such friendly ties between the two countries try to create rift by spreading improper language."
Mehmanparast pointed out that "such technical issues which are quite natural would be resolved by the two countries officials through exchange of views."
Iran's foreign ministry and other relative bodies are now investigating the case, he added.
Some Iraqi and Western media reported Friday that Iranian forces had crossed into Iraq and seized the No. 4 oil well from the al-Fakkah oilfield in Iraq's Maysan province.
Iraq's state-run al-Sabah newspaper on Saturday quoted the government spokesmen Ali al-Dabbagh as saying that the Iraqi Security Council has "stressed that the incident is a violation to Iraq's sovereignty and territories and called upon Iran to pull out its troops from the well."
The al-Fakkah oilfield was first drilled by Iraqis in 1979 as part of the Iraqi territories before the Iraqi-Iranian eight-years war in 1980.
However, the oilfield is now considered a shared one and both Iran and Iraq have the right to pump from it, but the Iraqis consider the well No. 4 theirs.