Fighting springs from old territorial, racial feuds

Press, 25 September 1980, Page 6

Fighting springs from old territorial, racial feuds

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Two traditional areas of tension between Iraq- and Iran, the southern, Shatt-al-Arab estuary and the central oilfield bn either side of the Naft River, stand but as points of confrontation in the build-up to the Gulf war.

Control of the estuary, where the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates drain into the Gulf, was disputed by the two countries for many years. In 1975 Iran and Iraq agreed to recognise the Thalweg, the centre of the main channel of the estuary, as their common frontier. Last week President Saddam Hussein of Iraq announced that he was scrapping the agreement and that Iraq was claiming renewed jurisdiction over the whole width, of the estuary.

Within a narrow area near the estuary lie Iraq’s main oil town of Basra, Iran’s largest oil refinery, at Abadan, and the main Iranian cargo port at Khorramshahr. Bagdad Radio ■ reported yesterday that Basra was one of six Iraqi cities’ to

(have been attacked by Iranian aircraft. , Abadan and Khorramshahr (mark the western boundary lof Khuzestan province, home of Iran’s ethnic Arab population and the source of the country’s oil wealth. Arab insurgency in the province was effectively crushed last year by its form e r Governor-General, Ahmad Madani. However, sabotage, blamed by Teheran on the Iraqis, has continued this year.

Iran has a naval station as well as . a cargo port at Khorramshahr, and since the Iranian revolution, Iranian units have patrolled the estuary on the look-out for arms shipments destined for Arab rebels and alleged to come from Iraq. An Iraqi take-over of Shatt-al-Arab could hinder Iran’s imports, but oil exports would not be affected. Crude from toe Khuzestan fields is loaded at Kharg Island out in the Gulf. The Abadan refinery, the biggest such complex in the world, 1 makes petroleum products for Iran’s domestic consumption and most of the

200,000 to 300,000 barrels per day of refined products which the country exports. Outside the main population centres, the area is low-lying marshland, with I little stirring apart from wild water-buffalo where the estuary meets the Gulf.

Some 550 km north-west of ■ the estuary mouth, the Naft River snakes out of Iraqi , territory and along the comi mon border, dividing the central oilfield which is tapped by both countries from the Iraqi town of Naft Khaneh and the Iranian town of Naft-e-Shahr.

Installations, on the Iranian side have been plagued by sabotage since the beginning of the year, and the Teheran authorities have blamed Iraq-backed infiltrators they allege were sent across the lightly guarded river frontier. The oilfield is in an isolated area, populated on the Iranian side by lowland ‘ Shi’ite Muslim Kurds generally loyal to the central j Government.

Kurdish-speaking Revolutionary Guards who patrol the frontier reported an

Iraqi build-up as early as April this year, when the two rival armies swapped shellfire in the area. The two oil towns are so close both sides can monitor

movements around each other’s installations through field glasses. Naft-e-Shahr, little more than a pumping station and flats for National Iranian Oil Company workers, came under fire during night raids earlier this year, and pipelines running crude through the surrounding desert were blasted by rocket and grenade fire.

Also in the firing line on I the frontier is Qasr-e-Shirin • the first sizeable Iranian : town north of the oilfield. It ; straddles the main Bagdad- ■ Teheran road a few kilo-1 metres north of the international border post at I Khosravi. The area has been tense since last spring when Iraq expelled several thousand people it claimed were ille- i gal Iranian immigrants. The refugees were housed i

in camps near Qasr-E-Shirin pending resettlement in Iran.