Baghdad , Iraq ( CNN ) -- The Iraqi government Friday demanded the withdrawal of an Iranian `` armed group '' that it says seized an oil well in southern Iraq on Thursday night . Iran is denying any takeover took place . The Iraqi government issued a strong statement deploring the act after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki headed an emergency meeting of Iraq 's National Security Council to discuss the situation . `` The council stressed that such incidents would be considered a violation of the border and violated Iraq 's sovereignty and its territories and calls upon Iran to pull out the group from well No . 4 and take down the Iranian flag from the tower of the well immediately , '' Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in the statement . Senior Iraqi government sources initially referred to the Iranians as `` security forces , '' but the official Iraqi government statement later called them an `` armed group . '' Drilled in 1979 , the well is in Iraq 's Maysan province , east of Amara , near the Iranian border . It is within the province 's Fakka oil field , the Iraqi government said . Al-Dabbagh said in the statement that the Iraqi government had summoned the Iranian ambassador in Baghdad , Hassan Kazemi Qomi , to inform him officially about the incident and asked him to provide a note to Iran 's Foreign Affairs Ministry `` to address such a violation . '' The statement said the Iraqi government called upon Iran `` to resolve all border problems through diplomatic dialogue and avoid the use of military force in order to preserve our common security and bilateral relations between the two countries . '' An official at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad had said earlier that Iraqi authorities had not yet contacted them . Iraq and Iran share a long border , and high-ranking committees from both countries handle all border matters , an Iranian Embassy official said . Iraq and Iran fought a bloody eight-year war that ended in 1988 in a cease-fire with no clear victor and parts of the border under dispute . But political , economic , cultural and religious ties between Iran , a predominantly Shiite Muslim nation , and Iraq , a majority Shiite Muslim nation , greatly improved after the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003 . At the same time , there has been widespread concern among Iraqi and U.S. officials that Iran has been providing Iraqi insurgents with material for roadside bombs during the Iraq war . The report of the oil well incident comes several days after the Oil Ministry 's two-day auction of oil fields . Aimed at increasing Iraqi oil production , deals were struck for seven of the 15 fields offered . There also had been oil bidding in June . CNN 's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Yousif Bassil contributed to this report .
NEW : Iraqi official says Iranian ambassador to Iraq has been summoned over matter . Iran denies it happened ; Iraqi government blames Iranian ` ` armed . '' Well is in Kurdistan province , east of Amara , near Iranian border , officials say . The two countries had a war that ended in 1988 with parts of border under dispute .