Iraq peace hopes rise as Turkey, Kurds, Iran, and US all talk

As U.S.-Iran nuclear talks enter a second week and low-level talks begin between Turkey and Kurdish separatists, a cautious optimism is taking hold in Iraq.

The country has long been caught in the middle of regional wars and geopolitical tensions. But there is hope here that should these talks succeed, an era of global and regional powers fighting their conflicts on Iraqi soil could finally come to an end.

Internally, Iraq is finally enjoying a sense of stable government and services as it moves past war and the long-lasting harms left by conflict with the Islamic State. But the stability could either be cemented or collapse depending on the talks’ outcomes.

“Iraq is the first to benefit from any positive development in relations between the U.S. and Iran,” says Ammar al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric and head of the political coalition National Wisdom Movement, “and Iraq is the first to suffer from any tensions between the U.S. and Iran.”

With the threat of war hanging over the Trump administration’s talks with Iran, the stakes are steep here in Iraq, which hosts both U.S. military bases and Iranian proxies.

In the past two years, Iran-aligned militias have used Iraq as a base to launch missile and drone attacks against Israel and U.S. bases – inviting punishing U.S. military strikes in response.