Traps abound as Iraq charts independent course based on ‘national vision’
Iraq's new foreign policy vision promotes noninterference and economic integration; Turkey's bombing of PKK sites in Iraq's Qandil Mountains tests Baghdad's resolve.
Last month Iraq released its “National Framework Document for a Unified Iraqi Policy.” This document matters; it charts a nonaligned foreign policy, stressing noninterference, regional security and economic integration. For a country that has been buffeted in recent years by political and military pressures from Iran and the United States, this is a striking new course, not just high-sounding principle. For the Trump administration, it’s a test: Will the US support a policy that emerged from the most promising, unified turn in Iraqi politics in decades? And how will Tehran react?
For Baghdad, there are hazards everywhere, including from Iraq’s neighbors, and from the potential for a US-Iran conflict.
