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.
Iraq’s 'three presidents' chart a unified course
Iraq’s national framework benefits from an exceptional level of cohesion among the country’s top leaders: Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, President Barham Salih and Speaker of the Council of Representatives Mohammed al-Halbusi. This power trio, known around Baghdad as the “three presidents,” has set a new bar for Iraqi governance. None of them controls a key party or bloc in the parliament, so they’re settled on a balance-of-power pragmatism based on the tenets of a "unified Iraqi policy." They put Iraq first and consult regularly, and are thereby able to manage crises with a unity and focus that is, to date, unprecedented in post-Saddam Iraq, as Farhad Alaaldin explains. And all three are invested in the US-Iraq relationship.
