On Feb. 16, following decades of disruption, Turkey and Iraq
restored a rail link running from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to Gaziantep in southern Turkey, via Syria. The move is a concrete illustration of Turkey's increased efforts to develop commercial ties with Iraq, initiatives that Ankara has in turn used to establish a platform upon which it can deepen its diplomatic role and limit destabilizing spillover effects from its volatile neighbor. The strategy has paid off, as demonstrated by the recent visits to Ankara of a host of Iraqi political players -- including 'Ammar al-Hakim, Humam Hammoudi and Osama al-Tikriti -- in the weeks preceding Iraq's upcoming national parliamentary elections.
In many ways, Turkey's rise as a major diplomatic player on the Iraqi stage serves as a counterpoint to Iran's magnified role, with both pro-actively promoting their interests by attempting to reintegrate Iraq into the region on their own terms. That stands in stark contrast to Iraq's Arab neighbors, who have
utterly failed to seriously prepare for the United States'
impending withdrawal. ...