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Significance
Months of tensions between their respective parties have paralysed the region’s cabinet and also played into a crisis with Turkey. Talabani in late April sought to communicate with Ankara via Baghdad, offering guarantees in an effort to persuade Turkey to lift an embargo imposed on Iraq’s Suleimaniya airport in April.
Impacts
The Suleimaniya airport flight ban will have a negative economic impact in PUK areas, boosting intra-regional tensions.
The United States will encourage the PUK to maintain logistical support for its Syrian Kurdish allies against Islamic State (IS).
In the few days before the polls, Ankara could launch more strikes targeting hostile Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq.
Keywords:
Iraq,
Syria,
ME/NAF,
Turkey,
United States,
international relations,
politics,
border conflict,
ethnic,
military,
security
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2023
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