cnn.com | By Kosrat Rasul Ali (*) — 18 Oct 2017

(CNN) Many who follow what is happening in the Middle East will be wondering what's next for the failed former states of Iraq and Syria in a post-ISIS world.

reuters.com | Reuters Staff - October 16, 2017
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States sought on Monday to avoid openly taking sides in an Iraqi-Kurdish dispute, as Iraq’s capture of the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk raised the risk of an open conflict between U.S. allies in the fight against Islamic State.

washingtonpost.com | By Adam Taylor(*) - October 17

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Tabletmag.com - By Bernard-Henri Lévy

‘We should not have abandoned Kurdistan, the only real pole of stability in the region’

newyorker.com | By Dexter Filkins(*) October 16, 2017

On Sunday, Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s chief spymaster, travelled to the Iraqi city of Sulaimaniya to meet with the leaders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or P.U.K., one of the two main Kurdish political parties. For years, the P.U.K. and its sister party, the Kurdish Democratic Party, or K.D.P., have been struggling to break away from the rest of Iraq and form an independent state. A Kurdish republic is opposed by all the region’s countries—the governments in Baghdad, Turkey, and Iran—which fear that sizable Kurdish minorities in all three nations will begin to act autonomously. Only weeks ago, in a region-wide referendum, Iraq’s Kurds voted overwhelmingly to secede. The Kurdish dream, it seemed, was tantalizingly within reach.

Opinion | Editorial

nytimes.com | By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Turkey has been a vital ally of the United States since World War II. It fields NATO’s second-largest army, after America’s, and anchors the alliance’s eastern flank. It hosts military bases that are central to American operations in the Middle East, including Incirlik, where some 50 tactical nuclear weapons are stationed, and serves as a bridge between the Muslim world and the West. After Recep Tayyip Erdogan took office in 2003 and began reforms, Turkey seemed on course to becoming a model Muslim democracy.

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. Russia values relations with both Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan, and stands for finding a peaceful political solution to the situation in the region, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin spokesman pointed out that Moscow had good relations with both Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurds

Nytimes.com - By PATRICK KINGSLEY and BENJAMIN WEISEROCT

The conversations caught on wiretaps planted by the Turkish police are alleged to show a conspiracy to help Iran skirt American sanctions by trading gold for gas.

Spectator.org - Jay D. Homnick

The name Tillerson is a comforting one to policy makers, suggesting the son of tillers who have learned the soil can only be tilled with toil. But Secretary Tillerson’s unfortunate response to the Kurdish referendum was deficient in both style and substance. You cannot sit on fences in the Middle East, because they are generally mined. In the case of Kurdistan, his miscalculation has led to a misreading by the bad guys abroad. With the reading and ’rithmetic messed up, we are left with the writing. Hopefully we can get a message through the noise.

State Department is doing the math… and in danger of flunking.*