ًً
3.4K posts
On Iraq-Syria-Turkey Rail Corridor that bypasses the KRG: There is now strong evidence that largely validates the analysis below from late January: 1. Turkey’s transport minister said Ankara plans to revive the railway line from Nusaybin to Qamishli, thus "linking Turkey to both Syria and Iraq". 2. On February 17, after the SDF formally agreed to integrate and practical steps toward incorporation into the Damascus-led authority began, the head of Iraq’s Border Authority said the prime minister had ordered the rapid reopening of the Rabi’ah crossing with Syria in order to "leverage it for the Development Road project" as he explicitly framed it, the Iraq-to-Turkey corridor whose original route was expected to pass through KRG-controlled territory but was designed before the changes in Syria. This is the first time both Turkey and Iraq appear to be seriously pushing the Syria route as a connecting hub that would effectively bypass the KRG. As the piece below argued, this has long been one of Barzani’s core geostrategic calculations, because such a shift would further erode the KRG’s geopolitical leverage. But there is more to it. This is also the historic route, dating back to Ottoman times, so its underlying feasibility is already well established. It is better suited to rail corridors, likely much cheaper and quicker to build given the topography, and politically attractive to both Turkey and Iraq because it reduces their dependence on the KRG. The recent episode in which KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani tried to impose preconditions on Iraqi oil exports through the KRG pipeline to Turkey's Ceyhan port will likely further strengthen Baghdad’s incentive to revive the Mosul-Qamishli-Mardin route. Here is more on why this is becoming increasingly likely: thenationalcontext.com/turkey-syria-a…
