Opinion A common enemy

The reported air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) carried out by Iran inside Iraqi territory need to be read against the backdrop of two unfolding events — the ongoing negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme and the slow convergence of threat perceptions between Washington and Tehran, at least as far as the IS is concerned. Tehran shares the US-led coalition’s desire to act against the IS and also has the capability to do so. In fact, Iran was the first state to offer military support to its allied Shia-led government in Iraq when the campaign against the IS began. Tehran provided military expertise and deployed its Revolutionary Guards to advise Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga, although it officially denied doing so.

While the Pentagon’s claims about Iran’s air strikes were neither confirmed nor denied officially by Tehran, Washington and Tehran are unlikely to publicise any collaboration. Instead of direct coordination, there may be a de facto non-aggression pact on the ground, whereby the two parties keep out of each other’s way. That doesn’t reduce the significance of what appears to be going on, especially after US Secretary of State John Kerry called any Iranian action against the IS “positive”.

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The West’s rehabilitation of Iran into the community of nations is still some distance away and depends, ultimately, on the nuclear talks. Nevertheless, the war against the IS is evidence of the ground being covered. Tehran and the international community remain on opposite sides in the Syrian civil war, given the former’s support for Bashar al-Assad and its protégé Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria. Washington is also concerned about the sectarian fallout in Iraq of overt Iranian involvement. But any eventual rapprochement between Washington and Tehran would go a long way in eliminating one of the most destabilising factors in a volatile and vulnerable Middle East.