American and Kurdish ties are close but nothing fundamental has changed, yet.
Michael Knights is the Lafer Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He specialises in the politics and security of Iraq. He has worked in every Iraqi province and most of the country's hundred districts, including periods embedded with Iraq's security forces.
On July 12, the United States signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) regarding US-Kurdish military cooperation in the next stage of the war against the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).
On the Kurdish side, the agreement was signed by acting Minister of Peshmerga Affairs Karim Sinjari, and the US side was represented by Elissa Slotkin, the acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.
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Battle on the horizon
The meetings are a further indication that the battle of Mosul is fast approaching, and that the Iraqi Kurds are expected to play a critical role in the encirclement, liberation and subsequent stabilisation of the city....
