Editor’s Note: This is the third and final installment of a series, produced in collaboration with the U.S. Institute of Peace, on the challenges faced by a post-ISIL Iraq. Read the first and second installments

Iraqi political leaders in Baghdad and Erbil, the Kurdistan regional capital, have escalated their rhetoric this week, as Kurdish officials reported 92 percent approval of the Sept. 25 nonbinding vote on independence for the region. The verbal volleys and intensifying actions risk triggering another outbreak of violent conflict.

USIP’s Elie Abouaoun, Robin Wright, Mona Yacoubian in Facebook Live Discussion.

the Saudi role in the region’s military conflicts and the extremist threat on its own turf.

The United States launched its first air strikes against forces backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the country’s civil war began six years ago,