Today, there is welcome news that Nouri al-Maliki has committed himself to prevent attacks by Kurdish rebel elements over the Turkish border.

Iraq itself has suffered from cross border attacks over the past four years, either by non-state actors moving across the Saudi Arabian or Syrian border, or from state-sanctioned forces from the Iranian regime. It is therefore perfectly correct that Iraq should ensure that such attacks on Turkey stop immediately as a matter of principle, quite apart from the practical consideration that a Turkish response to prevent such attacks would endanger one of the few successes in Iraq.

A comparison can be made with the Palestinian Authority, which while under the control of Hamas continued to launch rocket attacks against Israel. No real undertaking to prevent such attacks was made, indeed Hamas was actively behind such attacks, and Israel therefore saw a legitimate reason for militarily intervening in Gaza to prevent further attacks. Iraq is therefore correct to make the move to prevent further attacks on Turkey. So long as the Iraqi government is making strenuous attempts to control such violence, non-violent mechanisms should be used to discuss disputes between what are essentially two democratic governments.