What I heard in Turkey repeatedly is that Washington ought to focus on containing and stabilizing Iraq before embarking on other adventures in the region, such as a regime change in Syria and Iran . Iraq alone has all the ethnic and religious complexities of the Middle East , and it has to be a clear priority.  

Second, the road map for the Middle East peace process cannot be just words, but the United States and the United Kingdom somehow have to deliver the two sides once and for all. For this, pressure on both sides will be needed.

 

Zeyno Baran is the Director for International Security and Energy Programs at The Nixon Center (http://www.nixoncenter.org).