The United States and Iran are frequently at odds, most recently over Iran’s nuclear program and its backing of the Syrian regime. But when it comes to Iraq, they’ve recently had a common agenda.

Both Washington and Tehran supported the Iraqi government during the fight against the Islamic State, and they both stood with Baghdad to curb the Kurdistan Region’s independence bid in September 2017. But now, the conflict between Washington and Tehran is threatening to spill over and damage Iraq’s delicate internal stability, just at a time when we need stability more than ever.