The United States has reportedly dropped a previous demand to control all Iraqi airspace, according to a Saudi media report July 2. This move says more about the status of U.S.-Iranian negotiations than it does about a future security deal with Iraq.
Saudi-owned newspaper Al Hayat reported July 2 that Washington has dropped a demand to control all of Iraqi airspace in negotiations over a contentious bilateral security treaty between the United States and Iraq. Al Hayat reporter Hussein Ali Da’oud claimed in his report that, during a secret parliamentary session in Iraq that took place the evening of July 1, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told his fellow Iraqi politicians that the United States had abandoned its insistence on full control over Iraqi airspace and would instead play a supporting role to Iraqi forces in this context.
If true (and Stratfor has not yet been able to verify this report), this is a major indicator of progress in the U.S.-Iranian negotiating track.