Iraq: Complicated Ties Click on a point to see details of the relationship between any two players in the Iraq crisis. close Infographic by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty © 2014 RFE/RL, Inc. Sources: RFE/RL, "Wall Street Journal," "New York Times," Al Monitor, McClatchy, RFE/RL Iraq After failing to agree on a status of forces agreement with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the United States completed a full withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, eight years after the start of the Iraq War. Since then, generally free from U.S. pressure, Maliki, a Shi'a, has pushed Sunnis to the margins. He has requested military support to fight the growing Sunni insurgency, but Washington has been hesitant without guarantees that he will form a more inclusive government. Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Tehran has played an outsized role in Iraqi politics, sponsoring Shi'ite insurgents against U.S. forces and maintaining close ties with Shi'ite Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Tehran sees a Shi'ite-dominated Iraq as an important bulwark in the proxy battle against its Sunni rival, Saudi Arabia. It has said it will consider providing military support to stop the advance of ISIL. In a war for influence in the Middle East, the Sunni-led Gulf monarchies, led by Riyadh, were troubled by the rise of a Shi'ite-dominated government in Iraq and alarmed at Iran's growing influence in the region. The Gulf states have backed Sunni rebel groups fighting the Assad regime in Syria and although they have not officially provided support to ISIL, that extremist group is widely believed to have benefited from their indirect support. Turkey has a strong trade relationship with Iraq, reaching a record $12 billion last year, according to "The Wall Street Journal." Still, Ankara has been criticized for failing to protect its border with Syria, where militants heading into the conflict are said to traverse freely. Tension also increased recently when Turkey signed an oil import deal directly with the autonomous Kurdish region that did not include Baghdad. Both Kurdish leaders and the Iraqi government have united to fight the Sunni militant uprising. Still, Baghdad regards the relatively peaceful Kurdish autonomous region with suspicion as its leaders make moves that seem to portend a quest for independence. Earlier this year, Iraqi Kurds pursued an oil deal with Turkey that excluded Baghdad. And in June, the Kurdish Peshmerga militia took control of Kirkuk, an important oil-producing city, as the Iraqi army fled. The militant Islamist group, which had its beginnings as Al-Qaeda in Iraq during the Iraq War, has promised to form an Islamic caliphate on the lands of present-day Iraq and Syria. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has promised to crush it. But the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of an ISIL attack on Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and the group's forces have continued to advance to near Baghdad. ISIL, which has between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters, is believed to be supported by Iraqi Sunni tribal leaders who have been outraged by their treatment at the hands of Maliki's Shi'a-dominated government, as well as former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party. Iran Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic relations since 1979 and Tehran was the key backer of an anti-U.S. Shi'ite insurgency between 2003 and 2011. Qassem Suleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, has been credited with effectively orchestrating the shift in power in Iraq from Washington to Tehran. Nonetheless, the sides have mutual interest in preventing Sunni militants from splitting the country apart, and there has been recent talk of cooperation in quelling the insurgency. Saudi Arabia and Iran are fierce rivals -- with each side battling, along largely sectarian lines, for Middle East hegemony. The current conflict and recent fighting in Iraq have been fanned by Syria's civil war, where Tehran has provided support to Bashar al-Assad's regime and Gulf monarchies have provided weapons and financial support to Sunni rebel groups. Turkey and Iran have long been at opposite ends of the Syrian civil war, with Ankara calling for military action against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and Tehran backing Assad, who comes from the Shi'ite-rooted Allawite sect. But as Assad has dug in and Turkey has been forced to deal with a new threat to instability in Iraq, the two sides have recently seemed willing to put aside their differences. In early June, Iranian President Hassan Rohani made an official visit to Ankara. Iraq's Kurdish region and Iran have some economic and political cooperation and the Iraqi Kurd leader attended the inauguration of Iranian President Hassan Rohani. Still, Tehran's own domestic conflict with militant Kurds seeking autonomy within its borders makes any ties to the autonomous Kurdish republic in Iraq tenuous. ISIL, the radical militant Sunni group, sees itself as a sworn enemy of Shi'ite-led Iran, which has provided the bulwark of support for Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. Tehran has said it will intervene to protect Shi'ite shrines, which ISIL has threatened to destroy. USA United States For Washington, ties with Riyadh -- both economic and security -- have long been closer than with any other Arab state. But relations have soured, particularly after the United States declined to take military action in support of Sunni rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. If Washington does decide to cooperate with Saudi Arabia's arch rival, Iran, in fighting Islamic militants in Iraq, relations can be expected to deteriorate further. Ankara long pushed for a U.S.-backed military response to support Sunni rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. Despite disagreements over tactics, the interests of Ankara and Washington have largely been aligned in Iraq and Syria. Both governments have pushed for Assad to leave and both see instability in Iraq as a threat to their national interests. The United States has had strong ties with Iraqi Kurds since the end of the first Gulf War, when an autonomous region was created in the north of Iraq. Kurdish militias also backed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. After withdrawing its troops from Iraq in 2011, Washington has been forced to again consider military action in the country following ISIL's quick advance toward Baghdad. In the summer of 2013, those supporting arming moderate rebels fighting the Syrian regime of Bashal al-Assad had argued that this was the best hope to prevent the further rise of militant Islamist groups like ISIL. Others worried that the weapons would end up in extremists' hands. Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ambitious vision of a Turkey that is the chief influencer in the Middle East has created tension with Riyadh, which has long dominated Sunni state politics. In Syria, their interests have largely converged -- with both supporting rebels against the regime of Bashar al-Assad -- although in Iraq, Ankara may have a greater interest in maintaining stability than Riyadh, which has been disturbed by the rise of a Shi'ite-led government backed by Iran. Saudi Arabia has in the past shown suspicion toward Iraq's Kurdish population. In 2011, McClatchy news service reported that the presidency of Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, rankled the Saudis, who considerer Iraq an "Arab" state. Saudi Arabia has backed some militant rebel groups, but Riyadh says it has never supported ISIL. It now finds itself in a bind: It opposes the Shi'ite, Iranian-backed government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, which has been weakened. But ISIL could also be an eventual threat to the Saudis, who have fought their own domestic battles with extreme Islamist groups who reject the monarchic system. Turkey Turkey's relationship with Iraqi Kurds has been boosted by both growing economic cooperation and a domestic thaw in Turkey's long-running conflict with its own Kurdish separatist movement. Ankara, although still wary of any Kurdish nationalist movement, sees the relatively stable region as both a place for growing economic opportunity -- earlier this year, Ankara agreed to a controversial oil import deal with Iraqi Kurdish leaders that excluded Baghdad -- and a buffer between its borders and the rest of Iraq. Ankara expressed shock after ISIL militants overran a Turkish consulate in Mosul, kidnapping 45 consular staff and family members. Nonetheless, some have blamed Turkey for allowing arms and militants to cross generally freely into Syria through Turkey. Iraqi Kurds Thousands of Syrian Kurds have attempted to flee to Iraq's Kurdish region as Islamist militant groups like ISIL have gained ground. The fighting, though, may present an opportunity for Iraqi Kurds, many of whom hope for an independent Kurdistan: If the break-up of Iraq ever becomes inevitable, the Kurds are likely to carve out their own state from the split. Perhaps as a precursor of things to come, in early June the Kurdish Peshmerga militia took over control of the disputed city of Kirkuk as Iraqi soldiers disappeared. ISIL* *Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant