Senior US officials will sit down with their counterparts from Iran and Syria (among others) in Baghdad later this month to discuss ways of improving security in Iraq. The talks will be continued at foreign minister level in April. Why, after years of refusing to engage in diplomacy with Damascus and Tehran, has Washington apparently changed its tune, and where might it lead?

Graham Hutchings, discusses the issue with David Taylor, Oxford Analytica's Middle East editor, and Dr Tom Wales, North America editor.