A Turkish opposition party delegation has arrived in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region against the backdrop of peace efforts between Ankara and a banned Kurdish separatist movement in Turkey.

The leaders of two previously rival Kurdish groups have met in northern Iraq in an apparent step toward reconciliation at a time when the political upheaval in Syria has left Kurds in the region facing an uncertain future.

Iraq still doesn’t have a government, eight months since national elections took place, and there seems no clear way out of the dangerous deadlock.