Syria is hell: devastated by civil war, with 250,000 dead, 4 million refugees, and the country overrun by Islamic State fanatics set on murder and mayhem. Neighbouring Iraq controls a small part of the country. IS rules Iraq's second-largest city and has carved out huge hunks elsewhere as part of its proclaimed Caliphate.
Iraqi Sunnis are alienated and the Iraqi Army hapless. There are millions of refugees, daily bombings, rapes, mass enslavement and massacres of minorities, and unspeakable misery.
Meanwhile, Falah Mustafa Bakir, who sits in the middle of this nightmare, proclaims: "We have a better future", and, moreover, "We are realistic about our future." 
On the face of it, the comment seems more than a tad unrealistic. But it comes from the foreign minister of a non-state state, Iraqi Kurdistan, which has the only positive story to tell in the region. It has a functioning civil society, and its army, the Peshmerga, is the only regional military force that has been successful in taking the fight to IS.
Further, as Foreign Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Falah Mustafa has helped orchestrate visits from heads of state to Irbil, the KRG capital, including French President Fran&ccedil;ois Hollande, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo??an, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and the foreign ministers of numerous European states.
On Wednesday, Falah Mustafa will meet Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, request direct military aid for the Peshmerga and seek more financial help in coping with the 1.8 million internally displaced people and Syrian refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan. Further down the track he is seeking investment from Australian companies in an oil-rich region, with plenty of productive farmland.
He will also present to Ms Bishop a plan for the political, economic and humanitarian rehabilitation from such a disaster. A native of Irbil from a long Kurdish family lineage, he reverts to an old Kurdish saying: "When the pool is deeper, swimming becomes nicer". "Now the pool has become much deeper [and] there have been a number of complications. [So] now is the time for the international community to get closer [and] address the issues," he says.

US-Russia understanding needed
The prerequisite is an "understanding between the US and Russia". The latter recently entered the conflict to help beleaguered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The complication is that Assad, whose regime has attacked Syrian civilians with chemical weapons and used barrel bombs to inflict the maximum slaughter on civilian neighbourhoods, is not only under siege from IS, but from other, US-backed, rebel groups in Syria.
"It's unfortunate that the situation in Syria is in a crIS," says Falah Mustafa, exhibiting a diplomatic penchant for understatement. "The international community could have dealt with it in a different way, but we are where we are."
"Where we are" includes not just the bloody bedlam in Iraq and Syria, but an undeclared war against a large Kurdish minority in neighbouring Turkey by a highly nationalistic Turkish government, and the effective increasing control by Shiite Iran of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government.
Then there is the fact that Kurdistan represents one of the largest ethnic nations in the world that as always been stateless. Covering Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Armenia, there  between 30 million and 32 million Kurds, famed for their fighting ability, resilience, and faith that one day they will have their own state.
This faith may contribute to Falah Mustafa's insistence that there is a way through, but it depends on an extraordinary future agreement between the US and Russia. "Russia's intentions are not hidden; its intention is to support the Syrian government," which is run by Alawites, who are linked to Moslem Shiites, and so therefore also receives strong support from Iran, and Iran's military proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
He says this Russian military backing in Syria has come because the Assad government was losing control "of certain sensitive areas". Russia's involvement has also been interpreted by some Western commentators as an opportunistic push against American influence in the region, taking advantage of American hesitation about deeper involvement following the disastrous, US-led, invasion of Iraq in   March 2003.
"It was already complicated," concedes Falah Mustafa, "and now it's getting more complicated. We hope that there will be an understanding between the US and Russia in order to have the same priority. That priority will be fighting [Islamic State] and other terrorist groups. That would make everyone's task much easier."
"The point is that we are where we are. We face this reality. We have to be united in fighting IS and to have the political settlement. Talks have to start in order to save what could be saved. Millions have become refugees and IDPs [Internally Displaced People], which is really getting more and more difficult for everyone," including the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees who have poured into Europe in recent weeks.
"That's why we have to make sure there will be an understanding between the US and Russia - first, to fight the terrorist groups, and second ,pave the way for peaceful talks and political talks."
Pausing for a sip of tea, the neatly dressed, compact foreign minister, aged 51, speaks in a precise, quiet manner, employing an impressive logic not unnaturally skewed towards Kurdish interests. His low-key, apparently calm approach is belied by the compact intensity of his face.
Educated in Mosul - now occupied by IS - and with a masters' degree from the University of Bath in the west of England, he has been the KRG foreign minister for nine years, and visited Australia in 2006, arriving on the day before Kevin Rudd replaced Kim Beazley as ALP leader.

Proud of Peshmerga
Since then he has been in relentless pursuit of securing a place for Iraqi Kurdistan at the international table. "We are proud of our Peshmerga, who have been stopping the advances [of IS]. We are proud of our people who have opened their doors to welcome these refugees and IDPs. We are proud of our tolerant community of Kurds, Muslims and non-Muslims all living together. We want to keep that kind of spirit of tolerance and peaceful co-existence."
"We live in a very difficult neighbourhood. Therefore we are committed to our principles and values. We share the same values of democracy, human rights, women's rights, children's rights [as democratic Western countries]. We want to be part of this international community.
"Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon have refugees [from the Syrian civil war] but none of them is fighting terrorism, none of them has a front line with  IS. We have a frontline which is 1050 kilometres long. We have been fighting on a daily basis for a year and four months now."
Lack of modern weapons, military training, and shortages of medicine, food, clothing and temporary accommodation for refugees will be high on the list of discussion points between Falah Mustafa and his Australian opposite number. "We need weapons and ammunition to end this war, and capacity-building and training. This is not a traditional conventional war. This is fighting a terrorist organisation."
He says the Peshmerga need tanks, armoured personnel carriers, anti-tank weapons, and artillery. The KRG has not received any recent military help from the central government in Baghdad, and does not benefit from any budgetary assistance from the Iraqi capital. However, the KRG earns some income from the royalties from the sale of about 700,000 barrels of oil a day produced in the KRG region. This oil is mainly marketed through Turkey which was, until recently, the preferred outlet for IS in selling its oil on the black market.
"We would like these weapons to be provided directly to the Kurdistan region, but if there is no other option then it's OK [for the military aid to come] via Baghdad. But our preferred option is if they come directly. We have proven to be a reliable partner and to be able to fight IS. We have regained territory and we have liberated many of the areas where we fought IS last year."
Photos taken, tea drunk, Falah Mustafa retires to his room to sleep off the jet lag before, once again, he fronts up for the future of his beloved Iraqi Kurdistan.