In the heart of Baghdad’s Green Zone, just yards from the mighty fortress of the biggest U.S. embassy in the world, a small but symbolic challenge to America’s rapidly waning influence in Iraq is taking shape in the form of an Iranian ice cream parlor.
Ice Pack, an aggressive new franchise that proclaims its intent to challenge U.S. fast-food hegemony worldwide, will open its Green Zone branch in January, said Ali Hazem Haideri, the shop’s Iraqi manager. The building is under construction, but when complete it will offer customers a choice of 34 ice cream flavors, along with a front-row view of the comings and goings of the heavily armored convoys that whisk U.S. officials through the blast walls protecting the embassy nearby.
