FISH KHABBOUR, Iraq — Turn on a television or scroll social media in Iraq over the last three weeks and by almost any measure, more conflict appears imminent between the federal government in Baghdad and the Kurdish region in the north.

Kurdish officials accuse federal forces — without corresponding evidence — of committing a slaughter last month when they seized control of 20 percent of territory that had been long under Kurdish domain. Iraqi lawmakers demand prison sentences for Kurds who supported the Sept. 25 independence referendum.

Yet amid the acrimony, leaders in Baghdad and the Kurdish strongholds of Erbil and Sulimaniyah have also been exchanging almost daily phone calls, hoping to hash out solutions to problems exacerbated by that vote — and to get thousands of federal and Kurdish troops massed within each others’ sight lines to stand down.

The back-channel chats have taken on heightened importance since formal de-escalation talks stalled on Oct. 29, after only two face-to-face meetings.