Good Neighbors

Following his trip to Iran Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said:

"We are committed to a good relationship with our neighbors"

Of course Iran's promise of one billion dollars in rebuilding assistance from Iran probably made him feel more neighborly.

Separately, al-Jaafari said in his first public remarks since he returned from a state visit to Iran that the neighboring Islamic Republic had pledged about $1 billion for rebuilding projects to include schools, hospitals and libraries.


Iran also will supply much-needed electricity. American-led efforts to fix Iraq's outdated and war-damaged power grid have yielded little difference in the lives of Iraqis, who are enduring their third sweltering summer with sporadic electricity since the war began.


Al-Jaafari and 10 of his Cabinet members met with top politicians and clerics in Tehran, where they negotiated plans to boost religious tourism in the southern Shiite holy cities of Iraq and to improve security along their shared border. Al-Jaafari denied that Iran would provide military training for Iraqi troops, a proposal that officials in Tehran floated and that was abruptly quashed after some American and Iraqi officials balked.


Iraq's elections in January installed a mostly Shiite, pro-Iranian government whose conservative tendencies have thwarted the Bush administration's efforts to turn Iraq into a democratic model for the Middle East. Al-Jaafari and many other senior officials spent years of exile in Iran during former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's reign and they maintain close ties to the clerical regime, whose relations with the Bush administration have been hostile.

One billion dollars for rebuilding and electricity . Now I thought those are all things we were spending billions on to do. I wonder what Iran expects to get for their help?