Iraq getting more respect in global eyes
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Iraq is getting more respect now that it has an elected government, fully participating in dozens of meetings at the U.N. General Assembly. "Now it's business," said Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
"This is a good sign because Iraq really - despite the bad news, the negative news coming out of Baghdad - is moving steadily toward a functional state," he said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press.
Interior ministers of Iraq and its neighboring countries recently met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where they signed a security protocol to coordinate and exchange information and set up hot lines, he said. Despite this agreement, Zebari said, "I would say unfortunately, some of our neighbors have not been helpful." On the eve of the General Assembly, 31 countries attended a meeting of the Compact for Iraq, a five-year plan to ensure Iraq's government has funds to survive and enact key political and economic reforms.
Iraq has also reached agreements with Turkey to boost trade and open new border crossings, he said, and will sign a trade agreement with the European Union. "Even with the Iranians, we've signed an oil agreement for us to give them crude for one of their refineries which is close to Basra, while they will compensate us in the Gulf, to increase our export," Zebari said.
This all sounds like good progress to me, yet this story had such a short shelf life. If you blinked, you missed it. And some outlets were reluctant to even headline it in a positive light. Note the headline from the washington post: World Opinion of Iraq Seeming to Change. Same exact story as the gaurdian's but a world of difference in the headline.
...The more things stay the same...
