Juan Cole: May 18, 2005

18 Killed in Violence
Kharrazi in Baghdad

Will blog more later on Wednesday.

For now, Iran's foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi made a historic visit to Baghdad on Tuesday. He pledged help in controlling the borders between the two countries, and made the point that if Iran were actually supporting insurgent infiltration of Iraq (as Washington has alleged), the situation would be much worse than it is. He pledged Iranian non-interference in Iraq, saying that such interference would be "an insult."