2 Iraqi children in Israel for surgery

Two Iraqi children with critical heart conditions were brought to Israel for emergency surgery Thursday, a rare display of cooperation between Arab countries and the Jewish state.

The 5-month-old girl and 11-year-old boy were among 40 Iraqi children who were screened a day earlier in Jordan by doctors from Save a Child's Heart, an Israeli humanitarian organization. The Israeli doctors felt the two children would be in jeopardy if not treated immediately.

The children were suffering from "very complicated and dangerous heart murmurs," Dr. Zion Huri, one of the physicians involved in the project, told The Associated Press. "This bridges the gap between people in Israel and Arab countries and promotes ties of friendship between them."

The organization has treated 1,700 children, more than half from Arab countries and the Palestinian Authority, since its founding in 1996, said Rachel Lasry Zahavi, a spokeswoman for the group.

The two Iraqi children will undergo open-heart surgery at Wolfson Hospital in Holon, south of Tel Aviv. The Save a Child's Heart foundation is based there.

"We pulled a lot of strings, security wise, to get them into Israel," Zahavi said. "The problem wasn't with the kids, of course, but with getting security clearance for their parents. Both the Jordanians and the Israelis moved very quickly to save the children and get them and their parents into Israel for treatment as fast as possible," she said.

Iraq has fought in two wars with Israel since its creation in 1948. More recently Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, fired 39 Scud missiles into Israel during the Gulf war in 1991.

Following the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam in 2003, diplomats discussed the possibility of improved relations between Israel and Iraq but in 2004, then Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi vowed that Iraq would not break Arab ranks and sign a separate peace deal with Israel. Jordan and Egypt are the only Arab countries that have signed peace treaties with Israel.