What is the Value of Friendship as a Motivation for Morality for Aristotle?

At the beginning of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle says that the reason for studying friendship is not only to hit upon our own good, but also for the sake of the finer goal of attaining this end "for a nation or for city-states." Thus, it is announced from the outset that individuals can have aims higher than their own, though they may, even so, be pursued self-interestedly. Aristotle's discussion then turns to what the end of all human activities, happiness, consists in, with the critical question of exactly whose happiness is actually desired left untreated until Book VIII. It is examined there, and the answer given is that happiness is wanted personally, and for the sake of our friends, and for the sake of others who are loved. For Aristotle the good of another can be an end in itself and not just something wanted for our own benefit. Dale Jacquette could allow this and still maintain that the best Aristotelian reason for wanting the good of a friend is our own good.