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Olmert rejects Iraq study's connection to Arab-Israel issue

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday that he disagreed with a central point in the Iraq Study Group's report that drew a strong link between the turmoil in Iraq and the need to resolve the conflicts between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

"The Middle East has a lot of problems that are not connected to us," Olmert said at a news conference in Tel Aviv. "The attempt to create a linkage between the Iraqi issue and the Middle East issue -- we have a different view."

Olmert also took issue with a recommendation in the report issued on Wednesday that urged talks involving Israel, the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.

The recommendation was part of the study group's detailed blueprint for how the administration of US President George W. Bush should fundamentally change its approach to a situation in Iraq that the report called "grave and deteriorating."

Despite his objections to parts of the report, however, Olmert reiterated his willingness to restart direct talks with the Palestinians, with whom Israel has not had full-fledged negotiations in nearly six years. In a speech last week, the prime minister said that if the Palestinians could form a unity government and release a detained Israeli soldier, he would respond by releasing hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians and meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

But Olmert had a distinctly different take on the suggestions about talking with Syria, and he said the Bush administration, which has been sharply critical of Syria, was not encouraging a dialogue at this time.

"The opinions I heard from the president and from all senior administration staff on the Syrian issue are such that he did not see a feasibility in talks on the American-Syrian track or on the Israeli-Syrian track," said Olmert, who met with Bush in the White House last month.

The Bush administration says Syria is aiding the insurgency in Iraq, while Israel says Syria assists Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, all radical Islamic groups in conflict with Israel.

The Syrian actions do not "create a picture of the possibility for talks in the near future," Olmert said.

Israel and Syria appeared close to an agreement in 2000 on the Golan Heights, the plateau that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war. However, no deal was reached, and there have been no negotiations since.

While Israel rejects the notion that its conflict with the Palestinians is tied to other troubles in the region, Olmert's government has sought in recent months to strengthen ties to neighboring Arab states.

Olmert has praised Saudi Arabia on several occasions recently, something Israeli leaders have rarely done. On Thursday, he said again that a 2002 Saudi peace initiative, which Israel rejected at the time, contained at least some positive elements.

At least some Palestinians welcomed the Iraq Study Group report, saying it pointed to a possible reassessment of US policy in dealing with Israel and the Palestinians.

"Something has to be done to revive the peace process," said Ziad Abu Amr, a prominent Palestinian lawmaker and a political moderate. "I also believe that solving this problem can have a positive spillover in the wider region."
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