Thursday, December 07, 2006

Olmert disagrees with U.S. Iraq group

TEL AVIV, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday that he disagreed with a U.S. advisory group's report linking efforts to stabilize Iraq with new moves to end Israel's conflict with its neighbors.

The Iraq Study Group's report, released Wednesday, calls for direct talks between Israel and its neighbors, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians, and says that a concerted effort to resolve the Israel-Arab conflict would improve the situation in Iraq.

"The attempt to create linkage between the Iraqi issue and the Mideast issue — we have a different view," Olmert said in his first response to the report.

Olmert said conditions were not ripe to reopen long-dormant talks with Syria and added that he received no indications from President Bush during a recent visit to Washington that the U.S. would push Israel to start such talks.

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