Arab world welcomes Iraq Study Group report - CS Monitor

[applegrove]

Arab world welcomes Iraq Study Group report
Israel cites some doubts, but Arabs say their advice is now being heard.
By Dan Murphy and Josh Mitnick
In the Monitor
Wednesday, 12/06/06

CAIRO AND TEL AVIV – The Iraq Study Group (ISG) recommendations are making far more waves outside Iraq than inside that troubled country.

To average Iraqis, the report seems to be an abstract exercise unlikely to end the war there anytime soon. But it is being eagerly read elsewhere in the region, with a number of Arab states welcoming the report as a sign that their advice is starting to be heeded. In Israel, however, it's being viewed with apprehension because of its calls for direct US engagement with Syria and Iran.

The Jordan Times - a paper with ties to the state, a US ally - hailed the recent ouster of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the ISG's report as a "return to common sense" in its lead editorial. "All of a sudden Washington appears to be heading towards a less bellicose and more cooperative stand on Middle East issues,'' it wrote, praising the report's recommendations to engage Iran and Syria and start a "gradual pullout of its troops to end the occupation."

Nabil Amr, a top adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, described the report as "excellent," saying he read it as an acknowledgement of Bush administration failures in Iraq and the region.

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http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1208/p01s02-wome.html