by Olivier KnoxFri Dec 8, 8:42 AM ET
US President George W. Bush rebuffed key recommendations from the Iraq Study Group but announced a new Middle East peace push after talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
A day after receiving the heavyweight US commission's report on Iraq, Bush said that Blair would soon travel to the region for talks with Israel and the Palestinians, and promised "concerted efforts to advance the cause of peace."
The prime minister's visit was to set the stage for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in early 2007, to make her eighth trip in two years to Israel and the Palestinian territories, her spokesman said.
"By moving this forward we send a very strong signal not just to the region, but to the whole of the world, that we are even-handed and just in the application of our values," said Blair.
Bush, giving a cool reception to two key proposals by the Iraq Study Group, kept tight conditions on any talks with Iran and Syria and refused to endorse the panel's call for withdrawing most US combat troops by early 2008.
"I've always said we'd like our troops out as fast as possible," he said, while insisting on the need to be "flexible and realistic" and tying any change in troop level to advice from US military commanders, as he has in the past.
Bush initially described soaring violence in Iraq, which the report warned may spiral into a regional war even with a US strategic overhaul, as merely "unsettling" -- but revised his diagnosis when a reporter challenged him.
"It's bad in Iraq. That help?" he countered. "You want frankness? I thought we would succeed quicker than we did. And I am disappointed by the pace of success."
Bush lavished praise on the Iraq Study Group, calling its report "worthy of serious study," declaring that "the American people expect us to come up with a new strategy to achieve the objective," and stressing: "We need a new approach."
But he cautioned that the panel's review, led by former secretary of state James Baker and former representative Lee Hamilton, was one of many, citing pending reviews by the defense and state departments and the National Security Council.
Bush said he would make a speech outlining his strategy "after I get the reports," a move the White House says will come in weeks.
"I don't think Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton expect us to accept every recommendation," he said. "I know they expect us to consider every recommendation; that we ought to pay close attention to what they advise."
One day after unveiling their report, Baker and Hamilton, said little progress will be made in implementing its recommendations without Bush's support.
"The fact of the matter is that you have President Bush in office for two more years. The fact of the matter is that the report that we put before you must largely be implemented by the executive branch. You cannot dodge that fact," said Hamilton, a former Democratic representative.
"It is a fact of political life, and the Congress will play an important role, should play an important role. But the Congress cannot implement the decisions in this report," he said.
The report, which warns that the situation in Iraq is "grave and deteriorating," called for most US combat troops to be withdrawn by early 2008, more talks with Iran and Syria, and a new Middle East peace effort.
Bush said Damascus and Tehran might be welcome if they renounce support for extremists and pledge support for Baghdad's fledgling government, otherwise "they shouldn't bother to show up."
Bush also reiterated his longstanding condition that Iran freeze sensitive nuclear work before any direct talks.
"Should they agree to verifiably suspend their (uranium) enrichment, the United States will be at the table with our partners," he said, telling Tehran: "There's no need to continue this obstinance."
The president of Iraq's Kurdish Autonomous Region issued Friday a strongly worded rebuke of the Iraq Study Group's report describing it as "unrealistic and inappropriate".
"We are in no way abiding by this report," said Kurdish regional President Massud Barzani, a key US ally in Iraq.
"Despite our thanks and gratitude for President George W. Bush and the American administration for overthrowing the previous regime and their efforts for building a new Iraq, we think that the Iraq Study group has made some unrealistic and inappropriate recommendations," added the statement.
However Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on Thursday called the report "very interesting, full of very sound recommendations" after holding talks with Rice in Washington.
"I got the definite impression from the long discussion with secretary Rice this afternoon that the Middle East deserves an action-oriented policy when it comes to the peace process," he said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
"And for Iraq, the report of the Baker-Hamilton group will get serious consideration by the administration," he said, adding: "We talked about almost each and every recommendation of the report."