Syria welcomed the Iraq Study Group report on Thursday, praising its emphasis on the need to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict and reiterating that Syria's priority is to regain the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The comments by an unidentified Syrian Foreign Ministry official contrasted sharply with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's earlier remark that Israel rejected the report's linkage of the Arab-Israeli dispute with the conflict in Iraq. Olmert also rejected the report's recommendation that Israel revive negotiations with Syria.

The Syrian official made clear what his government would demand from the United States in return for help in trying to reduce the violence in Iraq.

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"The Syrian priority is to fully recover the occupied Arab Syrian Golan Heights," the official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted the official as saying.

The Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission, reported Wednesday that the situation in Iraq is "grave and deteriorating" and called for the United States to try to engage Syria and Iran in a diplomatic effort to confer stability. The report also called for direct talks between Israel and Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians, arguing that resolving the Israeli-Arab conflict would improve conditions in Iraq.

The Syrian official said the report was "positive in dealing with the role of Iraq's neighbors in helping to bring about security and stability in Iraq," the agency said.

What has been included in the report about the necessity of achieving a comprehensive peace in the region is objective and takes into consideration the basic roots of instability and tension in the region: the absence of the just and comprehensive peace," the Syrian statement said.

Regaining the Golan Heights has been the centerpiece of Syrian foreign policy for decades. Israel captured the strategic plateau in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and subsequently annexed it.

On Wednesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Sharaa welcomed the report's recommendation to expand Middle East diplomacy agreeing that a solution to Iraq's problems could not be reached without the help of Iran and Syria.

"The two countries are Iraq's neighbors, and without getting them involved it will not be easy to find a solution to the predicament in Iraq," The Washington Times quoted Sharaa as saying at a political conference in Damascus.

"We are not so arrogant to say that Syria and Iran can solve Iraq's problem," he added. "The entire international community may not be able to solve it. But let them [the Americans] be a little bit modest and accept whoever has the capability to help."

Iran responded cautiously to the report, saying it pointed out flaws in the American policy in Iraq. "Any decision by the United States to withdraw from Iraq does not require any negotiations with Iran or any other country in the region," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the satellite channel Al Jazeera television.

Meanwhile, Iraqi citizens said Thursday that a U.S. advisory's group recommendation that Washington move toward military disengagement in Iraq offered little hope of an improvement in their lives anytime soon.

Earlier Wednesday, the Iraqi government said that it was in line with its own plans to stop the rampant violence in the country, but cautioned that there was no "magic wand" to solve Iraq's problems.

"The situation is grave, very grave in fact, and cannot be tolerated," Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh said Wednesday on the pan Arab satellite TV channel Al-Arabiya. "Absolute dependence on foreign troops is not possible. The focus must be on boosting the Iraqi security forces."

But he warned that improving the battlefield capabilities of the Iraqi armed forces would not be "the magic wand that brings a solution in one day."

On the streets of Baghdad on Wednesday, skepticism seemed widespread."

This report is no different than others we have received from national unity conferences or regional conferences in the last three years, ones that came up with nice words that had no effect," said Khalid Abdel-Rahim, 42, a Sunni Arab employee of Iraq's Industry Ministry.

"U.S. officials have long discussed training more Iraqi troops, but they have not been able to control widespread attacks by insurgents and militias. ... I don't expect this latest report will solve our problems," he said.


ADL: Iraq report 'gets it wrong' on Arab-Israeli conflict
The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday blasted the Iraq Study Group for recommending the United States increase it involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to stabilize Iraq, arguing there was no connection between the two issues.

"The Iraq Study Group gets it wrong when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict. We reject the suggestion that there is a connection between finding a solution to the war in Iraq and direct involvement of the U.S. in solving the Arab-Israeli conflict based on the recommendations in the report," the ADL said in a statement.

"The goal of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict should stand on its own and has always been a key objective of U.S. foreign policy. It would be a terrible mistake to confuse the recent disintegration in Iraq with the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict," it added.

The report "prejudges the outcome of negotiations between Israel, the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon" and "waters down the international community?s clear preconditions for any negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel," the ADL said in its statement adding, "The report's specific recommendations, such as the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, should be left to final-status negotiations and not dictated to them by outside parties."

The group also criticized the report for neglecting to call for a "total rejection of a nuclear Iran, because a nuclear Iran would do more to destabilize the region and undermine America?s interests than any other single factor."

The ADL praised the report, however, for reiterating the "enduring American commitment to its key ally in the region" and for "acknowledging the Israeli desire for peace."