Differences Snarl Iraq Plan (Robert Reid / WP)

[struggle4progress]

By ROBERT H. REID
The Associated Press
Monday, January 15, 2007; 8:09 PM

... n announcing his new plan, Bush brushed aside recommendations by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to seek Syrian and Iranian help in curbing the Iraqi violence ...

President Jalal Talabani, meanwhile, was making a landmark visit to Syria, the first by an Iraqi head of state in nearly three decades.

Iraqi authorities also were demanding the release of five Iranians arrested by U.S. troops in Iraq recently for allegedly supporting Iraqi insurgents. The Iraqis described the five as diplomats who should have enjoyed immunity from arrest ...

.. Iraqi elder statesman Mahmoud Othman .. said recently: "Our interests differ from those of the United States. The enmity between the United States and Syria and Iran doesn't benefit the situation in Iraq."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/15/AR2007011500599.html