At the White House, President Bush welcomed the report and said it would be taken seriously.

President Bush: “I told the members that this report, called “The Way Forward,” will be taken very seriously by this administration. This report gives a very tough assessment of the situation in Iraq. It is a report that brings some really very interesting proposals, and we will take every proposal seriously, and we will act in a timely fashion.”

Despite the president’s statement, the recommendations are already getting a cool reception from the White House. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, a senior administration official said President Bush told Jordan’s King Abdullah just last week he is against talks with Syria. Senior officials also said major changes are unlikely because President Bush believes the U.S. can achieve its goals and the White House has a short window to continue its policies before the 2008 presidential election cycle intensifies. Meanwhile in Israel, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports sources inside the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Israeli government does not expect the Bush administration to pressure it to make peace.