Analysis: Risks in engaging Iran, Syria

The Iraq Study Group

BEIRUT -- Opening a dialogue with Iran and Syria may help ease the violence in Iraq, but it also could create new tensions and would perhaps further split an already deeply divided region, analysts said after the release of the Iraq Study Group report Wednesday.

The suggestion that the U.S. should "engage directly" with America's two most bitter foes in the region was one of the more radical recommendations of a report that called for sweeping changes in U.S. Middle East policy, including a renewed commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian problem.

"Given the ability of Iran and Syria to influence events within Iraq and their interest in avoiding chaos in Iraq, the United States should try to engage them constructively," the report said, challenging one of the key tenets of U.S. policy in the region, which has frozen out both countries.

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