No ME peace possible without Hamas: Carter
10:42, 12 June 2009
DAMASCUS. June 12. KAZINFORM Former US President Jimmy Carter yesterday said that there can?t be peace between Israel and the Palestinians unless the Hamas resistance group is directly involved. Carter also said Hamas and the more moderate Fatah must reconcile so they can negotiate effectively with Israel; Kazinform refers to the Arab News.
He was speaking to reporters yesterday after meeting Syrian President Bashar Assad and ahead of talks with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus. It?s to be Carter?s third meeting with Meshaal in the past year.
After his presidency, Carter continued to pursue Mideast peace through his Carter Center foundation. Carter?s trip to Syria comes just days before President Barack Obama?s special Mideast envoy is to visit Damascus. Carter met with Meshaal twice under the Bush administration, angering some in the US government who said he was legitimizing a group the US considers a terrorist organization.
But this was his first meeting under the Obama administration, which came as George Mitchell was less than 645 kilometers away in Cairo preparing to visit Syria today. Carter, who went to Syria after observing elections in neighboring Lebanon, stressed that he was in Damascus as a private citizen and not representing the Obama administration; Kazinform cites the Arab News.
See www.arabnews.com for full version