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Carter meets with Hamas leader
18/04/2008 20:02 - (SA)
Damascus - Former US President Jimmy Carter, brushing off US and Israeli criticism, went to Syria on Friday to meet the exiled leader of Hamas accused of masterminding kidnappings and suicide bombings against Israelis.
In Israel, Cabinet minister Eli Yishai said he asked Carter earlier this week to arrange a meeting with Hamas to discuss a prisoner exchange. The Israeli government has long refused to deal with Hamas, a Palestinian militant group sworn to the Jewish state's destruction.
Carter met Syrian President Bashar Assad shortly after he arrived in Damascus on Friday and planned talks with Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal later in the day.
The former American president has already met Hamas representatives twice this week, brushing aside criticism from Israel and the US government which consider Hamas a terrorist group.
In Cairo on Thursday, Carter asked senior Hamas officials from Gaza to halt rocket attacks against Israel. And in the West Bank on Wednesday, he embraced a Hamas representative, angering Israelis.
Israel has accused Mashaal of masterminding the kidnapping of soldier Gilad Shalit near Gaza two years ago. Israel has also blamed the group's Damascus-based leadership of directing suicide bombings such as the September 2004 attacks that killed 16 Israelis in the southern city of Beersheba.
Poisoned
Israel tried to kill Mashaal in 1997, when agents sprayed him with poison on a street in Amman. Jordan's late King Hussein, who had signed peace with Israel in 1994, forced Israel to send the antidote that saved his life.
The US government has distanced itself from Carter's contacts with Hamas, saying it is purely a personal initiative.
But Carter defended his mission on Thursday.
"You can't have an agreement that must involve certain parties, unless you talk to those parties to conclude the agreement," he said in a speech at the American University in Cairo. "You have to involve Hamas ... They have to be involved in some way."
Carter also said on Thursday he knows some Israeli government officials are "quite willing" to meet Hamas and speculated that might happen in the near future.
Yishai, the Israeli deputy prime minister, said on Friday he asked Carter to arrange a meeting with Hamas to try to win the release of Shalit, held by Hamas in Gaza for two years.
'Shalit won't see the light'
Hamas said on Friday Shalit will "not see the light" until Palestinian prisoners are also released in an exchange.
Yishai was the only Israeli minister to meet Carter when he visited Israel and the Palestinians territories earlier this week. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he did not meet Carter during his visit to avoid creating the impression that he was negotiating with Hamas.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' Syria-based political bureau, told The Associated Press that calming the situation between Hamas and Israel as well as the fate of Shalit would be on the agenda in Carter's meeting with Mashaal.
"Hamas will not be a hurdle in any future prisoner exchange," Abu Marzouk said.
Asked if Hamas is ready to sit and talk directly to the Israelis, Abu Marzouk said: "There are no (direct) meetings with the Israelis. Most of the meetings that took place between the two sides were not direct."
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