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Last update - 19:51 13/12/2008
Carter discusses Mideast peace prospects with Assad in Syria
By News Agencies
Tags: israel news, barack obama 

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday discussed prospects for peace in the Middle east with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Syria and Israel this year held four rounds of indirect talks mediated by
Turkey, but the talks made no significant headway.
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In Syria Carter is also expected to meet with the exiled leadership of Hamas, Khaled Meshal. Carter's first meeting with Meshal in April drew sharp criticism from the Bush administration which labels Hamas
as a terrorist group.

On Friday, Carter said that he would have been delighted to meet Hezbollah officials and that he regrets the meeting didn't take place during his current visit to Lebanon.

Carter spent five days talking to top Lebanese leaders and members of parliamentary blocs but didn't meet with lawmakers from the militant Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed Shiite group is on the U.S. State Department's terrorist list.

The former U.S. leader had said he was ready to meet Hezbollah but they refuse to meet current or former U.S. presidents.

Carter has offered that his Atlanta-based Carter Center monitor Lebanon's parliament elections next year. The vote will be fiercely contested between Western-backed anti-Syrian groups that hold majority seats in the current 128-member parliament and a Hezbollah-led coalition supported by Syria and Iran.

During a lecture at the American University of Beirut at the end of his visit Friday, Carter expressed disappointment that Hezbollah refused to see him.

"We came here with the hope that we can meet with all the political parties and factions in Lebanon," he said. "If the leaders of Hezbollah wanted to meet with me, I would have been delighted."

Carter also said on Friday he hoped U.S. President-elect Barack Obama would quickly engage in Middle East peace talks when he takes Office.

Carter, president from 1977 to 1981, said Obama had told him he would "begin this effort early in his term."

"The United States for the last eight years has been basically aloof from negotiations," Carter said in an address at the American University of Beirut. "My hope is we will see a new movement towards a comprehensive peace in this region."

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter helped negotiate a 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

Critics say President George W. Bush largely ignored Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking until belatedly launching talks in November 2007.

Carter has been a tough critic of Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories, angering many with his 2006 book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

He also caused controversy earlier this year by meeting leaders of the Palestinian faction Hamas, which is listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union.

Carter said he had no doubts about Obama's "political courage." "But I know the tremendous political pressure that exists in my nation among political office holders to comply almost without exception to the policies of the Israeli government," he said.

Obama's election was cheered by many Arabs glad to see an end to what they have seen as the Bush administration's ruinous Middle East policies. But the appointment of pro-Israeli figures in the new administration has tempered initial enthusiasm.

Carter said that while Obama had picked Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and Rahm Emmanuel as White House chief of staff, there was hope in his choice of retired Marine Gen. James Jones as national security advisor.

"As far as Rahm Emmanuel is concerned, yes, he is closely affiliated with Israel... But I think that another hopeful sign is that General Jim Jones will be his national security advisor," Carter said.

Clinton had "been quite close to AIPAC's position in the past," Carter added, in reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby group.

"But I think that Jim Jones is thoroughly familiar with the situation in Palestine," Carter said. Diplomats say Jones was critical of Israel in a confidential report this year on how Israelis and Palestinians had met security commitments.

Related articles:
  • Hezbollah leaders refuse to meet with Carter in Lebanon
  • Carter proposal: Exchange Shalit for dozens of Hamas politicians
  • Carter says Israel has arsenal of 150 nuclear weapons
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      1.   Headline missing critical words 23:51  |  Mark Lincoln 12/12/08
      2.   Jimmah: Ah wanted to meet with Hezbollah... 23:55  |  Ari 12/12/08
      3.   Go To Any Convalescent Asylum 00:01  |  Yosemite 13/12/08
      4.   Carter: US "to comply almost without exception"... 00:04  |  BBSNews 13/12/08
      5.   Carter is happy to tell the Lebanese what they like to hear - 00:13  |  ivo 13/12/08
      6.   Let him focus on warming up `his` Egypt-Israeli peace 00:25  |  Tom Lobo Meyer 13/12/08
      7.   Carter 00:47  |  The Teacher/Instruct 13/12/08
      8.   H/allah , please, please, please, meet Pres. J. Carter 01:14  |  17 13/12/08
      9.   carter should be arrested upon his return to the US 01:27  |  vik 13/12/08
      10.   He did meet with hezbullah-why doe he lie..again 01:32  |  Arie 13/12/08
      11.   The REAL jim carter 01:37  |  Arie 13/12/08
      12.   How To Get Dingbat Carter To Meet With Satan: 01:47  |  Jeff Northridge 13/12/08
      13.   Jimmy would have been "delighted" to meet with stone cold killers 02:01  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/12/08
      14.   jimmy, save us, save us from those nasty jews 02:09  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/12/08
      15.   terrorist 02:36  |  Michael 13/12/08
      16.   Jeff Northridge #12: not bad, - 02:41  |  ivo 13/12/08
      17.   Cipora, stop ranting and start reading (#13) 02:48  |  Morris Valentine 13/12/08
      18.   Yes, he is always delighted to meet blood-soaked terrorists 03:08  |  Dan 13/12/08
      19.   Quote from "peace-loving" Hezbollah 03:10  |  james 13/12/08
      20.   Morris Valentine, stop hallucinating and stop somkiing grass 03:16  |  Dan 13/12/08
      21.   TALK TO THE DEVILS IF NECESSARY 03:44  |  indrajaya 13/12/08
      22.   Cipora, I believe you are foaming at the mouth... 03:46  |  BBSNews 13/12/08
      23.   Someone that senile . . . 03:53  |  peace-not-apartheid 13/12/08
      24.   Delighted to meet with a terrorist organization? 03:59  |  Samuel Prime 13/12/08
      25.   I Don`t Agree With Carter But... 04:36  |  Yosemite 13/12/08
      26.   BBS TO CIPORA 04:41  |  Brant 13/12/08
      27.   Carter is a decent man 04:55  |  Mark Lincoln 13/12/08
      28.   The Lunatic Right, Carter and the Shah 05:00  |  Mark Lincoln 13/12/08
      29.   JCarter, you can`t be serious. 06:25  |  Dvorah 13/12/08
      30.   carter 06:29  |  Rab Burns 13/12/08
      31.   BSNews, lying through his teeth 06:50  |  SDHD 13/12/08
      32.   BBSNews: Carter Admirer 08:17  |  dovvod 13/12/08
      33.   To Number one Mark Lincoln 09:15  |  Dani 13/12/08
      34.   The Nobel peace prize problem 09:34  |  PARIS 13/12/08
      35.   Indrajaya 10:13  |  Daniela 13/12/08
      36.   nasrallah "i have israeli body parts to trade" 10:47  |  harzion 13/12/08
      37.   morris valentine what is on carter`s mind 10:54  |  tuvia raviv 13/12/08
      38.   bbs news "my goodness carter is committed to peace" 10:59  |  navajo 13/12/08
      39.   bbs news "foaming at the mouth" 11:02  |  cherokee 13/12/08
      40.   BRAVO Brant #26 to BBSNews!!! 11:49  |  S 13/12/08
      41.   #36, harzion, nasrallah`s promise to his opponenets 12:12  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 13/12/08
      42.   Pity, just imagine what a lovely scene it would have been, 12:29  |  Freethinker 13/12/08
      43.   Irony of History 13:57  |  Ben Lollo 13/12/08
      44.   Jimmy the Redneck Carter 14:02  |  Johnson 13/12/08
      45.   good words 14:17  |  ricardo 13/12/08
      46.   Against Peace = Against Carter = Pro Jewish Settlers 15:29  |  Monitor 13/12/08
      47.   Good old Carter 15:31  |  Knut 13/12/08
      48.   Cipora Julianna Kohn # 41 Maybe Nasrallah... 16:09  |  Jeff Northridge 13/12/08
      49.   No Peace? Bye bye. 16:42  |  Lou Medel 13/12/08
      50.   #22 BBS News 16:45  |  H 13/12/08
      51.   It is mystery how Pres. Carter`s activity rises above 17:14  |  17 13/12/08
      52.   Jimmy, They do not understand us 17:18  |  Leo Tolstoy 13/12/08
      53.   THEY ARE THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION 17:26  |  JEWish doctor 13/12/08
      54.   Jimmy Needs a New Hobby 17:45  |  Ron 13/12/08
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      56.   The right hates Carter. Why? 18:06  |  Mark Lincoln 13/12/08
      57.   To #56. The answers to your questions are: 18:59  |  Jozef 13/12/08
      58.   Jimmy trade one or part of your peanut farms for peace? 19:12  |  lily 13/12/08
      59.   Mark Lincoln 19:16  |  Connie 13/12/08
      60.   Information Stranglehold 19:18  |  Peter Beck 13/12/08
      61.   Go Carter 19:24  |  America 13/12/08
      62.   To Tuvia Raviv (#37) 19:26  |  Morris Valentine 13/12/08
      63.   Lincoln`s mouth opens, idiocy spills out again 19:29  |  SDHD 13/12/08
      64.   Lincoln, what planet are you on? 19:31  |  SDHD 13/12/08
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      66.   Iran Hostage Crisis was an act of war and Carter did nada 20:25  |  Joe Frazier 13/12/08
      67.   Peanuts 20:49  |  David 13/12/08
      68.   morris valentine i am not sure how much you know about lebanon 21:02  |  tuvia raviv 13/12/08
      69.   morris valentine "he is the best expresident the usa ever had" 21:06  |  tuvia raviv 13/12/08
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