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Last update - 21:33 10/06/2009
Carter to hold rare meeting with settler leader
By News Agencies
Tags: Israel News, Hamas 

Former United States president Jimmy Carter is planning a rare meeting with a settler leader in the West Bank during his visit to Israel this weekend, the Carter Center announced Wenesday.

Carter will meet with Shaul Goldstein, an official of the Yesha Council of Settlements, at his West Bank home on Sunday. The former president also plans to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and President Shimon Peres during the trip.

Carter has strongly backed Palestinian aspirations for a state and spoken out against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, calling them illegal and an obstacle to peace.
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A Hamas senior official said on Wednesday that the group Hamas would "listen" to Carter and "learn about his efforts to deal with the Palestinian situation."

"There are emerging changes and a new language used especially after President Obama's speech in Cairo last week, and Hamas will listen to what Carter [has to say] about Obama's view and policies towards the resistance in the region," Ossama Hamdan said.

Carter is due in Damascus on Thursday, where he is also due to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"Direct dialogue with Hamas has become a reality, as there can be no solutions without Hamas or without talking to Hamas," added Hamdan.

Hamdan was echoing statements by the movement's political leader Khaled Meshal when he was speaking in Cairo Tuesday night after discussing Palestinian reconciliation with Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.

"No one in the region or the international community will be able to do anything that can affect the Palestinian-Israeli conflict unless they deal with Hamas," Meshal told a Cairo briefing.

Hamdan, who will attend a meeting on Thursday with Carter, refused to say whether the case of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was on the agenda. Shalit has been in Palestinian custody since he was seized in a 2006 cross-border raid.

Carter discussed Shalit's case with Meshal when they met in Damascus last year. However, official sources in Hamas said that they would discuss the issue of settlements and ask the U.S. to pressure Israel in this regard.

A source at the U.S. embassy in Damascus said Carter's visit was private. He was there as an American citizen.

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      1.   Pres. Carter was the American enabler of Osama bin Laden 22:14  |  17 10/06/09
      2.   ignore this old coot 22:34  |  Joe 10/06/09
      3.   Carter was a failed President 00:44  |  *BEN JABO 11/06/09
      4.   Presi. Cater did refuse the haven and necessary 02:12  |  17 11/06/09
      5.   Carter calls Israel an Apartheid State 03:53  |  Avi 11/06/09
      6.   Carter`s antics confuse people 03:57  |  Jasper 11/06/09
      7.   Dying for a seat at the grown up table.. 05:56  |  Jay 11/06/09
      8.   Meeting is good opportunity 16:43  |  Brod 11/06/09
      9.   #3 Oh Ben Jabo, don`t be some melodramatic! 17:52  |  ballistic 11/06/09
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