Explosives Found Near Carter's Route

Former President Jimmy Carter has criticized Israel's blockade during a trip to Gaza. He encouraged the territory's Hamas rulers to accept international conditions for ending its boycott of the militant Islamic group. During his visit, Hamas security found what appeared to be explosives buried in a sand dune next to Carter's route. No one was hurt, and it was unclear if the former president was being targeted. Carter spoke at a graduation for students from United Nations-run schools in Gaza City. He criticized the Gaza blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas took control. Carter's Gaza visit came at the end of a swing though Lebanon, Syria and Israel. He encouraged officials in all countries to move toward a negotiated end to the Middle East conflict.

(Associated Press)

Israeli ambassador attacks Carter

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations yesterday called former President Jimmy Carter "a bigot." The comment came after the Georgia native met with the leader of the militant Hamas movement in Syria. Ambassador Dan Gillerman said Carter "went to the region with soiled hands and came back with bloody hands after shaking the hand of Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas."

Carter, Condi in diplomatic dustup

Former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday continued to insist that the Bush administration never warned him against meeting with leaders of Hamas during a recent trip to the Middle East.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday that the State Department told the former president "that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help" further a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian faction is regarded as a terror group by the U.S., Israel and the European Union.

In a statement issued by the Carter Center on Wednesday, the former president said he never got that message.

"President Carter has the greatest respect for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and believes her to be a truthful person," the statement said. "However, perhaps inadvertently, she is continuing to make a statement that is not true."

"No one in the State Department or any other department of the U.S. government ever asked him to refrain from his recent visit to the Middle East or even suggested that he not meet with Syrian President Assad or leaders of Hamas."

In Washington, the State Department again rejected Carter's claim that he had not been advised against meeting with Hamas officials, referring to comments from Rice and other top officials.

"We stand by those statements," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We stand by them as statements of fact, we have nothing more to add.

Carter had said earlier this week in a interview with NPR that he never received a warning from the State Department when he discussed the trip with officials there.

Carter said top Hamas leaders told him during seven hours of talks in Damascus over the weekend that they are willing to live next to Israel. However, a top Hamas official said the group would never outright recognize the Jewish state.

Rice said U.S. policy remains that it will deal only with the elected Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his West Bank-based government as it tried to help Israel and the Palestinians broker terms for an independent Palestinian state.

Rice said she that Carter's visit could confuse the message that the U.S. will not deal with Hamas.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of Carter's Mideast visit.

(The Associated Press)

Carter meets with Hamas officials

Former President Jimmy Carter is meeting with a Hamas delegation from Gaza, part of a series of talks with the Islamic militant group that has drawn sharp criticism from U.S. and Israeli officials.

An Associated Press reporter saw the Hamas delegation going into the meeting Thursday at a Cairo hotel and a Hamas coordinator in Egypt said they were meeting with Carter. The coordinator spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The meeting was held under heavy security shortly after Carter met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Hamas officials said Wednesday that Carter's meetings with its leaders will boost the group's legitimacy despite criticism by Israel and the U.S. government of the former president's personal peace mission.

Click here for more GPB reports about former President Carter.

(The Associated Press)

Support for Carter's Hamas proposal

Former president Jimmy Carter is under fire for a planned meeting with Hamas leaders. Speaking to reporters from Nepal, Carter says he hopes to facilitate open talks between Hamas and US officials.

Several state department officials have criticized the former president for the planned meet, but former US Ambassador Andrew Young defended Carter’s intentions. Young says Carter has done more to bring peace to the Middle East than any of the former president’s detractors.

“He sets an example for those who want to be president now. All three of them need to look at his example and look at his presidency and realize what a great president he was.”

Carter has criticized Washington’s policy of not meeting with terrorist organizations saying it is counterproductive to peace in the Middle East. Young himself faced criticism for meeting with former Palestanian leader Yasir Arafat during his time as UN Ambassador to the United Nations.

Young says neither he nor the former president have ever been afraid of being unpopular because of their views.

“Carter knows about the Middle East, than all of his critics put together because none of them has every produced 20 days of peace for the people of Israel.”