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Carter-Hamas Meeting Comes on 25th Anniversary of Deadly Terror Attack
Friday, April 18, 2008
Former President Jimmy Carter met Friday with the exiled leader of Hamas and
the militant group's deputy chief - on the 25th anniversary of the deadly
bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
President Bush issued a statement Thursday calling on Americans to remember
victims of the attack by a terrorist group known today as Hezbollah, which
killed 17 Americans, 35 Lebanese citizens and wounded scores of others.
"On the 25th anniversary of that bombing, we mourn for those who perished,
and we honor the sacrifice of their family and friends and of the many who
were wounded," he said.
Bush also condemned "the regimes in Tehran and Damascus," which he said back
Hezbollah and other terrorist groups. The U.S. State Department has
designated Hamas a terrorist organization and refuses to negotiate with the
group.
Carter's meeting with Hamas chief Khaled Meshal followed two other meetings
between the former president and the Palestinian militant group in the
Middle East this week. Hamas officials say the meetings have lent their
group legitimacy.
Meshal's deputy Moussa Abu Marzouk attended the meeting with Carter at
Meshal's Damascus office, a Hamas official at the site told The Associated
Press. Abu Marzouk was designated a terrorist by the U.S. Treasury
Department in 1995, allowing the government to seize his assets. He was
detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York that same year
and spent two years in a New York jail before he was deported in 1997.
The U.S. State Department twice advised Carter against meeting Hamas leaders
before he left on his Mideast trip earlier this week. More than 50 members
of Congress also urged Carter not to meet Meshal, saying it would confer
legitimacy on the group behind some 250 homicide bombings that have killed
numerous Israelis.
But Carter, who brokered the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace and won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2002, has defended what he calls his personal peace mission,
saying Hamas must be engaged in order to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Though Israel's government refuses to deal with Hamas, Carter said Thursday
he knows some Israeli government officials are "quite willing" to meet the
militant group and he speculated that might happen in the near future.
Israeli Cabinet minister Eli Yishai said Friday he asked Carter earlier this
week to arrange a meeting with Hamas to discuss a prisoner exchange. Yishai,
the Israeli deputy prime minister, said he wanted to try to win the release
of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas in Gaza for two years.
Hamas said from Gaza Friday that 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.
The U.S. State Department did not comment further on the meeting Friday.
"I don't think I have anything more to add to what I as well as others have
said previously on it," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told
reporters. "We have made our views clear."
The United States designated Hamas a terrorist organization in January 1995,
which made it a violation to conduct any financial or business transaction
with the group.
Shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for an August 19, 2003 suicide
bombing in Jerusalem that killed 20 people including four U.S. citizens, the
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control named a number of
Hamas leaders as "specially designated global terrorists." They included
Meshal and Abu Marzouk and the designation made it illegal to conduct any
transactions with them.
Israel also brands Hamas a terrorist organization and has accused Meshal of
masterminding the kidnapping of Shalit near Gaza two years ago. Israel has
blamed Mashaal and the group's Damascus-based leadership for directing
suicide bombings such as the September 2004 attacks that killed 16 Israelis
in the southern city of Beersheba.
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.
Afterward, Jordan expelled Mashaal to Qatar as the kingdom's ties with Hamas
deteriorated, and he moved to Damascus in 1999.
Before Friday's meeting began, Abu Marzouk told The Associated Press that
calming the situation between Hamas and Israel as well as the fate of Shalit
would be on the agenda.
"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."
Hamas won 2006 Palestinian parliament elections and has since been locked in
a power struggle with the Fatah faction headed by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas forcibly seized control of Gaza from Fatah in June and set up a regime
that rivals Abbas' West Bank government.
But an internationally backed Israeli boycott of Hamas has put a
stranglehold on Gaza, deepening the poverty of its 1.4 million residents.
Carter met senior Hamas officials from Gaza in Cairo on Thursday and asked
them to halt rocket attacks against Israel. And in the West Bank Wednesday,
he embraced a Hamas representative, angering Israelis.
Hamas official Mushir Masri, in a fiery speech Friday to thousands of Hamas
supporters in Gaza, said the meetings with Carter were proof that Hamas was
not a terrorist group, but a national liberation movement.
"It confirms the failure of the U.S. and European policies of ignoring
Hamas," he told the crowd. "It confirms that all the countries that assume
Hamas is a terrorist group should reconsider."
Carter met Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier Friday after arriving in
Syria from Egypt.
Carter-Hamas Meeting Comes on 25th Anniversary of Deadly Terror Attack
Friday, April 18, 2008
Former President Jimmy Carter met Friday with the exiled leader of Hamas and
the militant group's deputy chief - on the 25th anniversary of the deadly
bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
President Bush issued a statement Thursday calling on Americans to remember
victims of the attack by a terrorist group known today as Hezbollah, which
killed 17 Americans, 35 Lebanese citizens and wounded scores of others.
"On the 25th anniversary of that bombing, we mourn for those who perished,
and we honor the sacrifice of their family and friends and of the many who
were wounded," he said.
Bush also condemned "the regimes in Tehran and Damascus," which he said back
Hezbollah and other terrorist groups. The U.S. State Department has
designated Hamas a terrorist organization and refuses to negotiate with the
group.
Carter's meeting with Hamas chief Khaled Meshal followed two other meetings
between the former president and the Palestinian militant group in the
Middle East this week. Hamas officials say the meetings have lent their
group legitimacy.
Meshal's deputy Moussa Abu Marzouk attended the meeting with Carter at
Meshal's Damascus office, a Hamas official at the site told The Associated
Press. Abu Marzouk was designated a terrorist by the U.S. Treasury
Department in 1995, allowing the government to seize his assets. He was
detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York that same year
and spent two years in a New York jail before he was deported in 1997.
The U.S. State Department twice advised Carter against meeting Hamas leaders
before he left on his Mideast trip earlier this week. More than 50 members
of Congress also urged Carter not to meet Meshal, saying it would confer
legitimacy on the group behind some 250 homicide bombings that have killed
numerous Israelis.
But Carter, who brokered the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian peace and won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 2002, has defended what he calls his personal peace mission,
saying Hamas must be engaged in order to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Though Israel's government refuses to deal with Hamas, Carter said Thursday
he knows some Israeli government officials are "quite willing" to meet the
militant group and he speculated that might happen in the near future.
Israeli Cabinet minister Eli Yishai said Friday he asked Carter earlier this
week to arrange a meeting with Hamas to discuss a prisoner exchange. Yishai,
the Israeli deputy prime minister, said he wanted to try to win the release
of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas in Gaza for two years.
Hamas said from Gaza Friday that 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.
The U.S. State Department did not comment further on the meeting Friday.
"I don't think I have anything more to add to what I as well as others have
said previously on it," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told
reporters. "We have made our views clear."
The United States designated Hamas a terrorist organization in January 1995,
which made it a violation to conduct any financial or business transaction
with the group.
Shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for an August 19, 2003 suicide
bombing in Jerusalem that killed 20 people including four U.S. citizens, the
Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control named a number of
Hamas leaders as "specially designated global terrorists." They included
Meshal and Abu Marzouk and the designation made it illegal to conduct any
transactions with them.
Israel also brands Hamas a terrorist organization and has accused Meshal of
masterminding the kidnapping of Shalit near Gaza two years ago. Israel has
blamed Mashaal and the group's Damascus-based leadership for directing
suicide bombings such as the September 2004 attacks that killed 16 Israelis
in the southern city of Beersheba.
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.
Afterward, Jordan expelled Mashaal to Qatar as the kingdom's ties with Hamas
deteriorated, and he moved to Damascus in 1999.
Before Friday's meeting began, Abu Marzouk told The Associated Press that
calming the situation between Hamas and Israel as well as the fate of Shalit
would be on the agenda.
"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."
Hamas won 2006 Palestinian parliament elections and has since been locked in
a power struggle with the Fatah faction headed by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas forcibly seized control of Gaza from Fatah in June and set up a regime
that rivals Abbas' West Bank government.
But an internationally backed Israeli boycott of Hamas has put a
stranglehold on Gaza, deepening the poverty of its 1.4 million residents.
Carter met senior Hamas officials from Gaza in Cairo on Thursday and asked
them to halt rocket attacks against Israel. And in the West Bank Wednesday,
he embraced a Hamas representative, angering Israelis.
Hamas official Mushir Masri, in a fiery speech Friday to thousands of Hamas
supporters in Gaza, said the meetings with Carter were proof that Hamas was
not a terrorist group, but a national liberation movement.
"It confirms the failure of the U.S. and European policies of ignoring
Hamas," he told the crowd. "It confirms that all the countries that assume
Hamas is a terrorist group should reconsider."
Carter met Syrian President Bashar Assad earlier Friday after arriving in
Syria from Egypt.
