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http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Hamas_Says_Carter_Visit_a/2008/04/17/88736.html
Hamas Says Carter Visit a Boost to Militants' Legitimacy
Thursday, April 17, 2008
CAIRO, Egypt -- Hamas officials said Wednesday that Jimmy Carter's meetings
with leaders of the Palestinian militant group will boost its legitimacy
despite criticism by Israel and the U.S. government of the former
president's personal peace mission.
Carter arrived in Egypt from Israel and the Palestinian territories, where
he raised Israeli anger Tuesday by embracing a Hamas official in the West
Bank.
A delegation of senior Hamas officials from the Gaza Strip also came to
Cairo, escorted by heavy security, and said Carter planned to meet with them
Thursday.
A Carter spokesman refused to comment on Hamas' claim. After sitting down
with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and speaking at the American
University on Thursday, Carter is scheduled to meet in Damascus, Syria, on
Friday with Hamas' top leader, Khaled Mashaal.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who brokered Israel's historic peace
agreement with Egypt three decades ago, is on what he calls a private peace
mission. He contends the U.S., Israel and other Western states should stop
isolating Hamas if they want peace efforts to succeed.
Heading the Hamas delegation in Cairo were Gaza leaders Mahmoud Zahar and
Said Siyam. "This meeting is a message to those who don't recognize Hamas'
legitimacy as a movement," Zahar said as he left for Egypt, according to
Hamas' Web site.
In Cairo, Hamas spokesman Taher Nuhu told The Associated Press that the
purported Thursday meeting would be "a recognition of the legitimacy" of
Hamas' victory in the Palestinians' parliamentary election in 2006.
"We do not claim we are the only legitimate group there, but we are an
integral part whose legitimacy was manifested in the elections," Nuhu said.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since its bloody takeover last June, opposes
peace negotiations with Israel and is committed to the Jewish state's
destruction. The Islamic militant group has killed some 250 Israelis in
suicide bombings and is branded a terror organization by the U.S. and
Israel.
Traveling with his wife, Rosalynn, Carter was greeted at the Cairo airport
by Omar Metwally, an official in the Egyptian foreign minister, and the U.S.
ambassador to Egypt, Francis J. Ricciardone.
Ricciardone, speaking to reporters in Arabic, described Carter as a "man of
peace," but said the U.S. government disagrees with him about his contacts
with Hamas.
Carter also has been criticized by some Democrats in Congress. Howard L.
Berman of California, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, and Gary Ackerman, a New Yorker who heads the House subcommittee
on the Middle East and South Asia, urged Carter to cancel the meeting with
Mashaal.
Hamas Says Carter Visit a Boost to Militants' Legitimacy
Thursday, April 17, 2008
CAIRO, Egypt -- Hamas officials said Wednesday that Jimmy Carter's meetings
with leaders of the Palestinian militant group will boost its legitimacy
despite criticism by Israel and the U.S. government of the former
president's personal peace mission.
Carter arrived in Egypt from Israel and the Palestinian territories, where
he raised Israeli anger Tuesday by embracing a Hamas official in the West
Bank.
A delegation of senior Hamas officials from the Gaza Strip also came to
Cairo, escorted by heavy security, and said Carter planned to meet with them
Thursday.
A Carter spokesman refused to comment on Hamas' claim. After sitting down
with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and speaking at the American
University on Thursday, Carter is scheduled to meet in Damascus, Syria, on
Friday with Hamas' top leader, Khaled Mashaal.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who brokered Israel's historic peace
agreement with Egypt three decades ago, is on what he calls a private peace
mission. He contends the U.S., Israel and other Western states should stop
isolating Hamas if they want peace efforts to succeed.
Heading the Hamas delegation in Cairo were Gaza leaders Mahmoud Zahar and
Said Siyam. "This meeting is a message to those who don't recognize Hamas'
legitimacy as a movement," Zahar said as he left for Egypt, according to
Hamas' Web site.
In Cairo, Hamas spokesman Taher Nuhu told The Associated Press that the
purported Thursday meeting would be "a recognition of the legitimacy" of
Hamas' victory in the Palestinians' parliamentary election in 2006.
"We do not claim we are the only legitimate group there, but we are an
integral part whose legitimacy was manifested in the elections," Nuhu said.
Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since its bloody takeover last June, opposes
peace negotiations with Israel and is committed to the Jewish state's
destruction. The Islamic militant group has killed some 250 Israelis in
suicide bombings and is branded a terror organization by the U.S. and
Israel.
Traveling with his wife, Rosalynn, Carter was greeted at the Cairo airport
by Omar Metwally, an official in the Egyptian foreign minister, and the U.S.
ambassador to Egypt, Francis J. Ricciardone.
Ricciardone, speaking to reporters in Arabic, described Carter as a "man of
peace," but said the U.S. government disagrees with him about his contacts
with Hamas.
Carter also has been criticized by some Democrats in Congress. Howard L.
Berman of California, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, and Gary Ackerman, a New Yorker who heads the House subcommittee
on the Middle East and South Asia, urged Carter to cancel the meeting with
Mashaal.
