Carter urges end to deadly violence

PEACE TALKS: Carter, pictured, held more talks with Meshaal, focused on a possible truce between Israel and Gaza militants and the release of an Israeli soldier, Hamas said. (AFP)

Former US president Jimmy Carter and Khaled Meshaal, exiled chief of Hamas, held more talks in Syria on Saturday focused on a possible truce between Israel and Gaza militants and the release of an Israeli soldier, Hamas said.

The two men held a lengthy meeting on Friday, strongly opposed by Washington and Israel, who view Hamas as a terrorist organisation despite its victory in Palestinian elections in 2006.

Carter, on a Middle East trip to promote peace efforts amid continuing bloodshed, suggested to the Damascus-based Meshaal that his Islamist movement should make some goodwill gestures towards Israel.

The 2002 Nobel Peace prizewinner proposed a truce between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, "an exchange of prisoners, which would include Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the lifting of the Israeli blockade of the strip, and a solution to the Rafah terminal", Hamas official Mohammad Nazzal told newswire AFP.

Nazzal said Hamas would respond to Carter "soon".

It would reply positively but "not at any price. The interests of the Palestinian people must be taken into account," he said.

The Rafah terminal, on the Egyptian border, is the only crossing into Gaza that skirts Israel. It has been closed almost permanently since June 2006 when Hamas forces ousted those of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party.

The Jewish state imposed a blockade on Gaza on January 17 in response to rockets fired from Gaza into Israel.

After the Friday meeting, Nazzal told reporters: "Carter suggested a truce and that Hamas should stop its rockets against Israel.

"We support a truce, but Israel should support it too," he said in reference to attempts to halt the bloodshed in Gaza, where 18 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were killed on Wednesday.

On Saturday, three Palestinian were killed and 12 Israeli soldiers wounded when Hamas militants attacked the Kerem Shalom border crossing at the southern end of the Gaza Strip. Two other Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes in the territory.

Following his second round of talks with Meshaal, the former US president traveled to Saudi Arabia, where he and King Abdullah discussed "matters of mutual interest", the official SPA news agency reported, without elaborating.

On Sunday, Carter is to travel to Jordan, the last leg of his tour.

IN PICS: Jimmy Carter tour
Former US president on nine-day tour of Middle East to promote failed peace process.

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

USER COMMENTS (1 COMMENTS)

POST A COMMENT

Israel's role in the Middle East
Posted by Colin Dale, London, UK on 20 April 2008 at 16:55 UAE time


The greatest danger to world peace is the ever- increasing possibility of a nuclear war in the region sparked by a unilateral attack by Israel, upon Iran. It is difficult to appreciate why the U.S has, over so many years, colluded with Israel in the build-up of the largest and deadliest, secret, nuclear arsenal in the world.

The Gulf, and indeed the whole of the Middle East, should be a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, and the current American strategy of strengthening Israel's power instead of weakening it, will likely prove to be both the greatest threat and the greatest error of the 21st century.

Israel's secret nuclear should be dismantled urgently and Iran will then have no reason to continue with a nuclear weapon programme.

CLICK HERE TO POST A COMMENT

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.