 "Photo: AP")
AIRPORT CITY, Israel - Former President Jimmy Carter defended his plan to meet with the top leader of the violently anti-Israel Hamas movement, saying Monday he hopes to become a conduit between the Islamic militant group and Washington and Israel.
Isolating Hamas is counterproductive, Carter said. Hamas rules the Gaza Strip but is ostracized by Israel, the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist group.
"I think it is absolutely crucial that in the final and dreamed-about and prayed-for peace
agreement for this region that Hamas be involved and Syria will be involved," he told a business conference outside Tel Aviv.
"I can't say that they will be amenable to any suggestions, but at least after I meet with them I can go back and relay what they say, as just a communicator, to the leaders of the United States," he said.
The U.S., EU and Israel have blacklisted Hamas for its history of killing some 250 Israelis with suicide bomber attacks and its
refusal to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state.
Israel's top leaders are boycotting Carter during his nine-day Mideast trip, in part because he plans to meet later in the week in Syria with Hamas' exiled supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the U.S. government has "made clear our views that we did not think now is the moment for him or anyone to be talking with Hamas."
U.S. officials will be "happy to hear" Carter's reflections on his visit with Hamas, but that they aren't likely to change the administration's views on the militant group, Casey said.
The Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee criticized Carter for meeting with Hamas. Carter "in
effect is undermining a current policy which is not just American but held by many others," Rep. Howard Berman of California told The Associated Press.
Carter also offered to relay Hamas' views to Israel. If the U.S. agrees to hear what Hamas says, "I hope then the Israeli government will deign to meet with me‚ they have so far refused," he said.
President Shimon Peres, Israel's ceremonial head of state, was the only leader to meet with Carter since he arrived Sunday. Peres, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, criticized Carter for planning to meet with Mashaal, calling it a "very big mistake," a Peres spokeswoman said.
A schedule released by Carter's aides showed no plans for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni or Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
The cold shoulder is a highly unusual brush-off to a former U.S. leader, especially one so closely linked to Mideast peacemaking.
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