Former US president Jimmy Carter rebuffed a call yesterday from an Israeli lawmaker to halt his contacts with Hamas, and senior leaders of the Islamic militant group rushed to Egypt in anticipation of a meeting with him.
Carter, who was scheduled to fly to Egypt after wrapping up the first leg of a weeklong Middle East peace mission, has drawn criticism from the US and Israel for meeting officials from Hamas. The group, which opposes peace negotiations and is committed to Israel’s destruction, is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the US.
All of Israel’s senior political leaders declined to meet Carter, and only the country’s ceremonial president, Shimon Peres, made time to meet with him.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, announced yesterday that two of its Gaza leaders, Mahmoud Zahar and Said Siyam, were on their way to meet Carter in Cairo.
“Jimmy Carter wants to hear out our point of view,” said Salah Bardawil, a Hamas legislator in Gaza.
Bardawil was not part of the delegation going to Egypt.
A Carter spokesman refused to comment on the claim, but meeting the officials would be in keeping with Carter’s schedule so far: On Tuesday he met a Hamas leader in the West Bank, and tomorrow he is scheduled to meet the group’s top official, Khaled Mashaal, in Syria.
“I don’t think it is possible to have an ultimate peace agreement without the involvement of Syria. And I don’t think it will be possible without the involvement of Hamas,” Carter told a group of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists, repeating what has become the theme of his visit.
“To have them excluded from conversations or consultations I think is counterproductive,” he said.
The group included Israelis who lost friends or family in Palestinian attacks, as well as Palestinians who lost loved ones to fighting with Israeli soldiers.
Earlier yesterday, hardline Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman tried to persuade Carter not to meet Hamas’ top leader in Syria.
“Meeting a terrorist like Khaled Mashaal only encourages and increases terrorism,” Lieberman told Carter, according to a Lieberman spokesman.
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 to the Middle East.
In addition to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, he is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. He is scheduled to return to Israel late on Sunday, and said he would present a report summing up his tour.
“I’m not a mediator ... I’m just exploring possibilities for peace,” he said yesterday.
Carter said Israelis and Palestinians should adopt an unofficial framework for a peace agreement known as the “Geneva Accord,” drafted by dovish Israelis and Palestinians in 2003 without government authorization. That agreement endorsed the formation of a Palestinian state on almost all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS