Posted on 10/25/2007 8:17:38 AM PDT by SJackson
Washington — Former President Jimmy Carter met Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss ways Carter and other senior statesmen might help support administration efforts to broker peace among Palestinians and Israelis.
The talks took place hours after Rice warned the House Foreign Affairs Committee that chances for an Arab-Israeli peace accord were in danger of slipping away, as she works to bring Palestinians and Israelis together in Annapolis, Md., late next month for what would be the first substantive face-to-face peace talks in seven years.
Carter met separately on Capitol Hill with the committee's chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), to discuss whether informal diplomacy might be able to help advance the peace process after the envisioned Annapolis talks conclude.
Carter has ruled out a role for himself, or for the other statesmen, before the peace conference, said former Carter aide Stuart Eizenstat, who attended Wednesday's meeting.
With efforts to bring together Palestinians and Israelis at a delicate juncture, Carter "doesn't want to throw another set of actors" into the mix, said Eizenstat, who served as Carter's chief domestic policy adviser. Instead, he said, Carter wants "to see what happens — if anything — in the conference."
Carter declined to discuss Wednesday's meeting, which included a House Foreign Affairs Committee member, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), who chairs the subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.
"I don't have time to talk," Carter said, waving off a reporter immediately after the half-hour meeting in Lantos' office. "I have a plane to catch."
Carter is part of the so-called Elders Group, assembled last July by former South African President Nelson Mandela. The group, including former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, recently visited Darfur, Sudan, and, working closely with U.N. personnel and others on the ground, prepared a report on human rights conditions in the troubled region.
One possibility Carter is exploring is whether the group, chaired by South African Bishop Desmond Tutu, might weigh in similarly on the Palestinian-Israeli question, said former Carter aide Robert Pastor, interim co-director of the elders group.
"We're not talking about mediation or negotiations. We're talking about just exploring whether a report would be useful," said Pastor. "We're at a very early stage of prebriefings and consultations."
In testimony before Lantos' committee earlier Wednesday, Rice warned that Iranian support for the militant group Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the State Department, has influenced Palestinian politics to the point where chances for a historic compromise with Israel could be fading.
There was no immediate response from the White House or the State Department about the question of whether Carter might be called upon to help break the potentially dangerous impasse in the U.S.-Mideast relations, much as he used informal diplomacy to broker compromises with North Korea and Haiti a decade ago.
"I have no way of knowing whether anything like that is ongoing," said Carter's former national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinksi. "I doubt that the administration would be very receptive and so I'm a little skeptical about the speculation, but who ... knows?"
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I'm sure Jimmy had some good advice. Meeting with Clinton would have made more sense. In fact we could bring Bubba in as a negotiator, he could share a Peace Prize with Condi.
Oh Geesh, the Bush administration has gone over the top.
Jimmah and Condie.
I wish she had told him off.
To paraphrase Rush, I think this is a brilliant idea: ask Carter what he would do - then do the exact opposite.
What is it with chasing the fraud of Middle East Peace for a legacy that makes Presidents lose their mind?
Right. Instead she wants his extreme “wisdumb”
argh.
Total insanity. Discussing our security with one of the biggest internal enemies of America. Washington is TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL. Is this just simple insanity or a form of political pandering of the highest order ??
What happens to people when they go to the State Dept? They must get Borg implants.
...Carter and other senior senile statesmen...
Fixed now.
“Former President Jimmy Carter met Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss ways Carter and other senior statesmen might help support administration efforts to broker peace among Palestinians and Israelis. “
Just another example of the disintegrating mind siting in the White House.
Easy, they should just keep their mouths shut.
Condi met with Dhimmi Jimmuh!?!??!?! On the “peace process”!?!??!?!?! GAG-o-rama! That’s a sure sign Israel is about to get screwed big-time. Jimmuh is one of the biggest Israel-haters around. What is this Administration thinking? (rhetorical question - it is pretty obvious what they’re thinking).
I can’t believe this adminsitration would let Jimmy Carter have anything to do with any foreign affairs. If they did, I would think they have completely lost it.
Like asking Dennis Green for help on winning the Super Bowl.
Is Robert Pastor, Carter’s aide, the Pastor that is invlved with the SPP with Mexico and Canada?
What madness.
I wish she had told him off.
OK, then I will! Hey senile old man you can help by keeping your nose out of everything that doesn’t pertain to peanuts!
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