Morning Thread: Carter to Meet Meshaal?

by Alex Thurston :: Filed Under Middle East / South Asia :: April 11th, 2008 @ 9:16 am EST

Hamas has announced that the leader of the external branch, Khalid Meshaal, will meet with former President Jimmy Carter in Syria next week. The Carter Center did not confirm or deny the announcement - leading me to believe, at least, that the meeting will take place. If it does, I say it’s a good thing. I repeat: talking to someone does not legitimate their actions. I talk to people all the time who I don’t agree with or approve of.

The State Department feels differently:

In Washington, the State Department said it twice advised Carter against meeting any representative of Hamas.

“U.S. government policy is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don’t believe it is in the interest of our policy or in the interest of peace to have such a meeting,” spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, adding that Washington would do nothing to facilitate Carter’s talks with Hamas.

He said the message had been conveyed directly to Carter in a phone call by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch.

“If he decides to travel to Syria, we will provide full support befitting a former president of the United States,” McCormack said. “One thing we will not do, however, is have the Department of State, in any way, engage in any sort of planning related to a meeting with Hamas.”

For detractors, of course, the trip will confirm their image of Jimmy Carter as a soft-hearted weakling. Admittedly, Carter has been more effective as a world diplomat than he was as a president, and he made some errors in judgment as president. But I wonder how many of those detractors would have the courage to sit down face-to-face with Khalid Meshaal and talk as equals.

While we’re at it, check out The Elders. A global village with no elders - they make a good point.