Palestinians: Hamas debating Carter truce proposals after Syria talks

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Hamas engaged in an internal debate Saturday over proposals put froward by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter for a unilateral cease-fire with Israel and more political flexibility, Palestinian politicians said.

Carter left the Syrian capital Saturday for Riyadh after an early morning meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal.

Carter and Meshaal held more than four hours of talks Friday night that discussed how the Islamist group could be drawn into a Middle East peace plan and drop its opposition to peace talks between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the rival Fatah faction. Carter demanded that Hamas stops firing rockets on Israel while he pursues efforts with Israel and the West to lift the siege on the Gaza strip, which is ruled by Hamas, politicians familiar with the meetings said.

"Carter also asked Meshal to adopt more flexible public statements and talked to him as a leader of a national liberation movement, not as the terrorist Israel and America try to depict him as being," one of the sources told Reuters.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/976362.html

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1. Carter snubs US, Israel over Hamas

Jimmy Carter, a former US president, has met Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas leader, in the Syrian capital, despite opposition from Tel Aviv and Washington.

The meeting on Friday is said to have addressed Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and prospects for the release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

"Carter suggested a truce and that Hamas should stop its rockets against Israel," Mohammed Nazzal, a Hamas leader, said after the five-hour meeting with the former president in Damascus.

"We support a truce, but Israel should support it too," he said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3E8A8876-CC5C-4378-90DD-9A618141DC2F.htm