A plan is coalescing to arrange a meeting between exiled senior Hamas leader Khalid Mash'al and former US President Jimmy Carter in Damascus on 18 April, Palestinian sources told the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat on Tuesday.
According to Al-Hayat, Carter's aides will arrive in Syria soon to make arrangements for the meeting.
If the meeting is held, Carter will become the highest-ranking American official ever to publicly meet with Hamas leaders. Hamas officials did meet with representatives of President Bill Clinton's administration in the 1990s.
During the proposed meeting, Carter will be presented as the chair of the Carter Center, rather than as a former US president. A Hamas official said that that the meeting would show that Hamas is a power that can't be ignored in addressing the Palestinian question.
Jimmy's prophetic powers of a peaceful Hamas are bearing fruit, and he is ready to act on them. After all, the rockets are down to only 3 a day now. If that ain't peaceful what is?