The Islamic Hamas movement would be willing to accept a peace treaty with Israel negotiated by President Mahmoud Abbas, if the deal was approved by Palestinians in a referendum, former US president Jimmy Carter said Monday.
'They said they would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders if approved by the Palestinians and that they would accept the right to live as a neighbour next door in peace, provided the agreements negotiated by Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert and President (Mahmoud) Abbas will be submitted to the Palestinians for their overall approval,' he told an audience in Jerusalem.
The comments, and similar remarks by exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in a recent interview with a Palestinian daily, reflect a major change in the stance of Hamas, whose leaders have repeatedly said they will never recognise Israel, which they want replaced by an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine.
Hamas has also said that Abbas, in his peace talks with Israel, does not represent the Palestinian people. Hamas defeated Abbas' Fatah faction in the January 2006 elections, but last year routed forces loyal to the Palestinian leader in the Gaza Strip, leading the president to dissolve a short-lived unity government.
Carter met over the weekend in Damascus with Mashaal, a parley which drew heavy criticism from both Israel and the US and led to the frosty reception he received in the Jewish state when he visited last week.
Israel, the United States and Western Europe boycott the Hamas leadership because of the Islamist organization's refusal to renounce violence and change its charter to recognise Israel's right to exist.
But Carter deflected the criticism of his meetings, saying, 'We believe the problem is not that I met with Hamas in Syria; the problem is that Israel and the United States refused to meet with these people, who must be involved.'
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