Carter visits South, calls for end to ongoing occupation
Former US President Jimmy Carter marked the last day of his five-day visit to Lebanon on Friday by calling for "a solution" to Israel”s occupation of Lebanese territory and violation of the country”s sovereignty.
"During my visit, I visited the South and took a close look at your country”s occupied territories in the Shebaa Farms and Ghajar … I also received a report of the several Israeli overflights that are being conducted on a daily basis … There must be a solution for all such violations," Carter told reporters after meeting Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh.
Commenting on Lebanese-Syrian relations, the former president said that establishing diplomatic ties and demarcating borders would be a major contribution toward achieving peace and stability in the Middle East. He added that he was positive the incoming US administration would have a new perspective on Lebanon and Syria.
He also stressed that his offer to provide monitors for next year”s parliamentary elections required local agreement.
"Our center has monitored elections in 73 countries so far … We are offering our services and we will not do the job unless there is Lebanese consensus about it," he said.
Later, after meeting MPs from Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt”s Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc, Carter said he hoped the polls would be held in a peaceful and transparent manner, with high voter turnout.
The former president also reiterated his call on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon "without any delay."
After the talks, the former president traveled to the southern town of Msayleh for a meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who leads the Amal Movement, before returning to Beirut to speak at AUB. Carter praised Berri for "keeping the government together and advocating national dialogue."
He added that he was optimistic about Lebanon”s future, calling on US President-elect Barack Obama to give priority to achieving "peace in this area of the world."
Asked by reporters if he wished to send any message to Hizbullah, Carter said that he hoped the resistance would cooperate with other parties for the future of Lebanon.
Hizbullah had refused to meet the former president, with the group”s senior MP, Mohammad Raad, quoted as saying that his party would not meet with any current or former official of any US administration.
For his part, Berri praised Carter for "trying to improve the image of the United States."
Carter arrived in Msayleh aboard a helicopter belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
The peacekeeping force”s commander General Claudio Graziano, later joined Carter at the speaker”s residence.
Friday”s meetings come after a busy week of talks with various Lebanese leaders.
During his visit, Carter met with President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and rival Christian leaders Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea. He had also expressed his willingness to meet with Hizbullah representatives.
Despite Hizbullah”s refusal to meet with him, Carter has offered to send an election monitoring team to oversee parliamentary elections scheduled for next spring. The vote is expected to be extremely close, with the Hizbullah-led opposition hoping to topple the governing March 14 coalition.
If approved by the cabinet, the monitoring team would be run through the Carter Center, the not-for-profit human rights organization that Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, founded after he left office.
The center has deployed monitoring teams to elections around the world.
Interior Minister Ziyad Baroud said on Thursday that he welcomed the idea of the monitoring team overseeing the election, but noted that any such move was contingent on cabinet approval.
"We are working in a very transparent way," he said. "We want these elections to be held in the best form."
Carter has said that if his mission were approved he would look forward to the polls with "great anticipation."
After finishing his trip to Lebanon, Carter will head to Damascus on Saturday to discuss the prospects of Middle East peace with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
According to sources in Damascus, Carter has also scheduled a meeting with the exiled leadership of Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Earlier this year, Carter held controversial talks with Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, despite vocal opposition from US and Israeli officials.
A Hamas source told the Associated Press that Carter planned to meet with officials from the group to discuss the case of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who has been held prisoner by the group for more than two years. Carter”s last meeting with Hamas facilitated the delivery of a handwritten letter from Shalit to his parents.
Since leaving office, Carter has dedicated his time to working on the Middle East peace process. In September 1978, under Carter”s presidency, then-Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David Accords, establishing peace between Egypt and Israel after nearly 30 years of intermittent conflict.