 |
Eli Yishai said other officials were wrong in snubbing former US president Jimmy Carter during his visit to Israel.
|
|
|
| Page tools |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
JERUSALEM (AFP)---Israeli minister Eli Yishai is ready to meet Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to negotiate the release of prisoners held by the Islamist movement, the Haaretz daily reported on Friday.
"I am ready to meet with all necessary Hamas members," the newspaper quoted the industry minister as telling former US president Jimmy Carter during a meeting this week.
Carter was due in Damascus on Friday for talks with Meshaal as part of his Middle East tour to boost the peace process.
During a visit to Israel earlier in the week, Carter met the parents of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants in June 2006, and pledged to take up calls for his release with Meshaal.
Israel and the United States, which consider Hamas a terrorist movement, have been highly critical of Carter's planned meeting with the movement's chief.
Yishai, a deputy prime minister, told Carter he was willing to meet with Shalit's captors, Haaretz said. "I would be pleased if you could help," he told Carter on Monday.
Yishai's office said he had not asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for permission to hold the meeting with Carter or told him what was discussed.
He said other officials were wrong in snubbing Carter during his visit to Israel.
Carter's 2006 book "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid" infuriated Jewish groups who accused him of racism and anti-Semitism.
