Former United States President Jimmy Carter said Sunday that he feels “quite at ease” meeting Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.  “I’ve been meeting with Hamas leaders for years,” he said.  The US considers Hamas a terrorist organization, and has strongly opposed Carter’s plans to meet with Mashaal.

Carter said he would meet with Hamas leaders despite the group’s stated commitment to the violent destruction of the state of Israel because “you can’t always get prerequisites adopted by other people before you even talk to them.”  Carter said his goals were to “meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have,” and to try to convince the group to agree to a ceasefire, to reunite with Fatah, and to stop its attacks on innocent civilians.