Former United States President Jimmy Carter met with senior Hamas terrorists in Cairo on Thursday.  Among the Hamas leaders present at the meeting were Mahmoud az-Zahar and Said Siyyam.  Carter plans to meet with Hamas head Khaled Mashaal in Damascus on Friday.

Az-Zahar expressed satisfaction with the meeting, saying it proved Hamas was a legitimate political movement and not a terrorist group.  The meeting “constitutes a breaking of the siege on Gaza and the political ban on Hamas, and proves that the [Hamas] movement is a national liberation organization dedicated to freeing the homeland from the occupying forces,” he said.