The United States has “less influence” in the Middle East than it has enjoyed since the 1940s, former US President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday, speaking at the Carter international human rights center. He accused the government of having “abandoned the effort” to urge Israel-Arab peace.

Carter also slammed his own country for what he termed a corrupt elections process. “We have one of the worst election processes in the world right in the United States of America, and it’s almost entirely because of the excessive influx of money,” he charged.