Carter meets Hamas chief in Syria

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Jimmy Carter met with Hamas’ leader-in-exile in Syria.

The former president went to a meeting Friday at a Hamas office in Damascus to talk to Khaled Meshaal and two other top Islamic leaders, Musa Abu Marzuq and Mohmmed Nazzal, according to Agence France-Presse.

Abu Marzuq said Carter was slated to discuss captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit with Meshaal, as well as a truce with Israel and an end to Israeli sanctions on the Palestinians.

Earlier Friday, Carter met with Syrian president Bashar Assad.

Carter has come under intense criticism for meeting with Hamas, including from members of the U.S. Congress on both sides of the aisle. Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) went so far as to call for Cater’s passport to be revoked and federal funding cut off from the Carter Center, the former president’s library and institution in Atlanta, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

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