By DPA,
Damascus : Former US President Jimmy Carter arrived in Syria Friday to meet Syrian President Bashaar al-Assad and to hold a round of talks with the senior leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement, Syrian sources said.
Sources told DPA that Carter would meet al-Assad and would later hold talks with Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s senior leader.
The delegation headed by Carter told the media that the photography of the Carter-Mashaal talks would not be allowed.
Meanwhile, Palestinian sources close to Hamas said that the issue of the abducted Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit and suggestions to lift the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip are the kernel of the meeting.
In June 2006, Hamas captured Shalit during an attack on an Israeli army location near the Egyptian-Palestinian borders.
Despite intense efforts to release him, Shalit has been held by Hamas for more than one year.