Former United States President Jimmy Carter said that he will likely meet with the militant group Hamas during a trip to Syria. “It’s likely that I will be meeting with the Hamas leaders,” Carter told ABC News.

He says he hopes for cooperation from Hamas in pushing forward the Israeli peace initiative.

The decision was not taken in warmly by Israeli leaders, who said that they have no plans to meet with him during his trip to the mideast.

U.S. President George W. Bush ended up his trip to Israel and the West Bank on Friday, where he met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders for the promotion of his peace plan.

U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Israel on Jan. 9, for his first trip during his presidency. The reason for the trip is to promote peace talks he initiated for the region late last year. During their discussion, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert mentioned that Israel does will tolerate attacks on it’s civilians. “And we made it clear to everyone that we’ll take all the necessary measures in order to reach out for those who are responsible for these attacks, and we will not hesitate to take all the necessary measures in order to stop them.” Olmert stated that if the attacks continue, Israel will not be able to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. “As long as there will be terror from Gaza it will be very, very hard to reach any peaceful understanding between us and the Palestinians.” President Bush said that the new talks presented an “opportunity to spread freedom as a great alternative to their ideology,” referring to terrorism by extremists and radicals, and to build “a society based upon human rights and human dignity, a society in which every man, woman and child is free.”

Bush stated:
I believe that two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace is in the best interests of America and the world. I believe it’s in the long-term security interests of Israel, and I know, to provide a more hopeful society for the Palestinians. And that’s why I articulated this vision early in my presidency. And that’s why I’m so pleased to have — to watch two leaders, you and President Abbas, work hard to achieve that vision.

The leaders also discussed the Iranian threat, with Bush saying that “Iran is a threat to world peace…and Iran will be a threat if the international community does not come together and prevent that nation from the development of the know-how to build a nuclear weapon. A country which once had a secret program can easily restart a secret program.

Israeli media is reporting that for the first time during his presidency, George W. Bush plans to visit Israel. The visit is supposedly scheduled for mid-January. The visit has not yet been confirmed by government officials. He is planning on visiting the leaders of Israel and leaders of the Palestinian Authority. The visit will be to further the ongoing peace talks, which were initiated recently in Annapolis, Maryland.

President Bush invited Israel and the Palestinian leaders to a meeting on November 27 in an attempt to launch peace talks for the creation of a Palestinian state. Although Bush is set to leave office in just 14 months, he obviously still feels obligated to see that this issue reaches a resolution. Dozens of countries, particularly those neighboring Israel, are to send over 100 delegates and representatives to the meeting to provide political leverage to both sides. Saudi Arabia was also asked to attend. The meeting will take place in Annapolis, Maryland. This is the first new series of negotiations to take place since the year 2000.