NEW YORK, April 25: Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations called former US President Jimmy Carter “a bigot” for meeting with the leader of the militant Hamas movement in Syria.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, “went to the region with soiled hands and came back with bloody hands after shaking the hand of Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas,” Ambassador Dan Gillerman told reporters at a luncheon briefing on Thursday.

The diplomat was questioned about problems facing his country during a wide-ranging discussion lasting more than an hour. The briefing was sponsored by The Israel Project, a Washington-based, media-oriented advocacy group.

The ambassador’s harsh words for Carter came days after the ex-president met with Mashaal for seven hours in Damascus to negotiate a cease-fire with Gaza’s Hamas rulers. Carter then called Mashaal on Monday to try to get him to agree to a one-month truce without conditions, but the Hamas leader rejected the idea.

The ambassador called last weekend’s encounter “a very sad episode in American history”.

He said it was “a shame” to see Carter, who had done “good things” as a former president, “turn into what I believe to be a bigot”.

Telephone calls by The Associated Press to two Atlanta numbers for Carter were not immediately returned Thursday.

During Carter’s visit, Gillerman said, Hamas “was shelling our cities and maiming and injuring and wounding Israeli babies and Israeli children”.

The ambassador noted that Hamas is armed and trained by Iran, whose president once called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”.—AP