Helena Cobban, at IPS, reports that Jimmy Carter briefed George Mitchell yesterday at White House:
They [Obama Administration officials] have been supported in [peacemaking] effort by another
quiet but very effective envoy, too: former Pres. Jimmy Carter. Carter,
like Mitchell, has just returned from an intensive fact-finding tour of
the Arab-Israeli region.IPS has learned that on Thursday, Carter briefed Mitchell on his findings.… J On Wednesday, the 84-year-old former
president wrapped up a grueling two-week tour that took him to Lebanon,
Syria, Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
One day after his return he had his meeting with senior administration
officials here in Washington. That event underlined the change in
Carter’s relevance and status in the Obama era. The visits he made to
the Middle East while George W. Bush was president were barely
tolerated by the administration, which kept him at arm's length.
While in Lebanon on the latest trip, Carter headed a team of
60 monitors sent by the Atlanta-based Carter Centre, which he founded
and still heads, to monitor the country’s Jun. 7 elections.
