Transcripts

BILL WAREHAM: Since his defeat to Ronald Reagan in 1980, Jimmy Carter has maintained an active role in foreign affairs, emphasizing worldwide human rights through The Carter Center in Atlanta. He learned of the secret negotiations between Israel and the PLO last June and was personally informed of the agreement last week by Yasser Arafat. Arafat told him then that much of the wording for the pact was lifted verbatim from the Camp David Accord.

JIMMY CARTER: As you may or may not remember, the Camp David Accords was a framework for peace. It was really a set of principles on which future negotiations could be conducted. And there's no doubt that the Camp David Accords have been the framework on which this first step toward accommodation has been reached.

BILL WAREHAM: Carter is clearly frustrated that in the years since Camp David, the United States relinquished its role as chief mediator between Arabs and Israelis, calling the Reagan and Bush terms empty years of lost opportunities. But he says he never lost hope that peace would come.

JIMMY CARTER: Well, I was getting discouraged. I didn't know-- I wasn't doubtful that someday it would happen, but I was doubtful that I'd be still living when it did happen. Of course, Fritz is a lot younger than I, so he had a much better chance to see it.

But I never did give up hope. We have been very careful at The Carter Center not to interfere when there was action in Washington on the Mideast peace process. In the years when there was no action, then I went fairly regularly to Syria, to Lebanon, to Jordan, and to the West Bank, and to Israel. But once they initiated the talks in Madrid under President Bush and Secretary Baker, then I didn't feel it was my role to intercede.

But I never have given up hope on it. And I think that the main bottom line is that I have always been convinced that the people in all those political entities genuinely want peace. The mothers of the children of Palestinians want peace. And the same with the Israelis, the same with the Syrians, the Lebanese, Jordanians.

BILL WAREHAM: On Monday, Carter will appear at the White House when the new agreement is signed. He says he'll take the opportunity to encourage and advise President Clinton on future involvement in the still volatile region.

JIMMY CARTER: I would hope that the Clinton administration would play the primary mediation role and not be hesitant or reticent about being forceful in pursuing the peace agreement that we all want to see.

BILL WAREHAM: Former President Jimmy Carter in the Twin Cities Friday to present friend Walter Mondale with an award at Macalester College. I'm Bill Wareham, Minnesota Public Radio.