CAIRO - Former US President Jimmy Carter has urged the US Administration to support Egypt's Islamists, stressing that this support will be in the interests of democracy, freedom and stability in the region, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Thursday. "What has happened in Egypt boosts democracy and freedom," Carter was quoted by CNN as saying. He added that Egypt now has the opportunity to form a democratic government elected by the people; it also has the same opportunity as free societies to achieve freedom and human rights. Carter said he considers the US objections to the Islamists' win in Palestine ��" referring to the Hamas movement ��" to have been a mistake, stressing that this mistake won't be repeated with Egypt. "I think it was a big mistake. Maybe we would now have peace in the Middle East if we had recognised a new, elected new government and supported and worked with it," he commented, adding that this what we have learnt now in Egypt. "We are now behaving differently, by giving the Islamists the chance to rule,” he commented. Carter met about a week ago with Mohamed el-Morsi, the Chairman of Egypt's new Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of Muslim Brotherhood, at the premises of the party in Cairo. He congratulated el-Morsi on the parliamentary election results achieved by the party, noting there is international consensus to respect the results which reflect the Egyptian people's choices, said a statement posted on the Muslim Brotherhood's web site. “The former US President has called on the FJP to accommodate nascent and new parties of youth which have not won many seats in the recent elections,” the web site stated. Carter is known for his enthusiasm for Islamist groups that take over Middle Eastern and North African nations. El-Morsi told Carter that a mixed presidential-parliamentary model was the best for Egypt in the current transitional phase, adding that it can be transformed into a full parliamentary system after the completion of the democratic process. “I think the Muslim Brotherhood are not anything to be afraid of in the forthcoming [Egyptian] political situation and the evolution I see as most likely,” Carter told the pupils, as he witnessed People's Assembly (PA) election voting at a school. Carter praised the Egyptian PA polls.
