Carter also says Hamas and the more moderate Fatah must reconcile so they can negotiate effectively with Israel.
He spoke to reporters on Thursday after meeting Syrian President Bashar Assad and ahead of talks with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus. It is to be Carter's third meeting with Mashaal in the past year.
After his presidency, Carter continued to pursue Mideast peace through his Carter Center foundation. He drew criticism from the Bush administration for talking to
Hamas.
Carter's trip to Syria comes just days before President Barack Obama's special Mideast envoy is to visit Damascus.
Obama's 'new language'
Meanwhile, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal said in an interview published Thursday by the London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, "Obama addressed Hamas with a new language, which we hope will be translated into views and a policy on the ground. We hope he will cancel the conditions set for holding talks with Hamas."
In the interview, the Hamas leader noted that Obama left out the word "terror" when describing the Palestinian resistance. However, he lamented the fact that the American president compared the Palestinians' situation to that of African Americans.
"We in Palestine are facing an occupation," he said. "An occupation must be fought with weapons according to all the criteria of international laws."
Roee Nahmias contributed to the report