Just two days after Hamas released a statement condemning the U.S. for the death of Osama Bin Laden, Former US President Jimmy Carter published an article in the Washington Post urging the world to support Palestinian unity – even as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed that he would not ask Hamas to recognize Israel.

Abbas arrived in Cairo Tuesday for the official signing of a unity deal between his Fatah and its long-time rival, to take place Wednesday.

In his article in the Post, Carter urged support for the agreement. “If the United States and the international community support this effort, they can help Palestinian democracy and establish the basis for a unified Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza that can make a secure peace with Israel. If they remain aloof or undermine the agreement, the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory may deteriorate with a new round of violence against Israel,” he wrote.

Carter also accused the international community of “exacerbating differences” between the factions. “In 2006, Hamas won the legislative election, but the ‘Quartet’ — the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — rejected it and withheld aid, and the unity government collapsed. Competition between the two factions turned vicious, and each side has arrested the other’s activists,” he wrote.

He also sees the deal as a basis for a two-state solution. “With Quartet support, a unity government can negotiate with Israel an exchange of prisoners for the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and a settlement freeze,” Carter explained.

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