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Published on Saturday, November 16, 2002
by Agence France Presse

Ex-US President Jimmy Carter Slams 'Arrogant' US Foreign Policy

WASHINGTON - Former US president Jimmy Carter, this year's Nobel
Peace Prize winner, called on Friday for disarmament by the United
States, which has taken the lead in urging such countries as North
Korea and Iraq to destroy their weapons of mass destruction.

"One of the things that the United States government has not done is
to try to comply with and enforce international efforts targeted to
prohibit the arsenals of biological weapons that we ourselves have,"
Carter said on CNN's Larry King Live program broadcast late Friday.

He also called for more stringent efforts by Washington "to reduce
and enforce the agreement to eliminate chemical weapons, and the same
way with nuclear weapons."

"The major powers need to set an example," Carter said, as the United
States confronts Iraq over its possession of such banned weapons.

"Quite often the big countries that are responsible for the peace of
the world set a very poor example for those who might hunger for the
esteem or the power or the threats that they can develop from nuclear
weapons themselves," the former US president continued.

"I don't have any doubt that it's that kind of atmosphere that has
led to the nuclearization, you might say, of India and Pakistan," he
said.

Carter, who will receive the Nobel prize on December 10 in Oslo,
Norway for his efforts in seeking negotiated settlements to head off
violent conflict, also noted that the United States gives only one
one-thousandth of its gross national product for international
assistance, while the average European country gives four times as
much.

"For every time an American gives a dollar, a citizen of Norway gives
17 dollars," he said.

"Foreign aid in this country has a bad name, but in other countries,
it's a right thing for the government to do. And that's where we at
the Carter Center quite often have to turn," the former president
said, referring to the Atlanta-based Carter Center he founded some 20
years ago, and which now operates humanitarian projects in 65
countries.

Carter also said the United States has given many nations around the
world cause for resentment and scorn.

"There is a sense that the United States has become too arrogant, too
dominant, too self-centered, proud of our wealth, believing that we
deserve to be the richest and most powerful and influential nation in
the world," the 78-year-old former president said.

"I think they feel that we don't really care about them, which is
quite often true."

Copyright 2002 AFP

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