While discussing the prospects for his cancer diagnosis, former President Jimmy Carter discussed whether he regrets any of the decisions he’s made in his lifetime. Carter said that he has indeed second guessed his answer to the Iranian hostage crisis, during which 52 Americans were held prisoner by Iranians for 444 days over the course of 1979 to 1981.
“I wish I had sent one more helicopter to get the hostages, and we would have rescued them, and I would have been reelected,” Carter said.
The former president also discussed his thoughts on the current state of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
“Right now, I think the prospects are more dismal than any time I remember in the last 50 years,” Carter said. “The whole process is practically dormant. The government of Israel has no desire for a two-state solution, which is the policy of all the other nations in the world. And the United States has practically no influence, compared to past years, in either Israel or Palestine. So I feel very discouraged about it, but that would be my number one foreign policy hope.”
