As the nation and the world reflect on the legacy of President Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, I want to share with you some of his remarks over the years at the University of Maryland. The Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at UMD has been honored to host President Carter and interact with him over three decades.
In 1998, the Sadat Chair had the distinct honor of hosting President Carter as he delivered the Sadat Lecture for Peace that commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Camp David Accords, in which President Carter played a central role. His remarks were very personal, revealing, and in some cases included new information that had not been known before. His comments, including his answers to questions from Arab and Israeli scholars at the event, offered reflections on the Camp David Accord’s negotiations, his personal assessment of Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s prime minister Menachem Begin. He also reflected on the role of Saudi Arabia before and after the Camp David Accords, as well as his on assessment of the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank as. You can see the full remarks and transcript below:
• President Carter’s remarks from the Sadat Lecture for Peace (1998)
• Watch the full video of President Carter's 1998 remarks on C-SPAN
In 2018, President Carter shared remarks for our Sadat Forum commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Camp David Accords. While President Carter continued to hail the accomplishments achieved at Camp David, he also noted what he called "a lingering disappointment:"
I must point out that our aspirations at Camp David were greater than what has been achieved. I admit a lingering disappointment, which I have expressed over the years. The Accords included both the bilateral understandings between Egypt and Israel and a framework for resolving "the Palestinian problem in all its aspects." The latter encompassed achieving autonomy for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, territories that were occupied by Israel after the 1967 war. While Israeli-Egyptian peace was essential, I always believed that the Palestinian issue was fundamental to achieving a comprehensive peace in the region—and for Israel to survive as a democratic state. Many Israelis have shared my view, and Anwar Sadat always stressed this point, beginning with his historic speech at Israel's Knesset and also at Camp David.
• President Carter's remarks to the Sadat Forum (2018)
The third item is President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s brief remarks remembering Dr. Jehan Sadat, the late wife of President Anwar Sadat, with whom they had a warm and close relationship over the years. These remarks were read for our event remembering Dr. Jehan Sadat in 2021 and can be found below.
• President Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter's remarks on Dr. Jehan Sadat (2021)