CBNNews.com - NEW YORK CITY - Israeli United Nations Ambassador Dan Gillerman called former US President Jimmy Carter a "bigot."

"[He] went to the [Mideast] region with soiled hands and came back with bloody hands after shaking the hand of Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas" Gillerman told reporters Thursday at a briefing sponsored by The Israel Project

While Carter visited his colleagues in the region, Hamas "was shelling our cities and maiming and injuring and wounding Israeli babies and children," he said, calling Carter's mission "a very sad episode in American history."

"The real danger, the real problem is not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The real threat is Iran," said Israel's UN ambassador.

Syria is another "destabilizing influence" in the Middle East, Gillerman said.

"You see Syria hosting, very hospitably and warmly, more than 10 terror organizations in Damascus," he said, including the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terror group with very close ties to Iran and Syria.

"Basically, Syria and Iran, together with Hamas and Hezbollah, are the main axes of terror and evil in the world," Gillerman said.

Source: YNet news