Malaysian PM Says He Has ‘No Apologies’ About Maintaining Ties With Hamas

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim reiterated his country’s close ties to Hamas. According to an AFP report the prime minister made these remarks during a visit to Germany.

Asked about this during a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Ibrahim stated that he “had no apologies” about his ties with Hamas though he stated that the ties were confined to Hamas’s political wing.

“We do not have any connection with any military outfit or wing, I’ve clarified this to many of my European colleagues (and) the United States. What I reject strongly is this narrative, this obsession, as if the entire problem begins and ends with the 7th of October. It did not begin with the 7th of October and did not end with the 7th of October. It began four decades before that, and it is continuing daily,” he stressed.

Speaking next, the German Chancellor confirmed his country’s long-standing ties to Israel. In a report in The Straits Times Scholz stressed that “Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas’s terror attack.”

He added that Berlin wanted more humanitarian aid to reach Gaza and that the hostages to be released unconditionally, and moves should be made towards a two-state solution.

Malaysia does not have any diplomatic relations with Israel.

Malaysia’s animosity towards Israel was seen in 2019 when then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had refused to allow Israeli athletes into the country. According to local reports, he stated that he believed Israel “was doing a lot of wrong things but getting away with it, because nobody dares to say anything to them.”

Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon had then said in response that Malaysia was guilty of “rabid anti-Semitism.”