MalayMail/Bernama-May 14
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has admitted that his meeting with the top Hamas leader yesterday might cause anxiety among Malaysia’s friends, especially in the West. However, he explained that Malaysia is an independent country supporting peace efforts in the Gaza Strip and is using its good relations with Hamas for this purpose. Citing Qatar as an example, he said the peninsular Arab country had used its good ties with Hamas in negotiations which led to the release of 109 captives. “We are also taking the same approach (to leverage our good ties),” he told the Malaysian media at the end of his three-day official visit to Qatar today. Anwar said that at the meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, Malaysia requested Hamas to consider the views of various parties to seek a speedy and peaceful settlement of the Gaza conflict. Anwar said he could see that the Hamas leader was adopting an open attitude to seek a settlement but the Zionist Israeli regime must stop its atrocities in Gaza and attacks in the West Bank. Hamas has shown a willingness to fulfil several conditions but unfortunately, Israel refused to accept these conditions,” he said. Anwar said Hamas, like PLO, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, has the right to defend its territory from an occupying foreign power, and Malaysia is taking the approach of supporting peacemaking efforts. Anwar’s meeting with Haniyeh, the Hamas Political Bureau chief, lasted more than an hour. Also present was former Hamas chairman Khaled Mashal. That was Anwar’s first meeting with Haniyeh in his capacity as the Malaysian prime minister. Read more at: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/05/14/pm-anwar-meeting-with-hamas-may-cause-anxiety-but-malaysia-trying-to-help-in-peace-efforts/134384
