The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned on Saturday the British government’s decision to consider Hamas a terrorist organization, and considered the decision an unjustified attack on the Palestinian people.
The ministry said: “The British government, with this decision, has placed obstacles in the way of achieving peace and obstacles in the way of efforts to consolidate the truce and rebuild the Gaza Strip. This British decision comes a week after the Israeli Prime Minister asked his British counterpart on the sidelines of the climate summit meeting in Glasgow to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization, and we see that it is in line with this request.”
The ministry called on the British government to “stop the policy of double standards and immediately retract this decision.”
British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced on Friday that she had taken a decision to completely ban the Hamas movement.
The minister said: “Hamas has terrorist capabilities that include access to advanced weapons on a large scale,” adding that the government is committed to confronting extremism and terrorism wherever it is.
In 2001, Britain had blacklisted the Izz al-Din al-Qassam factions – the military wing of Hamas – without the movement’s entirety, and it is now reverting to considering the entire movement a terrorist organization.
