In Twitter remarks, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem said that “Al Nahyan’s incitement for Western countries to classify Hamas as a terror group goes against the Arab values and contradicts the nationalist concepts.”

Spokesman Qasem added that Al Nahyan’s remarks were consistent with the futile Zionist propaganda and collided with the Arab masses’ support for the Palestinian resistance.

The Emirati official made his anti-Palestine remarks during the opening of an office for the American Jewish Committee in Abu Dhabi last Monday, which is the first in an Arab country.

Flagrantly ignoring the fact that the Palestinian people are under occupation and their resistance is legitimate under international law, the foreign minister claimed that “it is very unfortunate that countries are more reluctant to talk about groups like Hamas, Hezbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood in a clearer way.”

“Some governments classify as terrorist only the military wing of the group and not the political wing, while that same entity says that there is no difference,” he added.