Exclusive | Malaysia’s Anwar talks ‘totally insane’ US-Israel nexus, Gaza – and his Hamas ties

For Malaysia’s PM, Palestine is a cause that’s close to the heart – regardless of what the West’s ‘incessant propaganda’ says

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Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks during an interview at his office in Putrajaya. Photo: Hadi Azmi

Published: 9:30am, 15 Jun 2024Updated: 4:40pm, 17 Jun 2024

Anwar Ibrahim calls Hamas “freedom fighters”, rebuffs US demands to cut ties with the militant group and brushes aside diplomatic niceties to castigate Israel’s Western allies for failing to bring an end to the destruction of Gaza.

Malaysia’s prime minister has emerged as a leading Asian voice opposing Israel’s war on Gaza. Tracing the history of Palestinian dispossession, he defends his stance as a principled rebuke of “colonisation”.

It’s a position that resonates widely within his Muslim-majority country. But it also puts him at odds with the Western administrations who once garlanded him as a champion of democracy.

“The problem is no longer with Hamas now,” Anwar, 76, told the Post in an exclusive interview at his office in the administrative capital of Putrajaya.

“The superpower there is the United States … it is totally insane to imagine that the killing can continue of children and women and this superpower, a major ally of Israel, is unable to do anything. Nobody believes that.”

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Anwar Ibrahim on navigating Malaysia through China-US tensions | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo

In the decades he spent cast out into Malaysia’s political wilderness – before his return to high office in 2022 – Anwar was the darling of the West, seen as an erudite, defiant pro-democracy figurehead in a difficult Southeast Asian neighbourhood.