UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Israeli President Isaac Herzog during their meeting on Tuesday that the decision by British lawmakers to outlaw Hamas as a terrorist organization was “difficult and controversial” but “the right thing.”
The two men met during Herzog’s first official visit to the country since taking office.
Today, President met the British Prime Minister, .
PM Johnson mentioned that the two have known each other for a long time, and that President Herzog's trip to the UK is an "important testimony to the strength of the relationship between the countries". pic.twitter.com/NgTKO7zX08— Israel in the UK (@IsraelinUK)
Herzog thanked the prime minister for “your resolution on proscribing Hamas, this is a very important message to terror organization and global radicals trying to undermine the situation in the Middle East.”
“On Hamas, I think it is the right decision; it was a difficult and controversial decision but I think the right thing, and by the way a decision that I think was almost immediately vindicated by the appalling incident that we saw in Israel.
“Terrible, terrible thing,” he said, referring to the terrorist attack Sunday in the Old City of Jerusalem by a member of the Hamas “political wing” that left a young man dead and three others wounded, one seriously.
Herzog also told Johnson that as Britain enters negotiations between Iran and the P5+1, “to be as tough as possible because we do not believe that they are operating in a bona fide manner, and only if all options are on the table may things move in the right direction.”
Johnson acknowledged that remarks by Herzog about Iran were also “well made,” adding that “we see a situation in which the world doesn’t have much time.”