Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday rejected calls from the US administration, which is pressuring Ankara to sever ties with the Palestinian Hamas movement, AFP reports.

During a visit to Turkey this week, Brian Nelson, US Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Crimes, expressed Washington’s “deep” concern about Ankara’s ties to Hamas, Agerpres reports.

According to Nelson, the United States has not detected financial flows to Hamas through Turkey since the beginning of the current war.

However, he said Ankara had helped Hamas gain access to funding in the past and urged Turkey to take action against potential future transfers of funds.

“We build our foreign policy exclusively in accordance with the interests of Turkey”

On Saturday, President Erdogan reminded that Washington knows that Turkey, unlike the United States, does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

“Firstly, Hamas is a reality in Palestine, it is a political party that ran for elections as a political party and won them,” Erdogan said, according to a text released by the presidential administration.

“We develop and form our foreign policy in Ankara exclusively in accordance with the interests of Turkey and the expectations of our people,” he added.

“I am sure that our interlocutors recognize the constant and balanced efforts of Turkey’s foreign policy in such humanitarian crises and conflicts,” Erdogan said.

“The elimination or destruction of Hamas is not an optimistic scenario”

Erdogan also said on Saturday that the chances of peace in Gaza after the humanitarian break are currently lost because of Israel’s intolerant stance, according to NTV, quoted by Reuters.

Speaking to reporters after returning from the United Arab Emirates, the Turkish president said he was not giving up hope for lasting peace and added that Hamas could not be ruled out of a potential solution to the conflict.

“We should focus on the two-state solution. Eliminating Hamas or destroying Hamas is not an optimistic scenario,” Erdogan said in an interview, noting that he does not identify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Erdogan also said that a contact group formed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States will travel to the United States to discuss a possible solution to the Gaza conflict after previously meeting with authorities in London, Paris, Barcelona and the United Nations.

Read also:

• Erdogan calls Netanyahu “Gaza’s butcher” in fiery new speech: “He wrote his name in history”
• The U.S. Treasury Department says Turkey plays a “prominent” role in funding Hamas

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