The Hamas website has conducted a webinar, hosting Dr Daud Abdullah, director of Middle East Monitor (MEMO), to discuss his book: The Making of Hamas's Foreign Policy. 
Held on Tuesday evening, the Zoom meeting was attended by dozens of local and international activists and researchers. 
Unlike other books which addressed Hamas’ history and ideology, Abdullah’s book highlights the Palestinian resistance movement’s attempts to formulate a foreign policy strategy to manage it relations with the Arab and Muslim world and the international community as a whole.  
Abdulla explained that foreign policy is an integral part of Hamas’ political and liberation strategy. 
To boost its standing at a global scale, Abdulla added, Hamas realises that it must have a strong popularity on the ground and among the Palestinian masses. 
Despite being committed to a number of guiding principles to manage its foreign ties, Hamas does not adopt a specific theory for international relations, Abdullah continued. 
Shortly after its establishment, Hamas developed a foreign policy that narrowed the gap between its idealism and the requirements of realism in a bid to pursue its relationships with outside political entities, Abdulla argued. 
“Some analysts described Hamas’ response to this challenge as practical,” Abdullah pointed out. “This was clearly evident in its relationship with the Libyan and Syrian regimes despite their bitter enmity towards the Muslim Brotherhood.” 
Abdullah went on to demonstrate that some historical events influenced Hamas’ foreign policy and international relations, such as Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and 1991, the banishment of Hamas members to Lebanon in 1992, and the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, as well as Hamas’ sweeping victory in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections.