Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said his former political rival Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has told him that he has retired from politics.

“He let me know, he has retired and does not want to be involved in politics anymore.

“I met him at a wedding recently and he sat next to me (but) we did not talk about politics because he has retired,” Mahathir said at a press conference at the Bersatu headquarters in Petaling Jaya today.

He was responding to a question on whether he would approach Tengku Razaleigh, who is the Gua Musang MP, to join him in the opposition.

The two veteran politicians had a falling out in the late 1980s, which saw Tengku Razaleigh’s “Team B” faction in Umno forming Semangat 46 to go against Mahathir’s Umno Baru (New Umno).

Mahathir also responded to Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (photo) who had criticised his meeting with EU diplomats.

Hishammuddin had said that Mahathir was inconsistent as he had blocked the opposition from meeting foreign diplomats when he was prime minister.

However, Mahathir denied he ever did this, saying that he was only against “some groups” who were offering money for propaganda.

“Not true. A lot of people met with foreign ambassadors (during my premiership).

“You cannot stop that, that is the right of the ambassadors.

“But I was definitely against some small groups who had the intention to promote their own ideology and thinking. That is not for us,” he said.

Amanah president Mohamad Sabu (photo) also said that when he was with PAS during Mahathir’s prime ministership, the Islamist party met with many diplomats to socialise and to discuss political developments.

Mahathir said he met with the diplomats because they “do not get any good information from the government”.

“Which leaves the embassy with no information as to what is happening in this country.

“Why are we complaining? They want to know and they have the right to know.

“So we took the opportunity to explain what is happening in Malaysia,” he said.

Pakatan Harapan was also concerned about the EU’s ban on palm oil and asked for an explanation for the decision, he said.

“For our part, we want to find out details of this action by the EU and we will formulate our stand so that our people, the Felda settlers and all that, do not suffer because of this,” he said.

When asked whether he discussed the presence of observers from the EU for the upcoming 14th general elections, Mahathir said only the federal government can invite foreign observers to monitor elections in the country.

“According to the usual practice, the invitation for foreigners to come and observe must come from the government and I am quite sure this kleptocratic government will never invite observers.

“But we expressed our disappointment over the inability of the opposition to bring in foreign observers,” he said.