Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and current Mayor Zohran Mamdani exchanged a handshake and a few words at Ground Zero on Friday before the city's ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Video obtained by The New York Post showed the two politicians having a brief, civil interaction ahead of the annual commemoration, despite Giuliani's recent public criticism of Mamdani's decision to attend.

Giuliani said during a Newsmax appearance Sunday that there was "no question" Mamdani should not participate in the ceremony, arguing that "this ceremony is for the families and for America to remember historically."

"Frankly, whatever he'd like to say, he doesn't agree that September 11th was an Islamic terrorist attack on the United States of America, one that is, in terms of war or effort continuing today, and maybe even worse today," Giuliani claimed. "Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he's coming."

Asked Tuesday about Giuliani's comments, Mamdani said, "I think that the focus of memorial services should be on the New Yorkers who were killed that day, their families, the survivors, the first responders - I don't think it should be on politicians."

Mamdani attended Friday's ceremony, despite calls for him to stay away because of past controversial statements. Retired Port Authority police officers had urged him not to attend, warning that his presence could cause "deep pain" to survivors, first responders and relatives of those killed.

In addition, a petition opposing Mamdani's attendance had gathered more than 95,000 signatures. It was launched in July by Giovanni Galante, whose wife, Grace Catherine Galante, was killed in the September 11 attacks.

The petition cited several objections to Mamdani, who became New York City's first Muslim mayor after taking office in January. Among them was his refusal to condemn the anti-Israel slogan "globalize the intifada."

Controversy intensified in the week leading up to the ceremony after Mamdani signed an executive order designating September 11 as a Day of Remembrance and then handed the ceremonial pen to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem.

Kassem had previously represented Al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmed al-Darbi. He was seen smirking as he accepted the symbolic pen. Al-Darbi was transferred to Guantanamo Bay after being convicted over the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker in the Middle East, an attack described as part of an Al-Qaeda plot against the global oil trade following the September 11 attacks.

Kassem's sister was married to Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the September 11 hijackers who was aboard the aircraft that crashed into the Pentagon.

(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)