The war has been going on for more than a thousand days and Hungary's position has not changed ever since it broke out, Peter Szijjarto told public broadcaster Kossuth radio. Hungary's position, which has since been proven true, is that this war has no solution on the battlefield where there is only death, suffering and more destruction, he said.

He said that the war claiming human lives in the ranges of a million had not opened the eyes of everyone, adding that weapon deliveries had not changed the balance of power. The Russian army is forging ahead and occupying more and more territories, Szijjarto said.

"The only solution is to be found solely at the negotiating table; there must be talks, but for peace talks a ceasefire in needed first," the foreign minister said.

Szijjarto noted Prime Minister Viktor Orban's proposal of a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners in humanitarian steps with the upcoming days of the Christmas celebrations taken into consideration.

He also noted the prime minister's phone conversation with the Russian president earlier this week that lasted for more than an hour.

Szijjarto said that as Hungary's foreign minister he had informed his Ukrainian counterpart as well as the head of the Ukrainian president's office [about that phone conversation] asking them to arrange a phone conversation between Viktor Orban and the Ukrainian president which he said was rejected "in a bit uneasy, yet cultured manner".

"Hungary has tried to do everything [possible] under its mission for peace in the past half year, even more than what could be or would have been expected from a country this size," Szijjarto said.

"We have made every possible effort under our EU presidency in the past six months to use the presidency for a good cause, for a ceasefire, for starting peace talks," Szijjarto said.

Talking about a threatening email received by Hungary's embassy in Paris on Saturday, the minister said that it had been sent from a country neighbouring Hungary and contained a picture of a bomb.

The minister said his colleagues in Paris had immediately notified the foreign ministry's security centre. French authorities arrived at the scene quickly and very professionally with appropriate technology and search dogs. As no explosive device was found, the embassy staff returned to their offices to continue their work, Szijjarto said.

He said that in his assessment "the world is in an especially dangerous situation today", with armed conflicts going on at several places, terrorist attacks taking place, terrorist organisations carrying out coup attempts". "In this situation every threat needs to be taken seriously," the foreign minister said.

 "And we have done just that, as the safety, health and the life of our colleagues is most important to us," he said. He also emphasized that "everything at the embassy has returned to normal," adding that security regulations had been reinforced.

On another topic, Szijjarto called it a step "less worthy of allies" that the United States had put Gazprombank on a sanctions list as "it was clear which countries in the central European and south-eastern European regions buy energy from Russia due to physical, infrastructural and geographical realities, and it is also clear that they pay through Gazprombank".

The minister said they had worked hard with the Slovaks, Serbians, Turks and Bulgarians in recent weeks to find a legal solution that will continue to guarantee the security of their energy supply without violating US sanctions, and they have succeeded.

Answering questions about how they managed to disperse a false media report that Bashar al-Assad’s airplane had landed in Budapest, he said that "it was a very rough situation" and it was incredibly dangerous "to involve Hungary in such a red hot conflict".

It is possible that this situation arose as part of an orchestrated secret service operation that posed an extraordinary threat to Hungary, so I believe that it is necessary to investigate as thoroughly as possible where this started, who participated in it, and those who participated why they did so.

"Putting Hungary in danger cannot go unpunished," he said.

Meanwhile, Szijjarto: Hungarian embassy in Paris receives threat

Staff at Hungary's embassy in Paris have received a life threat in an email, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook on Saturday, adding that French police were searching the premises at the time of his post.

The sender of the email had attached the image of a home-made bomb, but such a device has not yet been discovered, Szijjarto said.

Szijjarto said the email "is believed to have arrived from a neighbouring country," adding that the Hungarian secret services were also investigating the case.

MTI Stock Photo - for illustrative purposes only

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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