The foreign ministry quoted Peter Szijjarto as saying ahead of a meeting of his EU counterparts that the pipeline's Ukrainian operator had indicated that fixing the pipeline would take one month.

"What will happen in a month's time? It will be the Monday after the election ... if anybody has thought that Ukraine has technical problems, they can now be certain that this whole thing is pure political blackmail," the minister said.

Szijjarto insisted that the pipeline was "physically and technically ready for restart".

He also said a tri-lateral meeting with the Slovak and Ukrainian energy ministers had been scheduled for Monday, but "in the end it did not happen".

"The Ukrainian side is not willing to talk, here in Brussels, after a Hungarian delegation ... spending three and a half days in Kyiv ... they also refused to allow the European Union's observers to visit the pipeline," he added.

Hungary has enough fuel reserves for another 86 days, Szijjarto said, adding that "we manage the reserves well and keep fuel prices under control ... but everybody should remember how Ukraine behaves towards us."

The Hungarian government, therefore, will continue to block the EU's 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine as well as other EU measures, the minister added. 

"As long as Ukraine plays games with us and won't restart the oil transit for political reasons, aimed to create an oil supply crisis in Hungary, supporting the 90 billion euro war loan to Ukraine is out of the question," he said.

Hungary will not support financial aid to Ukraine or the 20th package of sanctions, either, he said, adding that "they should forget about joining the EU anyway."

Meanwhile, Szijjarto voiced disappointment at the Polish prime minister's failing to attend Hungary's celebrations of March 15, adding that Donald Tusk had made "nice remarks" about the Hungarian opposition.

"He said he would like to see the opposition win ... but he should come here. Please try and convince him to make a visit during the four weeks before the election; whenever he comes here it is a good sign for us," Szijjarto said referring to Tusk's visit before the latest election which the opposition lost.

Concerning Tusk's remarks about Hungary's democracy, Szijjarto said "democracy in Hungary is in a much better state than in Poland ... and the rule of law in Poland is in a greater danger than in Hungary."

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com
 

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