Latest news with #PéterSzijjártó
Budapest Times
13 hours ago
- Business
- Budapest Times
Hungary-Turkey Joint Economic Commission meet in Ankara
Minister Szijjártó acknowledged Turkey's role in ensuring Hungary's secure energy supply, noting that Hungary took delivery of over 21 million cubic metres of gas a day through the TurkStream pipeline. Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the Hungary-Turkey Joint Economic Commission met in Ankara on Thursday. After the meeting, Minister Szijjártó acknowledged Turkey's role in ensuring Hungary's secure energy supply, noting that Hungary took delivery of over 21 million cubic metres of gas a day through the TurkStream pipeline. He added that those deliveries were set to climb by 750,000 cubic metres a day in July under an agreement between state-owned energy group MVM and Turkey's BOTAS. Minister Szijjártó warned that a plan by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to ban cheap Russian gas and crude from the European Union would cause Hungarian households' utility bills to double or triple. Minister Szijjártó highlighted a strategic partnership between Hungarian oil and gas company MOL and Turkish peer TPAO that could boost MOL's role on markets in Europe and North Africa through joint upstream projects in Turkey, Syria and Libya. He added that MOL and TPAO were also partnering on oil field projects in Hungary. He noted that a Turkish company was building a power plant in the east of Hungary. Bilateral trade between Hungary and Turkey reached USD 4.4bn in 2025 and could climb over USD 5bn in 2025, Minister Szijjártó said.
Gulf Insider
2 days ago
- Politics
- Gulf Insider
Offshoot Of Syria's Ruling HTS Claims Credit For Damascus Church Bombing
On Sunday, a massive suicide bomb attack tore through the important Greek Orthodox church Mar Elias in Damascus, killing 27 and wounding dozens more. The huge attack just added to the spate of sectarian violence across Syria, which undercuts the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government's claim to be protecting religious minorities. The HTS was quick to blame ISIS for the Mar Elias bombing, and on Monday announced the arrest of a number of ISIS associates who they claimed were involved, vowing to bring them to justice. Now that whole narrative seems in doubt. ISIS never took credit for the Mar Elias bombing, which, since it was the biggest attack in Damascus in a very long time, would be an unusual oversight. Now, another group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah (SAAS), issued its own statement claiming credit for the attack. SAAS, which was said to be formed in February, went on to say that the government's claims of arresting people involved with the attack were 'untrue, fabricated.' The group is being presented as an ISIS splinter group by some reports, but the reality is substantially different. SAAS does indeed have some ISIS defectors within, according to reports, but it also has a substantial number of HTS defectors. SAAS founder Abu Aisha al-Shami was an HTS member, and said he broke away and formed his own group because he perceived HTS as being too soft on Shi'ites and other 'rejectionists.' While HTS has undergone a massive reformation in its presentation in the media, the group was a renamed al-Qaeda affiliate that retains its deeply Salafist ideologies. After a brutal, religiously motivated terrorist attack on Christians in Syria, the EU remains silent. Brussels usually reacts within minutes when it comes to other parts of the world, like Ukraine. This double standard is outrageous, and the lack of condemnation is unacceptable. — Péter Szijjártó (@FM_Szijjarto) June 23, 2025 While playing nice with religious minorities in Syria on paper, they've tended to turn a blind eye to attacks on them, notably the massacre of the Alawites, where well over 1,300 Alawites were killed in March, many by security forces. Those killings continue to this day, and the promised investigation never seemed to go anywhere. Speaking of Alawites, SAAS played a part in these massacres as well. The group regularly brags of carrying out attacks on Alawites and Druze Syrians, including what they called the 'Harvest of Ramadan,' where they listed attacks and vandalism done during the holiday on the Alawite town of Qardaha. That they would be behind the Mar Elias attack is not out of keeping with the way the group has operated in its brief existence. It provides a messaging problem for the HTS though, since the government has not done much about the SAAS at all since it came into existence. The Orthodox Christian leader in Syria has called out the Jolani regime: My respect for His Beatitude Patriarch John X Yazigi has grown tenfold after his historic speech from Damascus openly criticizing the Julani no mistake: the regime will try to harm you see the incitement—calling him an 'Assad regime remnant' or accusing… — Kevork Almassian (@KevorkAlmassian) June 26, 2025 Syrian Christian leader Patriarch John X. Yazigi issued a statement after the attack criticizing the government for its inability to protect religious minorities, saying 'condolences are not enough for us' and that the government has a fundamental duty to protect all its citizens. For now, though, that has begun and ended with blaming ISIS to justify ongoing operations against ISIS in the east.
Budapest Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Budapest Times
Hungary is ready to collaborate with the new Romanian government, minister says
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, stated that Hungary is ready to collaborate with the new Romanian government, given their shared economic and energy security interests, which rely on 'stable, respectful and mutually beneficial cooperation' in today's perilous world. Noting the formation of the government to include the Hungarian Democratic Alliance in Romania (RMDSZ), Minister Szijjártó said he spoke with RMDSZ leader Hunor Kelemen by phone and 'congratulated my friend'. The interests of Hungarians in Transylvania 'are best served' with RMDSZ representatives in government, he added.
Budapest Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Budapest Times
Foreign Minister says ‘one of most offensive sentences' of his career uttered at EU meeting
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on Monday slammed remarks by the European Union's foreign policy chief on the situation of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine as 'one of the most offensive utterances' he had heard during his time as minister. Speaking at a news conference after a meeting of the EU's Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Minister Szijjártó said he had raised the issue of the treatment of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine, insisting that Ukraine was refusing to restore the rights of the Hungarian community because it believed Brussels would 'put enough pressure on Hungary for it to back down from its protest'. Minister Szijjártó said the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, had responded to his address, saying that the EU 'defends minority rights within the European Union, not outside it'. The minister slammed Kallas's remark as 'outrageous', saying it went to show that Ukraine 'mustn't be allowed to take a single step forward in the accession process until it fully restores the rights of the Hungarian minority'. 'No amount of pressure from Brussels can force us to give up our stance on the protection of Transcarpathian Hungarians,' Minister Szijjártó said.
Budapest Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Budapest Times
FM: Hungary stands in support of Qatar's sovereignty
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, stated that Hungary stands in support of Qatar's sovereignty and the right of Qataris to a peaceful existence. 'Qatar is a friend of Hungary and a strategic ally in the region,' Minister Szijjártó said in a post on Facebook. 'We have always counted on one another,' he said, adding that the Qataris played 'a decisive role' in the release of three Hungarian hostages from Hamas captors. The minister said he reassured his counterpart of the solidarity of the Hungarian people. 'My friend Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi and I expressed our hope that the conflict in the Middle East, through negotiations, will end swiftly,' he said. Fully 250 Hungarians reside in Qatar, 71 of whom have registered for consular protection, he said.
