Following a phone call with his new Israeli counterpart on Tuesday, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Hungary condemns the “legal attack” launched against Israel in the International Court of Justice.
In a Facebook post, Minister Szijjártó noted that he and Foreign Minister Israel Katz had met four years ago when Katz had been in charge of transport. “Today I congratulated him on the phone on taking office, and we reviewed the situation in the Middle East,” Minister Szijjártó said. “I told my counterpart that Hungary condemns the legal attack launched against Israel in the International Court of Justice in The Hague: accusing a country that has suffered a terrorist attack of committing genocide is nonsense.” He reaffirmed Hungary’s support for Israel’s right to self-defencse. Hungary believes the success of Israel’s current counter-terrorism operations is in the entire world’s interest so that a repeat of the “brutal terrorist attack” suffered by the country can be prevented, Minister Szijjártó said. He said he and Katz agreed that Hamas needed to release all of its hostages as soon as possible. He added that Hungary and Israel were doing everything they could to secure the release of the dual Israeli-Hungarian citizen still being held hostage.