Hungary to Help Evacuation of Iranians from Ukraine
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The foreign minister of Hungary pledged that his country will assist with the evacuation of Iranian nationals from Ukraine, where fighting has flared in recent days.
In a telephone conversation on Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto talked about the crisis in Ukraine and the ways to facilitate the evacuation of Iranian citizens from that country.
The top Iranian diplomat called on Hungary to provide humanitarian assistance in order to facilitate the process of transfer of Iranians from Ukraine through the Hungarian territories.
Amirabdollahian said the Iranian nationals, including the students, the families of diplomats, and other expatriates residing in Ukraine are looking for ways to enter Poland and Hungary in order to return to Iran.
In response, Szijjarto said his country will spare no effort to help the evacuation of Iranians in Ukraine through Hungary, will issue the necessary orders to grant the Iranian nationals entry without the need for a visa, and make rapid arrangements for their return to Iran.
Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian further expressed gratitude to Hungary for assisting with the safe evacuations of Iranians from Ukraine.
He then voiced concern about the measures by the NATO which have created crisis in Eastern Europe, reaffirming support for political solutions to the crisis in Ukraine.
For his part, the Hungarian foreign minister expressed deep concern about the launch of military operation in Ukraine, stressed the need for political and diplomatic solutions, and hoped that the crisis would be addressed and controlled in the shortest possible time.
The phone call came amid Russia's military operation in the eastern parts of Ukraine, which started after Putin said he had ordered the Russian Federation's military to carry out a “special military operation” in the Donbass region. Putin’s order came after the leaders of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbass region asked the Kremlin for military assistance in response to what they called “Ukrainian aggression.”
In 2014, Ukraine’s two regions of Donetsk and Lugansk were turned into self-proclaimed republics by ethnic Russians, leading to a bloody conflict between the government forces and the armed separatists.
On Monday, Putin signed a decree recognizing the breakaway Lugansk and Donetsk regions as independent republics. The recognition followed an address in which he referred to eastern Ukraine as “ancient Russian lands” being “managed by foreign powers.”
