The first Hungarian aircraft participating in the rescue operation from Afghanistan arrived in Budapest on Sunday around midnight, the parliamentary secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade announced at a press conference on Sunday.
Levente Magyar said that the people arriving by plane were rescued from death by Hungarian soldiers. Many are Afghans, and a significant number are Hungarian and American citizens, he said.
The state secretary said that
dozens of Americans are being evacuated from Afghanistan „with the significant air capacity provided by the Hungarian Armed Forces in this rescue operation.”
Further details will be provided when all the evacuees are safe, he added.
Levente Magyar also emphasized that
the time available for the evacuation is “extremely limited.” A situation will arise where either the Americans say it is over or the Taliban will begin to “change the conditions of the ceasefire.”
How many people we can save by then is of the utmost importance. We are talking about Hungarian citizens and Afghans who have become comrades in the Hungarian Armed Forces, he said. „So much for the accusation that Hungary and the Hungarian government are insensitive to humanitarian considerations,” he then remarked.
Levente Magyar highlighted:
Hungary is carrying out a rescue operation. The Hungarian Armed Forces have not been deployed on such a focused humanitarian deployment for decades, one in which “they are specifically saving lives.”
The secretary of state said that on Friday afternoon, the Secretary General of NATO had convened a ministerial meeting of the Council, which he took part in, taking the place of Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
NATO is currently experiencing the worst crisis in the past 70 years of its existence.
— said Levente Magyar, who continued:
convening the meeting was “utterly unnecessary, as when it comes to death, we cannot improve anything in retrospect about the Afghan situation, or the fiasco that the West is currently suffering.”
We can not stop this from happening or mitigate it now. We can only deal with the consequences.
– said Levente Magyar, emphasizing that the first and most important task is to save human lives.
In reference to the situation at Kabul airport, he further said it is unacceptable that
many Afghan citizens eligible for evacuation reach the airport after fighting their way through the Taliban, but are then stopped by the Americans on the grounds that the airport is full.
We cannot accept this, the secretary of state said.
Levente Magyar also told the US secretary of state, who was participating in the meeting held via video conference, that every effort should be made to change this situation. On Saturday, they noticed that they had gradually started to let through the Hungarians trying to reach Hungarian planes, as well as the Afghans allied with them, he added.
The secretary of state indicated they are working with the Americans to maintain the accelerated admission of people to Kabul airport.
He said that during the NATO meeting they also raised the importance
of contacting every country bordering Afghanistan immediately and working with them for the security of Europe, „no matter what we think of them.”
The Taliban have “started to show their true colors”; masses will move from Afghanistan to Europe. We can only deal with this by providing assistance on the ground, firstly by not allowing people to rush to Europe in an uncoordinated way.
– said the Hungarian secretary of state.
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