Hungary's FM slams US for meddling in other countries' affairs

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
22 Mar 2023 22:02

The Hungarian Foreign Minister is currently on an official state visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he met with Bosnia Serb President Milorad Dodik.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Feb. 24, 2023 (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday that the act of deliberately publishing reports assessing the human rights situation in other countries is a form of illegitimate interference in other nations' domestic affairs.

"I think it is outrageous and shocking that bureaucrats from Washington are planning to and are making these statements about our countries citing all sorts of lopsided information, most of them being funded from the US. Stop it already," Szijjarto said when responding to a question on the US State Department's recent report on the human rights situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Szijjarto, who is currently on an official visit to Sarajevo, said that the State Department's human rights country reports are "based on one-sided information, often funded by the US," and noted that he was shocked "again and again" with how the US could deliberately make assessments about other countries and their internal affairs "ex-cathedra," meaning that the claims issued in their reports are infallible.

He said that countries like Hungary or Bosnia and Herzegovina would never do such a thing as to write reports on other countries because it is simply none of their business and because there is no utility in doing so, noting that the people of in Bosnia and Herzegovina or in Hungary can decide the fates of their own governments without the recourse of some external biased reports such as the ones issued by Washington.

"Regarding President Dodik [Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik], it does not matter what I think of him, all that matters is what people living in Bosnia in Herzegovina and in Republika Srpska in particular think of him, since they voted for him, not me. He was reelected, and Hungary respects that," Szijjarto said in response to a question on his thoughts on Dodik while noting that the Hungarian government's cooperation with Dodik is fair and is based on mutual respect.

"There is no mutual respect in world politics today. Certain countries are very eager to interfere in the others' affairs. We always work here with the elected leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We never doubt the results of domestic elections, we respect them," the minister said.

For several decades, the US has waged wars on countries such as Vietnam, DPRK, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

Under the Bush administration, it is estimated that over 3 million Iraqi civilians died during the US occupation of Iraq.

As for the Obama administration, an estimated 13,072 drone strikes were authorized just in Afghanistan alone, leading to thousands of deaths.

Despite all these war crimes, the two former US Presidents, Bush, and Obama, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair, got nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On March 17, the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber II announced that it issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for the alleged "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the ICC's decision to "arrest" Putin was legally irrelevant to Russia, whilst Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also condemned the decision, saying the formulation of an "arrest warrant" issued against the Russian head of State is unacceptable, that Russia does not recognize ICC jurisdiction, and any of its decisions are null and void from the legal point of view.

"We consider the very formulation of the question outrageous and unacceptable. Russia, like a number of states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court and, accordingly, any decisions of this kind are null and void for the Russian Federation from the legal point of view," Peskov said.

Since its inception, the ICC has always been biased as far as the investigation of crimes and the prosecution of individuals is concerned.

The West has orchestrated wars all across the Global South that have caused millions of children to go hungry, malnourished, displaced, and even killed, including in Yemen where the US-led blockade has caused over two million children to suffer from acute malnutrition.

Yet, these issues have never been brought forth at the Hague-based ICC.