Hungarian foreign minister: NATO should take role in fight against IS

Budapest, April 04 (MTI) – It is unquestionable that NATO should undertake a role in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organisation, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, told public television on Tuesday.

“The world’s most successful military alliance of all time cannot shrink away from confronting the biggest security challenge of our time”, Szijjártó said. NATO must also become faster and more flexible in facing modern-day challenges, he said.

Hungary has participated in the global coalition fighting IS for years, and will propose prolonging the mandate of its troops by two years while raising their number from 150 to 200, Szijjarto noted. Hungarian troops operate in northern Iraq.

In a separate interview to public radio, Szijjártó said that as far as authorities were aware, there were no Hungarian casualties in the bomb attack on the St Petersburg metro on Monday. Altogether 11 people died in the attack and 51 were injured, Szijjártó noted.

Photo: MTI/EPA/Mohamed Badra

Source: MTI