Meeting of OSCE foreign ministers – Europe must unite to counter threat of terrorism, says Hungarian FM

It is time for eastern and western Europe to “put aside political correctness and hypocrisy” and work together in countering the threat of terrorism for the sake of protecting the continent, Hungary’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.

Europe is facing the biggest terrorist threat of all time as a result of many mistakes made in European politics, Péter Szijjártó told MTI on the sidelines of an informal meeting of OSCE foreign ministers in Mauerbach, near Vienna.

“The gravest of these is that 1.5 million people have arrived on the continent unchecked and unidentified as a result of a hypocritical and flawed migration policy,” Szijjártó said.

Szijjártó noted that the 15 major terrorist attacks committed in Europe since the Paris attacks in November 2015 killed a total of 315 people and injured some 1,000. “It’s time for the European institutions in Brussels to start focusing on the real issues and dealing with the real problems and start to act on the threat of terrorism,” the minister said.

With the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group losing ground against the international coalition fighting it, terrorists will start to employ new tactics, making the threat of terrorism in Europe worse, Szijjártó added. Among the tactics terrorists are likely to favour, he mentioned the recruitment of lone wolf terrorists, the activation of sleeper cells and the use of chemical and biological weapons.