Hungary’s Orbán Wants EU to Adopt Israeli-U.S. Stance on Iran

orban trump
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said that the European Union should adopt an Israeli-U.S. stance on Iran.

“I would like for the European stance, which is not clear on this Iranian issue, to be oriented toward the Israeli-United States stance,” the conservative Hungarian leader told a news conference in Budapest on Thursday in comments reported by Reuters.

The remarks come after U.S. President Donald Trump called on leading world nations to unite behind America on isolating the Islamist terrorist regime.

“The time has come for the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and China to recognise this reality.

“They must now break away from the remnants of the Iran deal -– or JCPOA –- and we must all work together toward making a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful place. We must also make a deal that allows Iran to thrive and prosper, and take advantage of its enormous untapped potential. Iran can be a great country,” President Trump said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Orbán and President Trump demonstrated a strong rapport when they met in May 2019, with the American leader praising the Hungarian conservative for his tough immigration policies, at one point calling Mr Orbán his twin brother.

Remarking that Orbán was “probably like me, a little bit controversial”, President Trump had said: “But that’s OK… You’ve done a good job. And you’ve kept your country safe.”

“It’s like we’re twins,” the President added. “Not everyone agrees with us, not everyone loves us, but look at our results.”

The Hungarian prime minister also has a warm relationship with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, with the prime minister of the Jewish state having thanked Orbán for “Hungary’s support for Israel in international forums.”

EU leaders are expected to meet to discuss the Iran/United States situation on Friday. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said on Thursday that he had spoken to Iran’s Hassan Rohani, urging the Islamist president to abide by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Last night, the EU said it will “spare no efforts” to try to maintain the Iran nuclear deal, despite the Islamic republic’s two recent attacks on U.S. bases in the region.

President Trump announced in May 2018 that the U.S. would be pulling out of the accord and reimposing sanctions on Iran, saying: “[I]t is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement. The Iran deal is defective at its core.”

While other nations, including in the EU, criticised the President for his decision, Mr Netanyahu expressed support for the move, saying at the time: “Israel fully supports President Trump’s bold decision today to reject the disastrous nuclear deal with the terrorist regime in Tehran.”

The Israeli prime minister continued: “The removal of sanctions under the deal has already produced disastrous results. The deal didn’t push war further away, it actually brought it closer. The deal didn’t reduce Iran’s aggression, it dramatically increased it, and we see this across the entire Middle East.”

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