The Hungarian Prime Minister
Posted on 02/19/2005 4:37:40 PM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
BUDAPEST, 20 February 2005 — Saudi Arabia has ordered its ambassador in Budapest back to Riyadh for consultations to protest an off the cuff remark in which Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany referred to Saudi footballers as “Arab terrorists.”
Gyurcsany’s comment was made earlier this month when he hailed Hungary’s football team for having “fought with death-defying courage” against “Arab terrorists” in a friendly match against Saudi Arabia on Feb. 2.
“We received official notice this week that the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Budapest was called back by his government for consultations,” Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Viktor Polgar told AFP.
Gyurcsany, a socialist, has since apologized for his remarks, once publicly in a radio interview and several times through diplomatic channels, his spokeswoman said, adding that Budapest saw no further diplomatic gestures as necessary.
“The prime minister has apologized publicly and also in a letter delivered to the Saudi government by our ambassador in Riyadh,” Gyurcsany’s spokeswoman Boglar Laszlo said.
Meanwhile an official trip by Hungary’s speaker of Parliament to Saudi Arabia on Monday and Tuesday has been canceled.
Socialist party officials quoted by the right-wing daily Magyar Nemzet said yesterday that Speaker Katalin Szili would not be making the trip because of domestic political reasons. Saudi officials had called off the visit to protest Gyurcsany’s remark, the daily said quoting its sources.
The state-run TV channel, which is under government control, did cover the story of the ambassador’s recall in the evening news. This channel did not mention the scandalous statement of the prime minister.
The channel did not deny the recall report. However it gave an explanation, in which the government said there was no connection between the recall and the premier’s statement.
There was no official Saudi comment on the matter.
Or irony. Maybe the real terrorists are the diplomats who were recalled. Just musing out loud.
Sounds like he called a Spade a Spade.
The Hungarian Prime Minister
I love how the side that touts diplomacy are the most undiplomatic clods around. BTW, this guy is not to be admired, the guy he beat, Orvitz, was a real hero and a friend to captialism.
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