Hungary to join the anti-IS coalition
March 13th, 2015
Conservative commentators agree with the government’s plan to send 100 soldiers to Iraq’s Kurdish region to serve as guards in two international bases and escort convoys along the road between the two.
In Magyar Hírlap, Attila Szabó Palócz believes Hungary and the international community should have sent troops to Iraqi Kurdistan long time ago to defeat “the terrorist group that calls itself Islamic State”. The cost of the Hungarian mission, estimated at 20 billion Forints yearly, he continues, is of secondary importance to what he calls the moral duty of stopping the spread of murderous barbarism and of protecting civilisation – for “nobody is safe” as long as IS is around, “not even in the most hidden corners of the world”.
In Heti Válasz, András Bódis makes a point “which is never mentioned” in connection with the plan to send Hungarian soldiers to join the anti-IS international force. MOL, the Hungarian oil and gas multinational runs an oil drilling site outside Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. It is also no coincidence that Hungary has recently opened a consulate in Erbil. Thus, apart from geopolitical, humanitarian and security considerations, Hungary also has a significant material interest in being part of the international effort to eradicate IS, Bódis concludes.
Tags: foreign affairs