In a phone interview from Washington, Deputy Minister Tamás Vargha, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence told Hungarian News Agency MTI that “the terrorist organization named Islamic State (IS) is on the decline”.
The politician attended a conference of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, which was held in Washington.
On Wednesday, 20 July, the first day of the two-day event, the defence ministers exchanged their views, while on Thursday, 21 July the Expanded Small Group held a meeting at the level of foreign and defence ministers.
Speaking about the topics of the meeting, Mr. Vargha stated that the general opinion among the members of the international coalition is that the terrorist organization is on the decline – all the more so because the coalition forces have managed to recapture about half of the territory that had earlier been under its control in Iraq, and about 20 per cent of such territory in Syria. According to the state secretary, the recapture of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq from the terrorist may be a turning point.
“The communication of the terrorist organization clearly shows that we have managed to break its progress, as it is no longer reporting on launching offensives but rather on holding out to the end. This means that it is losing ground”, Tamás Vargha emphasized.
The Hungarian politician said it is very important to cut off the terrorists’ main supply routes and their financial resources, and in parallel with that, it must be made sure that those who are forced to flee from the terrorists do not choose Europe as their destination. In this connection, he pointed out that defeating the terrorist organization and stabilizing the region are important preconditions for resolving the migration crisis in Europe as well. However, as Mr. Vargha underlined, we must prevent the refugees’ uncontrolled entry into Europe and Hungary.
In answer to a question from MTI whether the judgement on Hungary’s efforts has changed or not, Tamás Vargha explained that it definitely has, and emphasized that the current climate of opinion is different from last year’s, when Hungary came under fierce criticism for not allowing migrants to cross its borders without control. “By now, even those politicians have changed their position who had earlier criticized us”, the state secretary told MTI.
In connection with this, Mr. Vargha noted that NATO – whose Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was also present at the Washington meeting – also recognizes that there is a link between migration and terrorism, and therefore the Alliance gives high priority to border protection. In this regard, the state secretary referred to the Paris and Brussels attacks, whose perpetrators turned out to have received support from the terrorist organization.
In answer to a question from MTI, the state secretary reasserted that Hungary is closely cooperating with the United States in the fight against terrorism.