Hungary has announced plans to dispatch soldiers to Iraq to join the US-led military coalition’s battle against Daesh.
“The parliament could take the decision in mid-April and Hungarian troops could arrive in Iraq during the second half of May,” Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto told journalists in the capital, Budapest, on Tuesday.
He added, “Hungary is already a part of the conflict with the [Daesh], because it belongs to the Western community of values, which was attacked by the terrorist organization.”
Szijjarto further noted that the 100-strong contingent’s main task would be to provide security for a training center in Iraq’s northern Kurdish city of Erbil.
Earlier on Tuesday, Hungary’s top diplomat held meetings with opposition leaders as part of efforts to garner their support for Iraq mission. The deployment requires a two-thirds majority in the parliament, meaning that Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s national conservative political party, Fidesz, is in need of one additional opposition vote.
Daesh started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily armed terrorists took control of the strategic city of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (248 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.
Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen have been engaged in successful operations against Daesh over the past months and have managed to drive the terrorists back from some areas they have under control.
Editor's note: This article has been edited from the source material
