Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány has offered 77 tanks for the new Iraqi army. Hungary wishes to support the new Iraqi regime with 150 soldiers and with more than 4 million ammunition from next spring. Fidesz leaders find the offer a waste of money. Ferenc Gyurcsány went to Iraq on Friday for a short visit with the almost total exclusion of the press. The Prime Minister was accompanied by Ferenc Juhász, Minister of Defence and Zoltán Szenes, Chief of the general staff. Because of the delay caused by a sand storm Premier Gyurcsány could have a talk with Gen. David Petraeus, would-be commander of the NATO training centre in Iraq.
The Premier offered him 77 T-72 type tanks to fight Iraqi guerillas. István Simicskó MP (Fidesz) finds the announcement shocking because it was irresponsible to withdraw the tanks and it will be a great waste of money to present them as they represent a several billion worth asset of the Hungarian army while HUF 110 billion is to be taken away from the army in next year’s budget.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Defence claims that it would have been more expensive to destroy those tanks or to guard and maintain them as the market is full of tanks of that type. The Hungarian contingent will come home before Christmas. ’I am proud of these boys and girls and I have seen they are proud of themselves, too’, Premier Gyurcsány said. He spent about eight hours in Iraq and came home via Damascus yesterday.
Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó
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