The Washington Post accused Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó of offering assistance to Iran soon after the deadly Israeli attack that caused thousands of Hezbollah pagers to explode in September 2024.
According to the report published on Wednesday, 8 April, the outlet reviewed a copy of a Hungarian government transcript of a 30 September 2024 phone call between Szijjártó and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, obtained and authenticated by a Western intelligence service. The document suggests that the Hungarian secret service had already contacted Tehran at the time, and ‘will share all the information’ it gathered during the investigation of the case. ‘Every possible document will be shared with your services,’ Szijjártó allegedly stated.
On 17 September 2024, hundreds of pagers exploded in the hands and pockets of Hezbollah operatives—a Lebanese terrorist organization supported by Iran. The detonations killed 12 people, while around 2,323 were injured. Hungary came into the spotlight as the licence owner and manufacturer of the pagers, Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, stated that the devices were manufactured under licence by a Budapest-based company called BAC Consulting Ltd.
It was later revealed that the company is only Hungarian on paper and does not have a manufacturing plant in the country. Nevertheless, Hungarian intelligence services investigated the case to gain a deeper understanding of the events.
Szijjártó at the time gave an interview to Jewish News Syndicate, in which he denied any involvement by Hungary, adding that the government—despite the obvious contradictions between the worldviews of the two countries—seeks to maintain a pragmatic relationship with Tehran. ‘In case there’s an outreach from both sides asking us to do the job, we would be happy to do so,’ Szijjártó said when asked about Hungary’s possible role as a mediator between Israel and Iran.
According to The Washington Post, Szijjártó emphasized this position during the call with his Iranian counterpart. The outlet cites a former White House official who said it was not surprising that Hungary would seek to ‘ameliorate possible tensions’ with Iran over the pager attack.
The report was published at the same time as US Vice President JD Vance concluded his visit to Hungary, during which he met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on the occasion of the Day of American–Hungarian Friendship. During the two-day visit, Vance highlighted the deepening relations between the two administrations, calling Hungary a ‘civilizational ally’ of the United States and endorsing Orbán ahead of the high-stakes election on 12 April.
Meanwhile, Washington is ‘locked in’ conflict with Tehran, and while US President Donald Trump announced a breakthrough ceasefire during Vance’s visit, the timing of the report’s publication suggests that its intended goal was to strain relations between the Orbán government and the Trump administration.
The leaked transcript also fits into a series of recent intelligence-linked disclosures published by Western and Hungarian media outlets in the run-up to the election. On the same day as The Washington Post article, a consortium of European investigative outlets published audio recordings of Szijjártó’s phone calls with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, suggesting sustained and deep coordination between Hungary and Russia on Ukraine, energy policy, and sanctions, including allegations that Budapest shared EU documents with Moscow.
That report followed earlier leaks published last week, in which the Hungarian foreign minister discussed removing sanctioned Russian individuals—including relatives of oligarch Alisher Usmanov—from the European Union’s sanctions list. According to the recordings, Szijjártó sought advice on how to justify Hungary’s objections, coordinating with the Slovak government.
‘The Hungarian government has rejected any wrongdoing’
Just a day earlier, Bloomberg published transcripts of an October 2025 phone call between Orbán and Putin, which took place when Budapest was being considered as a potential venue for a meeting between Putin and US President Donald Trump. According to Bloomberg, Orbán told Putin that he is at the Russian president’s service in ‘any matter where I can be of assistance’.
The current The Washington Post report was written by British journalist Catherine Belton, who is also the author of a 21 March article that marked the beginning of the ongoing information war surrounding Hungary’s election. In that earlier piece, Belton alleged that Szijjártó had, for years, leaked confidential EU information to Lavrov. She also claimed that Russian intelligence services had proposed a fake assassination plot against Viktor Orbán to boost his chances in the 12 April election. These claims were likewise based on a document intercepted and authenticated by an ‘unnamed European intelligence service’.
The Hungarian government has rejected any wrongdoing, with Szijjártó describing the situation as the ‘most severe, serious and most disgraceful foreign intelligence intervention’ in the country’s history.
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