Prime Minister Viktor Orbán promised on Sunday to take the necessary steps to guarantee Hungary’s peace and security, in response to US President Donald Trump’s announcement on Saturday that the United States had joined Israel in airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

‘Hungary must face three major challenges as a result of the conflict in the Middle East: a growing terror threat, rising energy prices, and increasing migratory pressure on Europe.’ To address these challenges, Orbán convened the Defence Council on Sunday, while Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó held consultations with several foreign ministers of affected countries, including his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar. Szijjártó also spoke by phone with Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to whom he affirmed that Hungary supports global nuclear security and that it is in Hungary’s interest to prevent the emergence of new nuclear arsenals.

On 21 June, Donald Trump announced that the United States had conducted airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear sites—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The operation, named Operation Midnight Hammer, involved 125 aircraft, including B-2 bombers, as well as submarine-launched Tomahawk missiles and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs. Trump described the mission as a ‘spectacular military success’, emphasizing that all US aircraft had safely exited Iranian airspace.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the strike had successfully deprived Iran of the ability to develop nuclear weapons. He added that the operation was not intended to bring about regime change in Iran, but rather to ‘neutralize’ threats to US national security posed by Iran’s nuclear programme. Trump ordered the strikes without prior Congressional approval.

Iran responded to the US strikes by declaring that every American base used by US forces in the region could be targeted in retaliation. ‘America has attacked the heart of the Islamic world and must await irreparable consequences,’ said Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an interview with the Iranian state news agency IRNA. President Masoud Pezeshkian also vowed that the United States would ‘receive a response’ to the attacks.

The US decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities followed Israel’s large-scale military operation on 13 June, in which it launched five waves of airstrikes using over 200 aircraft, dropping more than 330 munitions on approximately 100 Iranian targets. The Mossad also conducted sabotage operations against Iranian air defences and missile infrastructure. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s decision, stating that the United States ‘acted with a lot of strength’.

In reporting on the developments, the US mainstream media framed the strikes as a declaration of war against Iran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified on Sunday that Washington is not at war with Tehran, stressing in an interview with Fox News that the administration remains open to peaceful negotiations. He added that the United States is ‘not interested’ in regime change in Iran and that there are no ‘planned military operations’ against Iran as long as the Persian state does not attack Americans. However, Trump made remarks contradicting Rubio’s position, posting on Truth Social: ‘It’s not politically correct to use the term “Regime Change”, but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???’

Oil prices had already surged following the initial Israeli strikes on 13 June, and after Saturday’s US attack, the Iranian parliament approved a measure supporting the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for oil transportation. Around 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas pass through the narrow channel connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. The move, which could block $1 billion in oil shipments per day, is likely to send oil prices soaring.

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