Saudi Arabia has ordered its ambassador in Budapest back to the kingdom for consultations to protest a remark in which Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany referred to Saudi footballers as “Arab terrorists.”
According to Arab News, Gyurcsany’s comment was made earlier this month when he hailed Hungary’s football team for having “fought with death-defying courage” against “Arab terrorists” in a friendly match against Saudi Arabia on Feb. 2. “We received official notice this week that the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Budapest was called back by his government for consultations,” Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Viktor Polgar told AFP.
Gyurcsany has since apologized for his comments, his spokeswoman said, adding that Budapest saw no further diplomatic gestures as necessary. “The prime minister has apologized publicly and also in a letter delivered to the Saudi government by our ambassador in Riyadh,” Gyurcsany’s spokeswoman Boglar Laszlo said.
Meanwhile, an official visit by Hungary’s speaker of Parliament to Saudi Arabia on Monday and Tuesday has been canceled.
