Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó has expressed the condolences of the Hungarian Government to Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif following the earthquake that has claimed hundreds of lives.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade told Hungarian news agency MTI that Mr. Szijjártó had spoken to his Iranian counterpart by telephone. The Hungarian Foreign Minister expressed the Hungarian Government’s condolences with relation to the recent earthquake that has claimed hundreds of lives, left thousands of people injured and destroyed the homes of tens of thousands of Iranians.

Javad Zarif informed Mr. Szijjártó about the state of rescue efforts, which are being managed directly by the President, the Ministry said in the statement.

According to the latest news reports, the earthquake that hit the area around the Iran-Iraq border on Sunday night, and which measured 7.3 on the Richter scale, claimed over four hundred lives and injured over six thousand people.

According to the statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the two foreign ministers also discussed the situation with relation to the future of the Iranian nuclear agreement. Mr. Szijjártó confirmed that according to the Hungarian Government the agreement is an extremely important pillar of global peace and security, and Middle Eastern stability, and assured his Iranian counterpart that as a member of the European Union Hungary will be doing everything possible to assure the continued application of the agreement.

(MTI)