So spoke Zakharova, Szijjarto, Fico and Glavchev
Maria Zakharova on American hypocrisy re Iranian elections, Peter Szijjarto and Robert Fico on Viktor Orban's secret peace mission and Dimitar Glavchev on his own Bulgarian peace plan.
As you probably know, Iranian presidential elections took place in two rounds: the first on 28th June 2024, following the death of the then president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on 19th May 2024, and the second, a run off vote between Saeed Jalili and Masoud Pezeshkian, on 5th July 2024. Yesterday, 6th July 2024, the Iranian Ministry of Interior declared Pezeshkian the winner of the election, with Jalili conceding defeat shortly thereafter, while American media (e.g. CNN) reported on this result with their usual slant, quoting a spokesperson of the US State Department describing “not free or fair” and not having “a significant impact on our approach to Iran”. Typical American hypocrisy, at which Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, lashed out:
Back on 1 July, the US said that Iran's presidential election is “not free or unfair”, it “will not lead to a fundamental change in Iran's direction”. Today, the US media is quoting this billet, adding it to their discourse on the Iranian elections.
Let me remind you that this was originally stated and is now being reprinted by the same people who, after the last debate between the two US presidential candidates, can't understand how they are being led by the “fairly and freely” chosen Biden for a whole week. Half of the United States knew about the problems back in 2020, but were drowned out by the propagandistic American media, while the other half of the country, all these years chasing away unpleasant thoughts, faced the reality of the liberal dictatorship taking over America the other day.
The epithets of American experts regarding the head of the White House are somewhere between “mentally unhealthy” and “fundamentally inadequate”.
Maybe the United States will first try to deal with its electoral catastrophe, and then we will hear their opinion on the electoral situation in the world.
In the meantime, Sputnik International today has reported the following statement (emphasis mine) by the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, following up Viktor Orban’s visit to Putin in Moscow on 5th July:
We are not deterred or discouraged by these attacks [by the EU officials]. The peace mission continues and even intensifies, so I suggest that European pro-war politicians buckle up and follow closely next week as well.
According to the investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi, the same who first revealed Orban's trip to Moscow, the Hungarian Prime Minister is reportedly on his way to China to meet Xi Jinping:
Moreover, Robert Fico, Slovak Prime Minister, in his first public appearance since his assassination attempt on 15th May 2024, stated the following, as reported by Magyar Nemzet, a Hungarian news media outlet:
I would like to express my admiration to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for not hesitating to go to Kyiv and Moscow. Had my health allowed, I would have been more than happy to join him in the peace talks. I repeat, peace initiatives are never enough.
Let us all think about what we are going to do. And for God's sake, let's not have a repeat of May 15, and let's not escalate tensions over the war in Ukraine.
Peace, as has been said many times, is not everything. But without peace, everything is nothing.
Viktor Orban is not the only Prime Minister in EU and NATO to do something concrete to open a diplomatic line between Ukraine and Russia. In fact, Bulgarian and Ukrainian news media, such as Novinite and Ukrainska Pravda, have reported that Dimitar Glavchev, Bulgaria's interim Prime Minister, “will propose starting peace talks between Ukraine and Russia at the NATO summit in Washington on 9-11 July”. This is what Novinite quoted from Dimitar Glavchev (all formatting original):
I genuinely believe we should advocate for peace negotiations, with Bulgaria acting as the mediator. What could be better than that? And that is what I will propose; there is no problem.
Nothing would be better. I will present a good offer, but it requires agreement for us to be recognized as mediators. It is essential to emphasize that these peace negotiations must align with the UN Charter and international law. These are conditions which, in my opinion, are non-negotiable.
I am pretty sure that NATO and EU officials, such as Jens Stoltenberg, Ursula von der Leyen and Josep Borrell, are going nuts! It looks like NATO and EU alliances are cracking…
I love that so many are working for peace. And now France's surprise election results -- I can hardly wait to see what comes next.