TEHRAN -- Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian on Friday called for the Hungarian government’s assistance in the process of returning Iranian citizens from Ukraine through Hungary’s soil.
Amir-Abdollahian made the request in a phone conversation with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto.
“Iranian citizens, including students, families of diplomats, and other Iranians living in Ukraine, want to enter the Polish and Hungarian borders to return to Iran,” he said.
Amir-Abdollahian expressed concern over NATO’s previous steps intended to create a crisis in Eastern Europe and underscored the need to support political solutions to the Ukraine crisis.
Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeid Khatibzadeh said Iran is making arrangements for evacuation of its nationals from Ukraine even though the country’s airspace remains closed.
Khatibzadeh said authorities in Tehran had asked for permissions for one or several special flights from Ukraine to evacuate the Iranian nationals from various areas in the country.
However, he said, no country had been able to fly out nationals from Ukraine over the past 10 days.
“Of course we will not wait for this as we are making all efforts on the ground and currently there is no problem for evacuation of Iranians from Ukraine,” Khatibzadeh said.
Iranian government estimates suggest more than 5,000 Iranians work or study in Ukraine. The foreign ministry issued a third notice on Thursday warning the Iranian nationals to avoid conflict zones in Ukraine hours after Russia launched attacks on several cities in the country.
Khatibzadeh said Iran was in touch with the two sides of the conflict to ensure the safety of its nationals, adding that the Iranian embassy in Kiev had launched a hotline to respond to calls from Iranians living in the country.
Iran’s flag carrier IranAir said on Thursday it was ready to send special flights to Ukraine to evacuate nationals from there.
IranAir’s spokesman Hussein Jahani said that the airline has no routine flights between Tehran and Kiev but was ready to send flights as soon as the Ukrainian airspace is reopened.
Iran’s embassy in Ukraine also recommended nationals to take “any opportunity possible” to leave the country.