David Pressman, the US ambassador to Budapest, is “a leading figure of the Hungarian opposition”, and his statements must be handled as such, the foreign minister said on Thursday. At a press conference after an informal European Union foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, Péter Szijjártó said in response to a question concerning Pressman’s criticism of Hungary’s “peace mission” that the US ambassador was “an opposition activist and one of the leading figures of the Hungarian opposition”. “His statements must be assessed accordingly,” Szijjártó said, according to a ministry statement. “And if I want to talk about the contents of his opposition activist statements, then I could say that interestingly, when the Italian prime minister went to China, and said that China was an essential partner for dialogue in the current fragile international situation, then the opposition activist did not activate himself.” “Or when President Zelensky called Donald Trump, he did not express any condemnation, or when the Ukrainian foreign minister recently visited China, we could not hear any criticism from him,” he added. “So it is obvious that his statements came from and were inspired by his opposition position,” he said. Commenting on criticism voiced by his Lithuanian counterpart, Szijjártó said Gabrielius Landsbergis was “one of the most pro-war politicians” in Europe. “He is competing for the title of most pro-war politician; he regularly criticises Hungary’s pro-peace position. I believe his assessment of the situation cannot be considered realistic in any aspect,” he added.