The Hungarian tax authority has just confirmed it detained seven people and two cash-in-transit vehicles coming from Austria towards Ukraine, saying it is pursuing criminal proceedings on suspicion of money laundering. The contents of their transit has also been confirmed as per earlier statement by Ukraine's state-owned Oschadbank. But the authority pointedly said that one of the seven men arrested was a former general of the Ukrainian intelligence services.
"We are going to summon the United States ambassador to France, since the US embassy in France commented on this tragedy ... which concerns the national community," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told French media outlets Le Monde, France Inter and France Info. "We reject any attempt to use this tragedy ... for political purposes," he added.
In a statement, Rubio alleged that US nationals had also been briefly detained in the imbroglio, a move Washington condemns in the strongest terms. He added that officials' passport information had been leaked, in what he called an unacceptable form of harassment that risked putting the individuals in harm's way. Failure by the South African Government to hold those responsible accountable will result in severe consequences, he said.
France has summoned the US ambassador, Charles Kushner, after he wrote a letter to President Emmanuel Macron alleging that Paris had failed to do enough to stem anti-Semitic violence, a French Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson says. Kushner published the open letter in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, in which he focused on France's criticism of Israel which has been accused by leading rights groups of carrying out a genocide in Gaza and its plans to recognise a Palestinian state.
