BUDAPEST, March 9. /TASS/. Hungary is imposing restrictions on consumer prices for gasoline and diesel fuel as global oil prices continue to grow amid the current conflict in the Middle East, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said after the government convened for an emergency meeting.

"We are limiting consumer prices for gasoline and diesel fuel," he said in a video address aired by Hungary’s M1 television. "We will open the government’s strategic reserves to meet the demand."

He said that fuel at discount prices will be available only to drivers with Hungarian license plates and documents. The new prices will be in force from March 10.

In his words, this is how the government expects to protect the interests of the Hungarian people in a situation when "oil fuel prices are on the rise in entire Europe due to the war in Iran." He added that Hungary is still under "Ukraine’s oil blockade."

Oil from Russia has not been supplied via the Druzhba pipeline since January 27. Hungary and Slovakia have asked Croatia to allow the transit of Russian crude through the Trans Adriatic Pipeline. It is assumed that it will be delivered to the Croatian port of Omisalj by sea and then on to the pipeline.

Hungary has also decided to provide MOL with 250,000 tons of oil from state strategic reserves for its refineries that would last for three months. In response, the country country blocked the allocation of the European Union’s 90-billion-euro "military loan."