site.btaForeign Ministry Confirms It Has Denies Russia's Airspace Transit Request for Supply Flights to Syria

Foreign Ministry Confirms It Has Denies Russia's Airspace Transit Request for Supply Flights to Syria

Sofia, September 8 (BTA) - "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria would like to confirm that it has refused to issue permits for flights through Bulgarian airspace of Russian military transport aircraft en route from the Russian Federation to Syria in the period between September 1 and 24, 2015," the Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

"We have information which gives us grounds to doubt the correctness of the information stated in the request about the purpose of the flights and the cargo transported," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Betina Joteva told BTA.

"Bulgaria's refusal to provide an air corridor for Russian planes transporting humanitarian cargoes to Syria is unimportant because Russia mainly uses other routes," Vladimir Dzhabarov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Federation Committee on Foreign Affairs, told the TASS News Agency on Tuesday.

He dismissed as "untenable" the suspicions of Western countries that Russia may be supplying military goods to Syria under cover of humanitarian aid. "These are relief supplies," he assured the news agency and added that even theoretically "it is unprofitable to transport weapons by plane."

Dzhabarov deplored "the US efforts to impede the flights of Russian humanitarian aid over the Balkan countries. He argued that "it is more appropriate to provide aid on site, so that people would continue to live there, instead of causing migration problems to Europe itself." "Let the fact that the Bulgarians were the first to respond [to the US demands] weigh on their own conscience," he emphasized.