site.btaForeign Ministry Objects Firmly to Having Bulgaria Implicated in Supply of Communication Devices to Lebanon and Syria

Meeting with the Hungarian Ambassador in Sofia on Saturday, the Foreign Ministry said Bulgaria objects firmly to being implicated in the supply of communication devices to the territory of Lebanon and Syria, the Ministry said. Sofia insists on a responsible, fact-based conduct on the part of Budapest, the press release said.

The Foreign Ministry delivered a demarche to the Hungarian Ambassador.

In connection with numerous media stories and statements by officials in Hungary on the supply of communication equipment to the territory of Lebanon and Syria, the Foreign Ministry stressed that the State Agency for National Security (SANS) had conducted checks jointly with the National Revenue Agency, the Interior Ministry and the National Customs Agency. It has been established incontrovertibly and categorically that communication devices consistent with those detonated in Lebanon and Syria have not been imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria.

On September 20, caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev said Bulgaria has nothing to do with the manufacture and transit of the pagers that were detonated in Lebanon and Syria. He specified that this country is not involved in the customs clearance of the goods, either. "The only thing that happened were invoiced cash flows. The banks require that the invoices should specify the reason for the transfer. The invoices state that the payments were effected for services and not for goods," Glavchev explained.