“The Bulgarian foreign ministry has refused flights over Bulgaria of Russian military transport planes en route to Syria,” the spokeswoman told Reuters. She said the decision was taken in the past few days.
“We have enough information that makes us have serious doubts about the cargo of the planes, which is the reason for the refusal,” she added.
- The Russian foreign ministry declined immediate comment.
Erliear, the U.S. has asked Greece to deny Russia the use of its airspace for supply flights to Syria, a Greek official said on Monday, after Washington told Moscow it was deeply concerned by reports of a Russian military buildup in Syria.
- However a Greek government spokesman said on Tuesday, that Russia plans to use an air route to the east of Greece to transport aid into Syria, meaning the use of Greek airspace for such flights is no longer an issue.
The United States had asked Greece to deny Russia the use of Greek air space for the flights, a spokesman for the foreign ministry in Athens said on Monday.
Russian newswire RIA Novosti earlier said Greece had refused the U.S. request, adding that Russia was seeking permission to run the flights up to September 24.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would not give any official reaction until there was a decision from Athens.
Russia, which has a naval maintenance facility in the Syrian port of Tartous, has sent regular flights to Latakia, which it has also used to bring home Russian nationals who want to leave.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Saturday that if reports of the build-up were accurate, that could further escalate the war and risk confrontation with the U.S.-led alliance that is bombing ISIS in Syria.
Lavrov told Kerry it was premature to talk about Russia's participation in military operations in Syria, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman told RIA Novosti on Monday.
Lavrov confirmed Russia had always provided supplies of military equipment to Syria, saying Moscow "has never concealed that it delivers military equipment to official Syrian authorities with the aim of combating terrorism."
Russia has been a vital ally of President Bashar al-Assad throughout the war that has fractured Syria into a patchwork of areas controlled by rival armed groups, including ISIS, leaving the government in control of much of the west.
Foreign states are already deeply involved in the war that has killed a quarter of a million people. While Russia and Iran have backed Assad, rebel groups seeking to oust him have received support from governments including the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The Syrian army and allied rebels have lost significant amounts of territory to insurgents this year. Assad said in July the Syrian army faced a manpower problem.
alarabiya.net
8/9/15
--
-
Related:
--
--U.S. concerned over Russian moves in Syria
- Also on Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed concern to his Russian counterpart over reports of "an imminent enhanced Russian military build-up" in Syria.
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
Russia to react to Bulgaria’s closure of airspace to Russian Syria-bound planes — lawmaker...
ReplyDeleteRussia has warned Bulgaria that it’s going to react adequately to a decision to close Bulgarian airspace to Russian planes flying relief cargoes to Syria, Nikolay Levichev, the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) vice-speaker and a member of the Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs, told TASS on Tuesday.
"We will remember this unfriendly move and will find adequate answers," Levichev said. "The Bulgarian leadership which made that decision - whatever the reasons behind it could be - has joined the camp of adversaries of the existing system of international relations," the vice-speaker went on to say. "Closing access to its airspace to planes with relief cargoes for the war-torn Syria is an inhumane and clearly short-sighted act," the Russian politician stressed.
Levichev said it was paradoxical that countries under sanctions turned out to be the only custodians of principles of humanism in a modern world. "Damascus opposes radicals from the IS (Islamic State); Moscow is sending aid to Damascus and Teheran is ready to open an air corridor to Russian planes. But the West is doing nothing but putting a spoke in the wheel. The Bulgarian government stood at attention upon receiving a command from Washington," the Russian lawmaker said.
Russia has already found alternative routes for its planes but the Bulgarian people are unlikely to gain anything from their government’s policy of confrontation with Russia, Levichev said.
"It was Russia that liberated Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke in the 19th century and contributed to the creation of the Bulgarian statehood. Apparently, the Bulgarian government has a short memory. But the Russian memory is good," Levichev concluded..............http://tass.ru/en/russia/819636