Bulgarian President Does Not Support War in Iraq

On Thursday, while speaking to deputies of the People's Assembly (parliament of the country), Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov spoke against the war in Iraq.

According to Parvanov, "military operations are unacceptable in the 21st century when global problems and challenges facing the mankind request unification and not separation or confrontation between countries and peoples." In addition to that, the Bulgarian President indicated that the war was launched without an appropriate resolution of the UN Security Council.

In his opinion, "international organisations, which for many years had been supporting international order and security, were split and in opposition to each other", and therefore became the first victims of the war.

Parvanov opined that Bulgarian national interests might be guaranteed under conditions of a world order with clear-cut rules and stable partnership relations within the framework of established international organisations like the UN, the EU and NATO, At the same time, he pointed out that "Bulgaria turned out to be among members of the coalition of states at war." The Bulgarian President stressed that under conditions of the present war, it was necessary to jointly contemplate implementation of drafted measures to ensure security of the country and its every citizen.

According to the decision of the Bulgarian National Assembly made in the beginning of February, Bulgaria provided to the anti-Iraqi opposition an aerodrome on the coast of the Black sea and the opportunity to use the territory of the country for the transit of the military contingents and equipment.