Deputy Foreign Minister Kostandin Kotzabashev said today during a press conference in Sofia that Bulgaria is ready to send humanitarian aid to Syria and is waiting for the green light from the European Union, specifically from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. The mechanism is in continuous contact with representatives of the World Food Program in Beirut.
Kotzabashev confirmed that the Spartan military transport aircraft that will carry the aid will leave Bulgaria once the EU approves the action. The cargo will be received by representatives of the World Food Program in Beirut and the Bulgarian embassy in the Lebanese capital. It will then take nearly two hours for aid to reach Damascus via a secure humanitarian corridor.
Kotzabashev stated in the interview that the house in which a Bulgarian family lived, namely a mother and her one-year-old child, was destroyed by the earthquake in Latakia, Syria. The father is in Germany.
The family refused humanitarian aid from the Bulgarian state. Bulgaria’s embassy in Syria said it was willing to offer consular protection and assistance.
The deputy foreign minister said Bulgaria is one of nine EU member states that have offered to send humanitarian aid to Syria. The European civil protection mechanism remains to inform Bulgaria when the aid will be sent.
Source: Capital News