Bulgaria to decide new Iraqi mission in 2 weeks

SOFIA, Jan. 14 (Xinhuanet) — The Bulgarian government will make a decision of sending a non-combat unit to an Iraqi refugee camp in two weeks, Defense Minister Veselin Bliznakov revealed on Saturday.

Bliznakov told the local Darik radio that there is already a consensus on this issue within the three-party ruling coalition and the government is to decide on the deployment of the non-combat unit of 154 soldiers to Ashraf in the next two weeks.

The decision is expected to be passed successfully by the Parliament later, said Bliznakov.

The unit will not stay there for more than one year, stressed the minister, nor it will be the only one sent to Iraq by Bulgariain the future.

The fifth Bulgarian peacekeeping unit in Iraq, which all returned to Bulgaria by Dec. 30, 2005, will be officially disbanded on Jan. 27, and this form of Bulgarian participation in Iraqi reconstruction will finish then, said Bliznakov.

Just one day ago, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev also made a statement in Parliament that Bulgaria should not and can not withdraw from the process in Iraq, as its national interests require its participation in the stabilization and restoration of Iraq, within the framework of the relevant solutions of the Security Council of the United Nations.

chinaview.cn – 2006.1.5

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