SERBIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY CATEGORICALLY AGAINST SELLING ARMS TO ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.01.2007 17:02 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic roughly
criticized the deal to sell armaments to Armenia. In his words,
the steps taken by President Tadic, are contrary to Prime Minister
Voislav Kostunica’s opinion." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not
issue permits for the exportation of arms; rather, that is the job
of the Serbian government. We only provide a political opinion, and
that opinion has not changed from the outset. We have long declared
that the OSCE has imposed an arms embargo on Armenia and Azerbaijan
because of the conflict in Nagornyy-Karabakh and that there is an
instructive Resolution 8153 by the UN Security Council that requires
all countries to refrain from supplying "any arms or ammunition to
Armenia or Azerbaijan." underlined Draskovic.

Then there is the decision by the US Government to discontinue business
with countries that violate arms embargoes. Since the Kragujevac arms
manufacturers earn more than 20m dollars a year from exporting arms to
the United States, there is a big risk of losing 22m dollars because of
that 2m dollars deal with Armenia, but from the outset I have thought
that the state should compensate the arms manufacturers. They will
if the government decides they can, because that it entirely under
their purview. If that is what the government decides after this, in
my opinion, irresponsible and private diplomacy by President Tadic,
then our state is obliged to report that exporting of arms to the
OSCE and the United Nations and explain to them why the embargo and
the UN instructive resolution were violated, reports Vecernje Novosti
in Belgrade.

It is worth mentioning that official in Armenia do not confirm Arms
deal with Serbia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress