We are in contact with our ambassadors in the countries of the region, we receive first-hand information from them in order to understand how events are developing and how they can negatively affect Bulgarian citizens there.
This was stated by Petko Doykov, Bulgaria's ambassador to Serbia, who is part of the Crisis Headquarters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), established yesterday in connection with the situation in the Middle East, at a briefing at the ministry.
Doykov pointed out that along with tourists, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also has in mind Bulgarians who are staying for various reasons, including under employment contracts, as well as employees of diplomatic missions and their families. In addition to the ambassadors, we also maintain contact with foreign representatives in order to coordinate our efforts if necessary, Doykov informed. He announced that today alone Minister Neynski had two telephone conversations with her colleagues from Israel and Kuwait. By the end of the day, she has three more such conversations with countries in the region, and more are planned for tomorrow, Doykov said.
According to him, it is difficult to make a forecast for how the situation in the region will develop. The situation is different in different countries and is being monitored, Doykov said, emphasizing that it is most severe in Israel and Iran, where the strikes continue, as well as in the United Arab Emirates. It is relatively calmer in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Jordan. Nevertheless, in order to be able to manage the processes, to continuously receive information that is being processed, the ambassador assured.
Regarding Iran, he said that not all the staff of the embassies and their families are in Iran, the connection with them is difficult, they can use mobile phones with applications for conversations when there is internet, but when there is none, it becomes even more difficult. Ambassadors from the region share that based on the internal situation and the calls received from Bulgarian citizens there, it is not necessary to evacuate Bulgarian citizens, said Doykov. He emphasized that not all Bulgarian citizens can be evacuated to every country, because there are those who work under contracts and cannot leave the country.
The crisis headquarters works around the clock, we are trying to take over the entire flow of calls and signals in Sofia in order to ease the work of colleagues in the region who are in a difficult situation.
This was stated by the Director of the “Situation Center” Directorate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Irena Dimitrova, at a briefing of the Crisis Staff regarding the security situation in the Middle East.
She explained that so far, over 150 emails and over 180 phone calls have been processed regarding the United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone.
In addition to these tourists in the UAE, we have those in Jordan, Israel, Qatar, Bahrain, but there are also other tourists in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tanzania, Seychelles and India, who are also affected by the crisis in the Middle East region, Dimitrova pointed out.