During a short meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Bulgarian caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivan Kondov informed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon, Abdallah Bou Habib, about the results of an investigation carried out by the Bulgarian government following media publications that mentioned the name of Bulgaria.

The investigation started after the explosion of thousands of pagers and communication devices used by Hezbollah and a publication in Hungarian news portal Telex that claimed a Bulgarian company bought the devices from Taiwan and in turn sold them to Hezbollah.

Ivan Kondov has assured his Lebanese counterpart that there is no evidence of Bulgarian participation in the production, trade or transfer of the described communication devices.

Later, in an informal conversation, Ivan Kondov told Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó that the spread of such false information in the conditions of the tense situation in the Middle East not only harms the image of the country, but could also lead to risks for the security of our fellow citizens there.

Ivan Kondov discussed with the Hungarian minister the proposal of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for Hungary to mediate between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia. Mediation for convincing North Macedonia to fulfil the criteria for starting negotiations for EU membership is not necessary, the Bulgarian minister said.