Vigen Sargsyan: Today Armenia does not consider the issue of sending soldiers to Syria
ArmInfo.The issue of sending Armenian soldiers to Syria was not involved on the agenda of yesterday's meeting of the Armenian Security Council. Armenian
Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan said at a press conference in Yerevan
on June 28 answering the question whether the issue of sending
Armenian servicemen to Syria was discussed at the meeting of the
Security Council, convened yesterday by the President of Armenia.
Sargsyan noted that the issues discussed during the session of
Armenian Security Council are secret, and he has no right to give
more information than the press service of the President gave on this
issue, however, stressed that the Middle Eastern crisis was
discussed. "The agenda of the meeting was the situation in the Middle
East. I have to say that at the moment, apart from the humanitarian
programs being implemented to assist the Syrian friendly people, no
other programs have been considered, especially sending troops or
servicemen there. As for the possibility of sending servicemen to
Syria as a whole, I already had the opportunity to speak on this
issue. I do not exclude the possibility that such a situation can
develop when we, as the state, have a desire to take part in the
actions carried out there, if all the necessary prerequisites are for
this. Of course, we are not talking about the participation of
conscripts on this issue, "Sargsyan said. At the same time, he noted
that in such operations a peacekeeping contingent, manned from
contractors, can participate and the policy of Armenia in this matter
has not changed. "I do not think that such a scenario is possible in
the foreseeable future," Sargsyan said. He added that Armenia does
not plan to increase the peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon yet.