KYIV. Nov 26 (Interfax-Ukraine) - U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pasqual hopes that Ukraine will be more open in matters related to the possible sale of radar systems to Iraq.
If the UN Security Council makes the decision to send international experts to Kyiv on a fact-finding mission concerning the export of radar systems to Iraq, Ukraine will supply them with information which was not received by American and British experts, Pasqual said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He said that the American-British group of experts had not been given access to reports about an investigation that was carried out by the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, the Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office after Ukraine was accused of selling Kolchuga radar systems to Iraq. Reports were incomplete and experts were denied access to Kolchuga radar systems], the U.S. ambassador said.
Regarding the possible re-sale of Kolchuga radar systems by China, Pasqual told journalists that the U.S. cannot say that this actually happened. The U.S. believes that radars could have been transferred through a third country, which is alarming, he said.
When asked whether the information about the sale of radar systems to China that the U.S. demanded is classified, he said that the U.S. simply wanted to know whether or not China has Kolchuga radar systems, or if radars were possibly transferred to another country.
British Ambassador Robert Brinkley said that the UN experts currently working in Iraq were not instructed to look for Kolchuga radar systems. However, if they find them, they will inform the U.S. and Britain, he said.