site.bta"We Respect Bulgaria's Sovereignty," US Ambassador Says

"I cannot speak for other foreign embassies, I can speak for myself. I have not discussed names with anybody: it is not my job. We respect Bulgaria as a sovereign country," US Ambassador to Bulgaria Kenneth Merten said here on Tuesday.

Merten reacted to a recording on which Continue the Change (CC) co-leader Assen Vassilev was heard as saying at a meeting of the party's National Council on May 21 that the heads of the State Agency for National Security, the National Service for Protection, Interior Ministry directorates and other special services would be replaced and that their new heads would be nominated by the CC and that "the names have been cleared with the embassy." 

"Those kind of decisions are to be made by Bulgarians, not by foreigners," Ambassador Merten said.