Bulgaria Willing to Host Next Friends of Syria Meeting

Bulgaria Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov speaks during a press conference with Swedish and Polish foreign ministers (not pictured) in Beirut, Lebanon, 22 June 2012. EPA/BGNES

Bulgaria is prepared to host the next meeting of the "Friends of Syria" group, the country's Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov declared.

"Bulgaria will again say that change cannot come while Assad remains in power," Mladenov stated in an official statement ahead of the group's third meeting that is to take place in Paris on Friday.

"The repression and crimes committed by the authorities should not go unpunished. Pressure on the regime in Damascus will continue through new sanctions until the violence stops," the Bulgarian Foreign Minister said.

He believes the Syrian opposition needs to come up with a clear plan for a transition to democracy.

"A future democratic and secular Syria must guarantee the rights of all of its citizens, irrespective of their ethnicity and religion."

Friends of Syria is a contact group of countries and bodies on Syria in an attempt to find a solution to the Syrian crisis, outside the U.N. Security Council, after Russia and China vetoed a resolution on Syria there.