IRNA � Spokesman for Iranian Foreig Ministry said on Thursday that the report on not letting a Bulgarian plane fly over Iran's airspace is wrong.


'Not issuing permission for a plane carrying the Bulgarian prime minister to fly over the Iranian airspace is not correct,' Bahram Qasemi told IRNA.

'The permission had been granted to Bulgaria to use the Iranian airspace after the formal request received from the Bulgarian Embassy in Tehran,' Qasemi added.

'What happened in this case was the pilot's mistake to declare the flight information and give the clearance code to the Air Traffic Control Tower which led to the event that the Bulgarian plane could not be identified,' the diplomat said.

Expressing regret over the incident, Qasemi said, 'Iran's airspace is open to the planes of the friendly countries like Bulgaria.'

He further added that Iran has one of the safest airspaces around the world and the traffic of the non-military planes is underway here.

Bulgaria's state-run news agency BTA quoted Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva as telling reporters in Riyadh on Wednesday that despite having the necessary diplomatic permission to fly over Iran, the aircraft had been asked by Iranian authorities to leave its airspace.