Armenia establishes Foreign Security Service

The Armenian Parliament has adopted a draft law on the establishment of the Foreign Intelligence Service.

Some 67 lawmakers voted in favour of the project, while 33 opposed it, Caliber.Az reports, citing the Armenian media.

The bill is planned to remove the separate foreign intelligence unit from the National Security Service (NSS). It will serve both military and civilian purposes.

Earlier, when presenting the bill in parliament, Secretary of the Security Council of the country Armen Grigoryan explained the decision by saying that some activities (for example, analyzing information from open sources) do not require the skills of military personnel and can be carried out by civilian analysts. As for military intelligence, it remains under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence, he said.

In order to avoid disruptions in the work of the state security agencies, the NSS will transfer the functions of foreign intelligence to the new service gradually, over three years.

The separation of foreign intelligence from the National Security Service is part of the reform at the security and intelligence agencies of Armenia.