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According to reports by an investigative Bulgarian Journalist, it appears that weapons funded by the Saudi and UAE governments have been finding their way to armed groups in high conflict zones in Syria and Iraq using diplomatic transport methods.

The report, authored by Dilyana Gaytandzhiev, claims Saudi Arabia, UAE, the US military and several countries have used Azerbaijani state-owned airlines Silk Way Airlines to transport large quantities of weapons that ended up in the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, Kurdish fighters in the Middle East and armed groups in Africa.

"At least 350 diplomatic Silk Way Airlines flights transported weapons for war conflicts across the world over the last 3 years," says the report, published in Trud, Bulgaria's largest circulated newspaper.

"The state aircrafts of Azerbaijan carried on-board tens of tons of heavy weapons and ammunition headed to terrorists under the cover of diplomatic flights."

According to the report, "Saudi Arabia has purchased huge quantities of Eastern European weapons and exported them using Silk Way Airline's diplomatic flights.

"In 2016, 2017 there were 23 diplomatic flights carrying weapons from Bulgaria, Serbia and Azerbaijan to Jeddah and Riyadh".

The report further indicates that although Saudi Arabia pays for these weapons, it does not do so for itself as the weapons do not meet the its military standards..

Gaytandzhiev says in the report: "The Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] does not buy those weapons for itself, as the Saudi army uses only Western weapons and those weapons are not compatible with its military standard.

"Therefore, the weapons transported on diplomatic flights end up in the hands of terrorist militants in Syria and Yemen that Saudi Arabia officially admits supporting."