Bulgaria approves US tanker aircraft at Bezmer Air Base for Iran operations

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WARSAW, Poland — The Bulgarian parliament’s Defence Committee has voted to approve a draft decision enabling U.S. tanker aircraft to support military operations against Iran from an air base on the Balkan country’s territory. The decision comes despite thinly veiled threats from Iranian officials who warned Sofia against aiding Washington.

The committee’s July 21 vote follows a U.S. diplomatic note submitted to the Bulgarian government. In the note, Washington requested Sofia’s approval for the deployment of up to eight Boeing KC-135 tanker aircraft and up to 250 U.S. troops with related gear at Bezmer Air Base in eastern Bulgaria between July 24 and Oct. 1, state-owned news agency BTA reported.

The request is based on the 2006 Defense Cooperation Agreement between the United States and Bulgaria under which the air base is one of the agreed joint-use facilities.

Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said the country’s military intelligence service believed the extended U.S. military presence would pose no direct threat to Bulgaria’s security. However, parliamentary approval was necessary due to public concerns linked to the presence of U.S. military aircraft earlier this year at the civilian Vasil Levski Sofia Airport, Stoyanov said.

Following the committee’s decision, Bulgaria’s unicameral parliament, the National Assembly, is to give its authorization at a plenary session. The plenary vote is expected to mirror the committee’s outcome. Of the committee’s 19 members, ten represent the ruling Progressive Bulgaria party of Prime Minister Rumen Radev. The party also holds a majority of 131 of the parliament’s 240 seats.

Slavi Vassilev, the deputy chairman of the ruling Progressive Bulgaria’s parliamentary group, said in a social media post that the parliament’s decision “will put Bulgaria in a position to ask something of its allies.”

“The aircraft were at a civilian airport. We politely asked for them to be moved. They politely asked for them to be brought back. We informed the public of that request, without pretending they were there merely ‘for exercises,’ and we will decide the matter in parliament, as required by law,” Vassilev said. “After that, it will be our turn to politely ask for something else. And we will get it.”