Bulgarian PM Radev: Iran understands US aircraft stationed in Bulgaria ‘not for combat missions’

The Iranian leadership understands very well that the United States aircraft stationed in Bulgaria are not for combat missions, Prime Minister Roumen Radev told reporters on July 28.

Bulgaria’s National Assembly voted on July 22 to approve the hosting at Bezmer military air base of United States tanker refuelling military aircraft, which are to be used in support of US operations in the Middle East.

Approval was given for the aircraft to be at Bezmer from July 24 to October 1 2026.

Iran had on July 21 warned Bulgaria against allowing the US to use its territory for  military operations against Tehran, saying such a move would make Bulgaria complicit in what it described as “aggression and war crimes,” the Anadolu news agency reported at the time.

Decision-makers in Bulgaria must bear responsibility for the “dangerous decision” to deploy a US aerial refuelling aircraft to their military bases, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on July 27.

Regarding the latest warning from Iran to Bulgaria regarding this situation, Radev said that he takes it “as seriously as the first one”.

“We have long-established cooperation, trust and friendship with Iran,” Radev said.

He said that the Iranian leadership understands very well that the US aircraft stationed in Bulgaria are not for combat missions.

“I don’t expect that we will have a real deterioration in relations,” Radev said.

Regarding the US tanker aircraft at the Bezmer airbase, he said that they are much fewer in number and in a safer location: “One thing that may already strike you is that if it weren’t for us, our government, 15 tanker planes would currently be stationed at Sofia Airport, and so, until October, there will now possibly be tanker planes at a military airport, where they belong, and in much, much smaller quantities.”

(Photo: government.bg)