Unfazed by Iran’s threats, Bulgaria moves to aid U.S. military operations
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- Bulgaria's Defence Committee approved 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, for the window of July 24 through Oct. 1.
- The U.S. request was submitted as a diplomatic note and is grounded in the 2006 Defense Cooperation Agreement, under which Bezmer is one of the agreed joint-use facilities.
- Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov told the committee that Bulgaria's military intelligence service assessed the extended U.S. presence as posing no direct threat to national security; he said parliamentary authorization was required because of public concerns linked to earlier U.S. military aircraft being parked at the civilian Vasil Levski Sofia Airport.
- The vote came despite Iranian officials issuing thinly veiled threats warning Sofia against aiding Washington in operations targeting Iran.
- Progressive Bulgaria, the ruling party of Prime Minister Rumen Radev, holds 131 of the 240 National Assembly seats and 10 of the 19 Defence Committee seats, and the plenary vote is expected to mirror the committee's outcome.
- Slavi Vassilev, deputy chairman of Progressive Bulgaria's parliamentary group, cast the decision as leverage: after the parliamentary vote, he wrote, "it will be our turn to politely ask for something else. And we will get it."
Why it matters: Bezmer becomes a confirmed tanker hub for U.S. Iran operations through Oct. 1, giving Washington a 99-day Balkan foothold it sought just as Iranian officials were pressuring Sofia to refuse. Vassilev's framing — that a clean parliamentary vote earns Bulgaria future asks of its allies — signals the government treats the arrangement as transactional leverage, not a free contribution.
