Iran has issued a series of escalating warnings to Bulgaria over Sofia's decision to host American aerial refuelling aircraft, marking one of the first times an EU and NATO member state in the Balkans has been directly threatened with consequences over the widening US-Iran conflict.
The dispute began on 21 July, when Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei responded to reports that Washington had submitted a diplomatic note requesting approval for the deployment of up to eight Boeing KC-135 tanker aircraft and up to 250 US troops at Bezmer Air Base in south-eastern Bulgaria between 24 July and 1 October. Baghaei said any activity facilitating US attacks on Iran would amount to complicity in what he called "aggression and war crimes", and urged Bulgaria not to become "an accomplice of aggressors and lawbreakers".
The warning failed to change the outcome. Bulgaria's National Assembly approved the measure on 22 July by 136 votes to 13, with two abstentions, days after the US request was submitted through its embassy in Sofia. The vote was carried by Prime Minister Rumen Radev's Progressive Bulgaria and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, while GERB-UDF, Democratic Bulgaria and We Continue the Change did not take part. The deployment falls under the bilateral defence cooperation agreement in force since 2006.
Tehran returned to the subject this week. In a statement circulated by the Iranian embassy in Sofia on 27 July, the Foreign Ministry said Bulgaria's decision-makers must bear responsibility for what it termed a dangerous decision, adding that Tehran was aware Sofia had previously permitted US aircraft supporting operations against Iran to use Sofia Airport. The statement also stressed that the Iranian people had never had a quarrel with Bulgaria and that relations had rested for decades on mutual respect — a formula that pairs reassurance with pressure.
Sofia has sought to narrow the political meaning of the deployment. Radev has described the tankers as serving logistical missions involving in-flight refuelling outside Bulgarian airspace, and has categorically ruled out combat operations against Iran being launched from Bulgarian soil. Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov told parliament that no offensive weapon systems would be stationed on Bulgarian territory. Bulgarian security services told a meeting convened by Radev on 27 July that there is no direct threat to national security, while Sofia has opened contacts with Tehran to argue that Bulgaria is not a party to the conflict.
The episode reflects a wider strain inside the alliance. The US request came after several EU allies, notably Italy and Spain, restricted American aircraft involved in Operation Epic Fury, and was framed partly as a way of easing congestion at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. NATO has signalled it would defend Bulgaria against any Iranian action, with alliance spokesman Colonel Martin O'Donnell noting that NATO had already defended Turkish territory from ballistic missile attacks in the opening phase of the war.
Domestically, the cost is visible: mayors of five municipalities around Bezmer have raised public security concerns, and Radev's government has seen its approval ratings fall sharply.