Iran steps up diplomatic pressure over US military presence in Europe

• Bulgaria approved deployment of eight US tanker aircraft and 250 personnel.
• Araqchi says move facilitated aggression against Iran.
• Urges Cyprus to ensure foreign military bases are not used against Iran.

DUBAI: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqhchi urged Bulgaria to reconsider its decision to allow the temporary deployment of US military aircraft at the Bezmer air base, Iranian state media reported on Thursday.

During a phone call with his Bulgarian counterpart, Velislava Petrova-Chamova, Araqhchi said Sofia’s approval of a US request to station military aircraft at the base to support military operations amounted to facilitating aggression against Iran, adding the move was unacceptable and contrary to the traditionally friendly relations between the two countries.

Iran has repeatedly warned countries allowing their territory to be used for US military operations against it that they could “face consequences”.

Araqhchi held a separate phone call with Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, during which he stressed the importance of preventing foreign military bases in Cyprus from being used against Iran.

Bulgaria’s parliament last week approved the temporary deployment of up to eight US KC-135 tanker aircraft and up to 250 personnel at Bezmer air base despite Iranian objections. Sofia has said no offensive weapons would be deployed and that the move did not make Bulgaria a party to military operations.

Cyprus hosts two British sovereign military bases, including RAF Akrotiri, which was struck by an Iranian drone in early March, a few days after Israel and the US initiated strikes on Iran.

Britain agreed early in the war to a US request to use British bases for defensive strikes against Iranian missiles in storage depots or launchers. Britain later clarified RAF Akrotiri would not be involved in its defensive agreement with the United States to use UK bases.

The broader defence arrangement was maintained by the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham in July, prompting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to warn Britain against facilitating US military operations against Iran.