Iran has issued a formal warning to Bulgaria, threatening consequences for hosting U.S. military aircraft described by Tehran as part of a „terrorist army.” The warning came through a note delivered to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry from Iran’s embassy in Sofia, according to the conservative Iranian daily Kayhan.
Bulgaria’s parliamentary defense committee on Tuesday approved a government request to temporarily station eight American tanker aircraft and 250 U.S. soldiers at the Bezmer air base in southeastern Bulgaria. The deployment is intended to support U.S. operations in the Middle East. The full parliament must still ratify the decision.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghei stated that any involvement in the preparation or execution of attacks against Iran would be considered complicity in acts of aggression and war crimes. The Iranian newspaper emphasized that the Bulgarian government is aware of what it called the illegality of U.S. strikes on Iran and the violation of the UN Charter.
Bulgaria downplays threat, but tensions rise
Bulgarian Defense Minister Dimitar Stojanov dismissed the Iranian warnings, insisting that the American deployment does not pose a direct threat to Bulgaria’s national security. „The presence of these forces is temporary and purely logistical,” he said during a press briefing in Sofia. Stojanov added that the aircraft will be used for refueling missions and will not engage in combat operations from Bulgarian territory.
The move comes amid renewed exchanges of fire between the United States and Iran. Tehran has intensified attacks on U.S. bases in the Middle East since the resumption of hostilities. Analysts note that the current basing architecture was designed during the Cold War era to protect allies in the Persian Gulf from the Soviet Union. That system worked effectively while U.S. forces were engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq against adversaries lacking the means to strike regional bases.
U.S. bases in the region: a strategic vulnerability
Today, however, the same basing network is increasingly vulnerable to Iranian missiles and drones. Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, the forward headquarters of U.S. Army Central Command, lies just 100 kilometers from Iran. The U.S. naval base in Bahrain is only 205 kilometers away, and Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is less than 300 kilometers from Iranian territory. In contrast, the distance between Iran and Israel is approximately 1,700 kilometers.
In recent weeks, dozens of U.S. aircraft have been relocated to Ben Gurion Airport and Ramon Air Base in Israel. Washington also uses bases in Jordan. But former CENTCOM commander Frank McKenzie argued that further steps are necessary. – Nobody in their right mind would ever put CENTCOM headquarters 100 miles from Iran, and yet that’s exactly where it is – he told Middle East Eye in early July.
McKenzie described the current U.S. basing model as a historical „artifact.” – We need to look to the West. We need to consider a base in Israel – he said. Other potential locations include western Saudi Arabia and Egypt. – The United States should consider dispersing new bases across several locations, rather than concentrating all air assets in one place – he assessed.
An analyst from the Council on Foreign Relations noted that the original basing decisions were driven by the need to protect Gulf allies from the Soviet Union. But now Iran can strike those same bases with relative ease. The analyst pointed out that while shifting bases farther away might not eliminate the threat entirely, it would give personnel more time to reach safety after an alert is sounded.
The Bulgarian deployment, though small in scale, is part of a broader U.S. effort to reposition assets closer to potential conflict zones. The Bezmer base, located in southeastern Bulgaria near the Black Sea, offers a platform for aerial refueling operations that could support missions over the Middle East without exposing tanker aircraft to direct Iranian fire. For Tehran, however, any such cooperation is unacceptable.
Źródło: Polsat News, Fot. Polsat News
