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Bulgaria's parliament voted Wednesday to authorize the stationing of up to eight American KC-135 aerial refuelling aircraft and 250 military personnel at a southeastern air base, defying Iranian warnings and drawing the NATO member deeper into the widening US military campaign against Iran.
The National Assembly approved the measure 136 votes to 13, with two abstentions, days after Washington submitted a formal diplomatic request through the US Embassy in Sofia.
The aircraft and their crews are to be deployed at Bezmer Air Base, roughly 260 kilometres southeast of the capital, from July 24 through October 1, under the terms of a bilateral defence cooperation agreement in place since 2006.
Tehran moved quickly to pressure Sofia before the vote, with its foreign ministry calling the move an act of complicity.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said the Bulgarian government was "well aware that US military attacks constitute a blatant aggression and a gross violation of the United Nations Charter and international law," warning that authorizing the basing would make Bulgaria "an accomplice to aggressors and criminals."
Iran has responded to US strikes, which began in February, with drone and missile attacks on Middle Eastern countries hosting American military forces, causing significant damage to military and energy infrastructure across the region.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Roumen Radev sought to draw a clear line between hosting the aircraft and participating in combat operations.
"These refuelling aircraft will be used exclusively for logistical and in-flight refuelling missions outside Bulgarian airspace," he said, stressing it was "categorically out of the question" for military operations against Iran to be launched from Bulgarian soil.
Bulgaria's defence minister also noted that while a military intelligence assessment identified certain risks, it found no direct threat to national security.
The country's president, Iliana Iotova, had expressed a similar position a day earlier, saying the deployment would not make Bulgaria a party to the conflict, and called for both sides to recommit to de-escalation.
The decision comes amid growing friction within NATO over burden-sharing in the Iran conflict. President Donald Trump has publicly criticised alliance members for failing to support the United States in the military campaign it initiated.
Bulgaria, a NATO and European Union member, joins other alliance countries grappling with how to balance treaty obligations against the risk of being drawn into a broader regional war.
The KC-135 Stratotanker, a long-serving US Air Force aircraft, extends the range and endurance of combat aircraft by transferring fuel mid-flight, a capability that is central to sustaining operations at distance from US territory.
Bulgaria's Bezmer Air Base has previously hosted American aircraft under the 2006 defence cooperation agreement, which grants US forces access to several Bulgarian military installations.
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