SOFIA, July 20 (Reuters) – Bulgaria, a NATO and EU member, will search parliamentary approval on Monday for as much as eight U.S. tanker plane to be stationed at a army airport, Prime Minister Rumen Radev mentioned, after a transfer to put such planes at a civilian airport triggered controversy.
The federal government will ask parliament to approve a request by Washington to station tanker planes on the Bezmer army facility to assist the U.S. army’s operations within the Center East, Radev instructed an annual convention of Bulgarian Ambassadors in Sofia.
A transfer earlier this 12 months to station the plane, used primarily for airborne refuelling of different plane, at a civilian airport within the capital Sofia with out prior parliamentary approval, sparked controversy and the planes left final month.
“The issue was that the army planes had been primarily based at a civilian airport in shut proximity to Sofia. That’s the reason we proposed to our allies to occupy army airfields,” Radev mentioned.
The Bezmer army base is about 260 km (160 miles) southeast of Sofia.
The U.S. and Iran have intensified strikes since an interim ceasefire deal signed a month in the past unravelled, elevating the potential of a return to all-out warfare.
Israel is getting ready to obtain extra U.S. refuelling plane, an Israeli army official mentioned on Sunday.
(Reporting by Alex Lefkowitz, Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Enhancing by Kate Mayberry)
