SOFIA, July 20 (Reuters) - Bulgaria, a NATO and EU member, will seek parliamentary approval on Monday for up to eight U.S. tanker aircraft to be stationed at a military airport, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said, after a move to place such planes at a civilian airport triggered controversy.
The government will ask parliament to approve a request by Washington to station tanker planes at the Bezmer military facility to support the U.S. military’s operations in the Middle East, Radev told an annual conference of Bulgarian Ambassadors in Sofia.
A move earlier this year to station the aircraft, used mainly for airborne refuelling of other aircraft, at a civilian airport in the capital Sofia without prior parliamentary approval, sparked controversy and the planes left last month.
“The problem was that the military planes were based at a civilian airport in close proximity to Sofia. That is why we proposed to our allies to occupy military airfields,” Radev said.
The Bezmer military 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 ago unravelled, raising the possibility of a return to all-out war.
Israel is preparing to receive more U.S. refuelling aircraft, an Israeli military official said on Sunday.
(Reporting by Alex Lefkowitz, Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
