American requests to deploy military aircraft in Bulgaria have fundamentally changed over time and should not be treated as part of the same operation, former Foreign Minister Nadezhda Neynski said in an interview with Bulgarian National Radio, commenting on the government's decision to allow the deployment of U.S. military personnel and equipment at Bezmer Air Base.
According to Neynski, the first diplomatic note submitted by the United States concerned NATO Air Policing missions and allied exercises and had no connection to military operations in the Middle East or Iran.
"The first note that actually came from the U.S. was for the deployment of aircraft for the so-called Air Policing, that is, for NATO exercises, and it was of a non-military nature," she said.
She explained that because the original request was not military in nature, the aircraft were stationed at Sofia Airport, and the decision fell within the authority of the Council of Ministers and the defense minister without requiring approval from Parliament.
Neynski stressed that the first request contained "no mention of Iran or the Middle East." She recalled that after Tehran sought clarification from Sofia, the Bulgarian authorities presented the original document to demonstrate that the deployment was unrelated to military operations.
