{"id":260365,"date":"2026-08-22T16:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/260365\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T16:18:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:18:17","slug":"two-us-tanker-aircraft-leave-bulgaria-a-month-after-deployment-upset-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/260365\/","title":{"rendered":"Two US tanker aircraft leave Bulgaria a month after deployment upset Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two US tanker aircraft have left <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/international\/article-903295\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bulgaria\u2019s Bezmer air base<\/a>, Bulgaria&#8217;s defense minister said on Saturday, nearly a month after their deployment in the Balkan country angered Iran.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The United States, which has been at war with Iran since February 28, requested their temporary deployment under an agreement governing the joint use of military facilities.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/international\/internationalrussia-ukraine-war\/article-903138\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Iran<\/a> said at the time that their deployment would constitute complicity in &#8220;aggression and war crimes,&#8221; a charge that Sofia dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>The two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/israel-news\/article-904783\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US Air Force KC-135<\/a> planes left Bulgaria on Friday, Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov told reporters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">The US authorities could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The deployment of the aircraft, approved by Bulgaria&#8217;s parliament on July 22, led to protests by nearby residents who feared the planes would be attacked by Iranian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/middle-east\/article-906244\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">missiles and drones<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">Stoyanov said all the aircraft&#8217;s flights during their temporary deployment had been training missions over allied countries and that Bulgaria had &#8220;no information about direct threats to our national security.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph-section article-body-paragraph\">&#8220;We are working in full coordination with the US government and had prior information, which is why all our decisions were well-founded,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two US tanker aircraft have left Bulgaria\u2019s Bezmer air base, Bulgaria&#8217;s defense minister said on Saturday, nearly a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[2238,682,34,798,51],"class_list":["post-260365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-bulgaria","tag-drone-attack","tag-iran","tag-tanker","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117140069193928965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}