USA, refused by a second neutral country in Europe regarding the overflight of the territory
Austria announced on Thursday that since the beginning of the current conflict in the Middle East it has refused all requests from the United States regarding military overflight of its territory, citing the country's neutrality, reports AFP.
“There were many requests and they were refused from the beginning,” said Colonel Michael Bauer, a spokesman for the Austrian Defense Ministry.
“Each overflight must be the subject of a request and every time it is a country at war the request is refused, in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in this case,” said Colonel Bauer, according to Agerpres.
Austria has been a neutral country since 1955, with neighboring countries to the north, south and east being members of NATO.
US President Donald Trump blamed some European NATO members, including France, Spain and Italy, for not authorizing overflights over their territories in the war against Iran launched by the US and Israel on February 28.
In mid-March, Switzerland also invoked its “right to neutrality”, announcing that it had refused requests to use its airspace.
