Austria has rejected American appeals for military overflights of its territory to Iran.
Public spokesman Colonel Michael Bauer has confirmed that there were indeed requests in this direction from the U.S.A., and that they were refused immediately, and also that all similar request will be refused, regardless of whence they hail from.
Austria established its permanent neutrality in 1955 — an essential condition to end the 10-year occupation by the United States, USSR, Britain and France that followed the Second World World War.
This fact alone should make Austria’s response now unsurprising, even if it is surrounded by NATO member states (with the exception of neutral Switzerland). However, the NATO states that have declined the use of their airspace (such as France and Spain, and Italy blocking a flight that was already en-route) have experienced friction with Donald Trump, who openly criticized their “unhelpful” ways and NATO as “a paper tiger” — a perception he also commented that Vladimir Putin is aware of.
US President Donald Trump has criticised European members of the trans-Atlantic defence alliance for refusing US military aircraft permission to use their airspace for operations connected to the war.
The United States has threatened to leave NATO — only “after this conflict is concluded”, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has declared on Fox News.
French President Emmanuel Macron, notoriously vocal and direct, has responded that he feels these are hollow words.
Things get really messy as Ukraine says Russia rubs elbows with Iran
