Austria has rejected US requests for military overflights of its territory since the start of the conflict in the Middle East in line with its policy of neutrality, a defence ministry spokesman told AFP today.
“There have indeed been requests and they were refused from the outset,” Colonel Michael Bauer said, adding that every time a similar request “involves a country at war, it is refused”.
Austria has been a neutral country since 1955. It is surrounded to the north, south, and east by NATO members, with neutral Switzerland to the west.
US President Donald Trump has criticised European members of the trans-Atlantic alliance, such as France and Spain, which refused to allow their airspace to be used for the war against Iran.
In mid-March, Switzerland, also invoking its neutrality, said it had refused the use of its airspace.
