Iran has granted permission for Russian planes to fly over its territory en route to Syria, a bypass needed after Bulgaria rejected Moscow’s overflight request amid signs of a Russian military buildup in Syria.
The Russian Embassy in Tehran has received Iranian permission for Syria-bound flights, its spokesman Maxim Suslov said today, according to the Interfax news agency.
After Bulgaria rejected Moscow’s overflight request for September 1-24, a path via Iran and Iraq appears to be the only one left as Russia apparently wants to avoid flying over Turkey, which once grounded a Syria-bound Russian plane with military cargo. The controversy over the Russian flights comes amid signs of increased Russian military presence in Syria. Moscow, which has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nation’s four-and-a-half-year civil war, said its military experts are in Syria to train its military to use weapons supplied by Russia.