Belgium Resists Airspace Closure Pressure Amid Middle East Conflict

(MENAFN) Belgium will not move to restrict its airspace to aircraft linked to the Middle East conflict, Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said Wednesday, even as European nations fracture into sharply opposing camps over how to respond to the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, local media reported.

Prevot delivered the government’s position before a parliamentary committee, in remarks carried by a Belgian broadcaster: “Many aircraft do not transit through our countries to provide military aid to Gulf states.”

The statement draws a clear line between Brussels and some of its European neighbors, who have taken far more confrontational stances. Spain has moved to bar U.S. military aircraft tied to the conflict from its airspace — a direct expression of Madrid’s opposition to the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran. Across the border, France finds itself under pressure from a different direction: Washington has publicly criticized Paris for what it characterized as insufficient cooperation, though the French government has yet to formally confirm or deny any airspace limitations, according to the report.

Inside Belgium, Prevot’s hands-off approach has drawn fire from the parliamentary opposition. Lawmaker Nabil Bouliki of the Workers’ Party (PTB) pressed the government to align itself with Spain’s harder line, vowing to escalate the matter directly with both the foreign and defense ministers as regional tensions continue to spiral.

Bouliki left no ambiguity about where he believes Belgium should stand: “Belgium must follow Spain’s lead and close its airspace to American and Israeli planes involved in attacks on Iran.”

The exchange underscores a widening fault line within Europe over how far member states should go in either facilitating or obstructing Western military operations in the Middle East — a debate with significant implications for NATO cohesion and EU foreign policy credibility as the conflict grinds into its fifth week.

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