Cross-party criticism over Portugal’s perceived submission to the United States in its use of Lajes air base in the logistics of its ‘Epic Fury’ attack on Iran is amplifying today, with the prime minister’s ‘bi-monthly debate’ later expected to focus on the implications of the conflict – and minister of foreign affairs Paulo Rangel already summoned to parliament to explain his statements so far in greater detail.
Rangel has ‘assured’ that the government is only authorising the United States’ operation on ‘three conditions’ – stressing that no aircraft involved in the initial attack on Saturday morning left from Lajes air base.
His assurance – at a point where truth from any side in this conflict is no longer ‘a given’ – has not been taken at face value. Left-wing parties want a great deal more in the way of information, thus the PS Socialists’ and PAN’s call for Rangel to address parliament, while LIVRE and BE (Bloco de Esquerda) have sent questions to the government.
The crux of all the unease is the disregard for international law. With Spain being singled out for ‘commercial exclusion from the United States’ due to its refusal to give America access to its air bases for preparations towards Epic Fury, it is clear that ‘Europe’s traditional ally’, the leading country of the so-called free world, is unprepared to respect individual countries’ sovereign decisions.
Very much as Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni remarked yesterday, the crisis in international law – which began ‘when a member of the United Nations Security Council (Russia) deliberately attacked its neighbour (Ukraine) – is eating into systems that used to underpin ‘order’ in the world, leaving the door wide open to increasing chaos’.
And increasing chaos is exactly where we appear to be today: five days into a war justified by a raft of changing reasons, but which was certainly not ‘sanctioned’ by any of the usual channels in working democracies.
That is where PS Socialists and PAN are coming in. The PS request to hear Minister Rangel refers to “doubts regarding the ultimate purpose of the operations in question and their respective international legal framework”. Ditto PAN whose MP Inês Sousa Real stresses that “at a time of high regional instability, any perception of automatic alignment with one of the parties could compromise Portugal’s external position, exposing the country to increased political and strategic risks.”
Yesterday, in interview with Antena 1, Iranian ambassador to Portugal Majid Tafreshi said he “didn’t think” his country would be targeting the Azores for a retaliatory attack (“because Portugal and Iran have very good relations, and up until now Portugal has not said that it supports the American attacks on Iran”). But nonetheless Iran considers all bases facilitating attacks by American and Israeli forces to be “legitimate targets”.
So Majid Tafreshi’s answer was no real comfort.
Other left wing parties in Lisbon – LIVRE and BE – are just as concerned. The former saying that in its opinion “what the government, the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs should have done was send a strong, courageous message – like, for example, Spain and the United Kingdom, indicating that sovereign Portuguese territory would not be used to put a nail in the coffin of international law.”
LIVRE has set its position out very clearly (one could argue that it can afford to as it is such a small party): “The Iranian regime is repugnant to us, which, however, does not in itself constitute justification for war under international law; otherwise, the world would belong only to whoever has the largest arsenal and the greatest willingness to use it. And Portugal can never be complicit in such an attitude, which, besides being dangerous for the world, goes directly against our interests as a peaceful state with a middle-ground position.”
PCP communists are saying much the same: “History shows that war is not a solution to anything.”
And in the Azores, BE’s regional party is on the attack – criticising regional governor José Manuel Bolieiro for “showing satisfaction and support for the use of Azorean territory to undertake attacks outside the bounds of international law.
“Lajes Air Base and the surrounding region should be used for peaceful activities that contribute to the social and economic development of the Azores, and should not continue to be a platform for supporting the wars that the US sows throughout the world.”
BE, however, has only one MP in the regional government.
In Lisbon, the furore whipped up by left-wingers is not being echoed through the right-wing. CHEGA has said it sees nothing wrong in the use the United States is making of Lajes air base – suggesting a prohibition (like that of Spain) “would be seen as a more or less permanent cut in relations with our allies…”
Iniciativa Liberal also seems unfazed. Leader Mariana Leitão wrote over social network ‘X’ that the party “rejects the moral inversion that seeks to see as a victim a regime that for decades has made its own people the first and foremost victim. The nuclear offensive programme must be dismantled, the support of terrorist organisations terminated”.
What the right (which combined does have the majority in parliament) does not seem to ‘appreciate’ is just how slippery the slope has become for the world as a result of the disregard of international law.
In the meantime, reports confirm that “intense US aircraft movement’ (principally of refuelling planes) continues at Lajes airbase.
Source material: Expresso/Lusa
