Antonio Araujo/EPA
US refueling planes are parked at the Lajes Air Base, at Vitória Beach, Terceira Island, Azores, this Friday.
PS, PCP and Free asked for clarification on “uncommon” movement in the Azores, hours before the US attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities at dawn.
The war between Israel and Iran has gained a new direct intervener at dawn, and a great one. The three Iranian nuclear power plants.
B-2 bombers, seen this Saturday to leave the US towards Guam, were used in the attacks. And here, in Lajes base in the Azoresthe US also increases its military presence: 20 Military Airplanesused to supply the bombing fighters used at dawn, are parked in the archipelago.
The PS asked for hours before the attack that the government clarified this unusual presence in NATO’s Azorean base.
“What the PS wants to know is whether the Portuguese Government is aware of this movement, if it was notified by the American authorities of this same movement, and if it has, as it has always been, to make knowledge of both the largest political parties, nationally, of course, to the population itself about the reason and the cause of this same movement,” said Francisco César, deputy and leader of PS/Azores, in statements to Lusa agency.
Francisco César said he had knowledge of 18 aircraft Of this type in the archipelago, 12 parked in that infrastructure and six more permanence in the air, whose presence “is known by the entire population” due to the constant movement.
Asked about the presence of these aircraft in the Lajes, a source of the US Department of Defense said only that “US European Command usually welcomes US military (and personal) aircraft in compliance with foundations for access to foundations and overflow with allies and partners.”
“In addition, we have nothing more to share,” he added.
“In the face of the US planes that are settling in the base of the slabs, it is good that the sad figure that happened at Iraq,” said Communist leader Paulo Raimundo, when intervened in a public session in Beja. The leader alluded to the period of the Iraq war when, he claimed, that Portugal and in concrete the base of the slabs welcomed “the meeting of shame, the meeting of lies, the hypocrisy meeting [que]Its consequences were millions of dead. ”
On Saturday, in a statement, the PCP demanded from the Portuguese government a “ready and urgent clarification” on the use of the Lajes Air Base in the Azores, by the US Air Force, rejecting its eventual use “in the escalation of aggression against Iran”.
“The news about the presence of US Armed Forces Airplanes in the third, in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, require a ready and urgent clarification by the PSD/CDS government“It reads in the same statement.
“Our country, the Government of Portugal, cannot be once again with stained hands, cannot be once again complicit of war, death and destruction. Not our country, not our country, no and no,” he emphasized.
The Military Airplanes of the United States of America “will take flight from where they want, from our country not, to war not,” continued the PCP leader: “Everything for peace, all for solidarity, all for cooperation, for that all aircraft come.”
“For the bombs, for war and to death, ride and go back to their land, they will come back once and for all to their land,” he said.
Also the free intends to know If the national executive was “informed in advance” of US attacks on Iran and what position intends to take on these attacks, “both national and with the European partners.”
“Consider the government that these attacks respect international law, namely with the United Nations Charter?
Free also wants to know what measures have been or will be adopted to ensure that the national territory, “particularly the base of the slabs, and including Portuguese airspace, are not, directly or indirectly, used to facilitate actions contrary to international law.”
