Lajes Base received an unprecedented movement of planes before the start of the war in Iran. Only a “repositioning” warning came from the United States.
The United States informed Portugal that there would be a “repositioning” at the Lajes Base, on the island of Terceira, before Operation Epic Fury began, but said nothing more.
Amid all the controversy reignited by the statements of the American Secretary of State, who praised the position of countries like Portugal before the war against Iran was launched, CNN Portugal found that the United States did not clarify to the Portuguese government what the scope of air movements at the Azorean base was.
The initial stage involved the mobilization and positioning of KC-46 refueling planes at Lajes Base, which was the great use of the Portuguese structure, as only then could US bombers, such as B-2s, make the entire crossing to Iran.
The information that CNN Portugal confirmed indicates that the United States only communicated the “repositioning” of the aircraft, and there was no reference to the use or destination of these aircraft.
It is worth mentioning that the Lajes Base is Portuguese, even if it has North American troops, so there are a series of steps that must be followed so that everything is done as stipulated.
How communication works
A formal request must first be made by the United States embassy, which is then evaluated by the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then passed on to the Ministry of Defense, which will have to evaluate the availability of the Lajes Base.
The process returns to Itamaraty for a final, more political decision. In cases of greater sensitivity, the Prime Minister may intervene, who will have the last word.
Once all these steps have been completed, the process returns to the origin, that is, to the United States embassy in Lisbon, which, after all approval, notifies the Lajes Base through a military channel, in a notification that reaches the Portuguese Air Force.
All of this takes place within a maximum period of three days, and in urgent moments the process can be greatly shortened, and can even be informal, if justified.
Furthermore, CNN Portugal knows that many of the planes that pass through the Lajes Base do not inform about their destination, which also happened in this case of the war in Iran.
It turns out that there is a situation here that is purposely dubious, which highlights both parties, including Portugal.
This situation ends up back on the agenda after the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, mentioned the Portuguese case.
What happened
This week, Rubio said that Portugal gave authorization for the use of the Lajes Base before even knowing what the request was.
“To be fair, there are NATO countries that have been very helpful to us. I’ll just say one: Portugal. They said yes before we even asked anything,” the American official said.
In a statement sent to newsrooms, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied Rubio.
“As was explained publicly and in detail to the Foreign Affairs Commission (on April 7), the request to Portugal to use the Lajes Base was only made after the attack on Iran, and the Portuguese Government only authorized it under conditions that were immediately made public and are known”, the Government began by explaining.
“The statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio does not apply to Portugal at all and we do not know if it applies to any of the other countries he referred to”, can be read in the note sent by Paulo Rangel’s ministry.
