According to El País newspaper from Spain, the Lajes airbase was used after Spain rejected the operation. Foreign Affairs issued several versions.

The passage in April through Lajes Air Base of three F-35 fighter jets from the United States (US) sold to Israel, reported on September 29 by the Spanish newspaper El País, prompted several reactions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which initially apparently blamed the Ministry of Defense for a communication failure and then took responsibility for the case.

In a statement on Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began by stating that “such overflights require communication and authorization (most often tacit) from the Portuguese State, under the permanent annual authorization,” and that, since neither the minister nor his office had any knowledge of the fighter jets’ passage, an initial investigation was ordered.

At that initial stage, it was “clarified that no Israeli aircraft or aircraft bound for Israel had been authorized.”

However, after a second question from the newspaper “Expresso,” another exhaustive investigation was launched, which, according to the Ministry, “determined that the aircraft were American and that there had indeed been communication and tacit authorization (i.e., by the expiration of the respective deadline) for the stopover and overflight of three American aircraft for delivery to Israel.”

The Foreign Ministry referred to a procedural failure, given that the operation had been authorized by the National Aviation Authority, which reports to the Ministry of Defense. “Although the commitment made by the Ministry or the Government in this matter was not strictly violated, given the sensitivity of the issue, this communication should have been reported to the Minister’s office before the authorization period expired,” it said.

Also on Thursday night, as reported yesterday by Expresso, Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel acknowledged that responsibility for the failure to provide information on the F-35 stopover lay with his ministry and not with the Ministry of Defense. “This has nothing to do with the Ministry of Defense. No one blamed the Ministry of Defense,” he said in an interview with Canal Now, despite the content of the first statement.

The minister acknowledged that it was an internal error on the part of his ministry and that he was only properly informed after questions from Expresso, without specifying, however, what decision he would have taken if he had obtained prior information about the use of the Lajes Base.

According to El País, the Spanish government refused to authorize the transit of weapons to Israel, which led the US to use the Lajes Base as an alternative. Portugal’s own position has been not to export arms to Israel. “Unlike other countries, which are calling for a suspension (of exports), we have already taken this measure a long time ago,” Paulo Rangel said in June.

Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has already considered it a “procedural error” and rejected any resignations by the foreign or defense ministers. “I regret that there was a procedural error at the beginning, when the issue was raised with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has now been identified, and there is nothing more to say about it because everything else was a perfectly normal procedure,” he said, after reactions from Livre and Bloco de Esquerda.

“I really don’t understand why there have been such radical reactions, calling for ministers to resign. The last thing the government needs is to face decisions that are normal with this kind of spirit, but anyway, we are in an election campaign and perhaps that also has something to do with it,” he added.

The leader of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, announced that the party will request a hearing with the two ministers in the Assembly of the Republic. Carneiro considered Rangel’s statements to be serious, since he acknowledged that he had “no knowledge of an air operation that used national territory.”

The PCP also wants to hear from the ministers and has already submitted requests to the Assembly of the Republic to that effect. “The facts now reported and confirmed demonstrate, once again, the complicity of the PSD/CDS government in the crimes that Israel has been committing with the support of the US and the European Union,” lamented the communists. Yesterday, the Left Bloc/Azores demanded that the Regional Government speak out “against the use of the Lajes Base as a logistics platform for Israeli military operations.”

The Bloco wants explanations from the Azores Government and the Government of the Republic. “This operation, which included the passage of several Israeli aircraft through the Azores – allegedly not previously communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – led to an investigation into responsibilities and exposed flaws in the control of the use of Lajes Base by the US,” the party stresses. The Azores Left Bloc considers that, “despite the absence of formal powers in defense and foreign affairs, the region’s self-governing bodies must take a clear political stance in defense of constitutional autonomy and the values of peace.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of the Presidency, Leitão Amaro, has already assured that the Government of the Republic will review procedures to prevent such cases from recurring.

In Diário Insular, José Lourenço-director

Translated into English as a community outreach program by the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL), in collaboration with Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno. PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.