“Everything that is excessive, normally, in diplomacy, for a country of our size, or even the size of Spain, is not good”, defended this Wednesday, March 4, the former Portuguese Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso, at Culturgest, in Lisbon, during a class promoted by the Institute of Political Studies of the Catholic University, in which the main speaker was the retired ambassador of the European Union to the United States, the United Nations and the United Kingdom João Vale de Almeida.
On the sidelines of the class, Durão Barroso, in statements to journalists, rejected the idea that Portugal, by allowing the United States to use the Lajes Base, entered the war with Iran, arguing that “What the Iranian ambassador says can’t be written”.
“Iran’s ambassador lies constantly, Iran lied to me once when I was prime minister“, he said, recalling an episode in which the Iranian ambassador said he wanted to “propose to Portugal a commemoration of the historical relations between Portugal and Persia, which are very old”.
“Iran’s ambassador in Lisbon asked me to receive him, although normally the prime minister doesn’t receive ambassadors. I did, because he said we were supposed to plan a historic celebration of cultural relations between Portugal and Persia. What did he do? The next day, an absolutely false report appears in the Iranian news agency, saying that I praised Iran, that I said good things about the Iranian regime, a lie.”reported, adding that “These are countries where everything they say lies”.
Supporting the idea that Portugal has done everything well in this case, Durão Barroso agreed with the Portuguese Government’s statement, justifying that he has “no reason not to believe it from the outset”. “I don’t want to get into internal politics”, he added, refusing to comment on what the Prime Minister, Luís Monetenegro, defended this Wednesday in Parliament.
“What I know is that the Government says that the Americans respected what was in the treaty. In what the Government says, I believe in principle, of course”, he stressed.
After remembering that “we didn’t want this war”, something that, he explained, “has already been said by practically all European leaders”, Durão Barroso admitted that “it is evident that this war is outside international law.”
However, he added, “it wasn’t us who decided the war, it was the United States and Israel”, he argued, with the justification that this only happened in response to “continuous aggressions that Iran has been carrying out”.
When the invasion of Israel by Hamas forces took place, the so-called October 7th, with that death and those horrible attacks, what happened was that the Iran was perhaps the only country that not only congratulated but encouraged these actions”, said Durão Barroso, adding that “Iran has been financing and politically supporting terrorism outside its territory, in that region, from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other regions”.
“Therefore, it is a war between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other. And the United States is the greatest ally of Portugal and the countries of the European Union”, he highlighted, leaving a rhetorical question: “Where is our strategic interest?”
The possibilities for an answer came soon after, with the former president of the European Commission questioning whether Portugal “stands with the North Americans, who are, despite doubts and differences, a democracy, a country where there is the rule of law, as has now been seen with the decision of the American Supreme Court, taking a position against the American President. Or is our position in favor of a regime, which is a totalitarian regime, that kills more of its citizens?”
Regarding Israel’s strategic interest, Durão Barroso stated that it involves “destroying Iran’s military capabilities. For a long time.”
Durão Barroso acknowledged that he knows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “very well”, since 1988, when both were “Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs at the same time”.
“I visited him in Israel several times, I met him many times, at political functions, and for him what is happening is the dream scenario, which is the goal he had for a long time. Having said that, we have to think about these issues not in terms of Mr. Netanyahu or in terms of Mr. Trump, we have to think in terms of what is the strategic interest of open democracies, of societies like ours, where we want men and women to have the same rights, where people can organize themselves”, he defended.
Criticism of Spain, praise of Portugal
After insisting that “what the Government says is that relations, that the rules were respected”, with regard to the use of the Lajes Base, in the Azores, Durão Barroso again launched a rhetorical question to defend the idea: “Are we now going to have a problem with the United States, is this in the Portuguese national interest?”
“Let’s have some common sense, some wisdom,” he appealed, admitting that he likes the fact that Portugal has “positions of wisdom, moderate positions”.
“You’re not showing off, you’re not tiptoeing around, which is what serves our national interest. We are seen as a trustworthy country, we are founders of NATOand we are a country, it is normal to say this, with an Atlantic vocation”, he concluded.
“Are we going to lose this capital, which is a capital that we have to be reliable, predictable, serious allies, because of some statements?”he asked, without waiting for any answer.
After taking a position that disagreed with the statements of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who said “no to war” and refused the use of Spanish bases by the United States, Durão Barroso considered that “this recent position was very much determined by reasons of internal politics”.
“The Spanish Government has a part that is extreme left, but this position would never be taken by Felipe González, by the great socialists that I knew and with whom I work very closely. I have great respect for the Spanish Socialist Party, in fact, here for us, I was more supported by the Spanish Socialist Party than by the Portuguese, when I was in the Commission [Europeia]”, he admitted.
“I really like Spain. Now, this decision seems hasty to me, it seems excessive to me”, he stated, concluding that “people must have some sense of balance”.
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