Petition with 8,500 signatures calls on government to follow Spain’s lead.

On Monday, the leftist party Bloco de Esquerda (BE) presented the Portuguese government with a letter signed by 8,500 people demanding it follow Spain’s example and ban the United States from using Portuguese airspace and the Lajes Air Base.

After a meeting with an adviser to Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, BE leader Jose Manuel Pureza said the letter “gives voice to a feeling of indignation” over the use of the Lajes Air Base, in the Atlantic archipelago of the Azores, by U.S. military forces.

In the letter, they demand that the government “prohibit the use of infrastructure,” specifically that base and Portuguese airspace, “for any type of support for the attacks.”

“After all, this letter merely demands the same stance adopted today by our neighbors in Spain in banning the use of Spanish airspace for this purpose by U.S. aircraft,” Pureza added.

The newspaper El Pais reported that Spain has closed its airspace to U.S. flights participating in the operation launched by that country together with Israel against Iran, even if the aircraft are stationed in other European countries.

The Portuguese government has expressed its rejection of the U.S. and Israeli offensive against Iran and has insisted that the use of Lajes by U.S. military personnel has been under “strict compliance with legal standards and rules” established in the bilateral agreement between the two countries.

On Sunday, television channel SIC Noticias reported that the Portuguese government authorized the arrival for the first time of U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones at Lajes, scheduled for Monday night, a move also denounced by BE.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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