Agreeing that Iran’s attack on U.S. military bases could “worsen the conflict” in the Middle East, Gouveia e Melo perceives in the conflict’s evolution “a signal, an attempt to de-escalate the conflict to avoid increasing the contentiousness and the problem.”
The admiral spoke on the sidelines of the São João festival, organized by the Porto City Council, in which he participated.
“Israel and the United States, with American help, achieved the main objective of delaying or disabling Iran’s military nuclear capacity and a significant portion of its ballistic missile launching capability. With these goals achieved, the aim now is to try to make peace. It is dangerous to think that the objective is to try to overthrow the regime,” the candidate warned.
He continued: “This is very dangerous because it can leave a large vacuum. Therefore, I believe that conditions are now in place to start talking about a peace process and negotiation between the parties.”
Gouveia e Melo further reasoned that alliances not only have positive aspects.
“There are negative aspects as well. We have the risk of the alliance, on one hand. On the other hand, the alliance protects us all. Alone, we would face much more risk than within an alliance. Therefore, we are also paying a bit of the price of the alliances we make and have for our own protection,” he explained.
Considering the Lajes Base as “a fundamental element of relations not only within NATO, with Portugal in NATO, but also in transatlantic relations with the United States,” the candidate recalled that Portugal is “a maritime country with a very strong relationship with the dominant maritime power, the United States, and the Lajes are part of this process.”
