Statement by the

On the aggression of the USA and Great-Britain to Iraq

1. The Portuguese Communist Party condemns with indignation the new military aggression to Iraq perpetrated by the USA and Great-Britain, which constitutes a rough violation of the Iraqi sovereignty and the international law, and it claims for its immediate ending.

2. This aggression will cause new destructions, it will provoke more deaths and will leave the Iraqi people, already martyrized by the blockade, under terrible conditions of survival.

3. Moreover, it is an aggression decided in a totally unilateral way, without having even the covering of the UNO and of it Security Council, being significantly unchained on the eve of a decisive vote about the destitution process of the President of the USA, leaving the peoples and the countries of the world at the mercy of the imperialist powers.

4. The attack against Iraq constitutes a serious danger and a threat to peace and security of the region where, as a result of the USA's politics, the principle of two weights and two measures is in force. In fact, in this region, Israel continues for two decades to violate several UNO's resolutions and to occupy by military forces Palestinian territories.

5. Whatever complex and difficult may be the situation prevailing in the region, the PCP considers that a new political-diplomatic effort is essential with a view to a global solution of the problem in Middle-East, and that is passes for the end of the blockade to Iraq, for the unequivocal recognition of the national rights of the Palestinian people, for the respect of the sovereign options of every people and every country.

6. The PCP considers that the only dignifying position of Portugal will be the firm condemnation of the military action at all instances where it participates and to refuse the direct involvement of the country in the USA's aggressive actions, namely through the use of the air-base in Lages.