The Minister said he was available to be heard on 20 May by the Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities Committee about the use of the Lajes base by the United States in the attacks on Iran, after the Socialist Party announced that it would summon Paulo Rangel to parliament, and the Portuguese Communist Party proposed a commission of inquiry.

However, the parliamentary committee will not meet this week, and the requests from these parties will be voted on "with the utmost urgency" at the next meeting, scheduled for the 26th, according to the same source.

"I have a complicated international agenda in the coming weeks, but I am available, if possible, according to parliamentary rules, to go on Wednesday [20 May]," Paulo Rangel told reporters on the sidelines of the signing of the negotiation protocol for the legal framework for teaching Portuguese abroad.

"And I'll say one thing: I will hold this session with open doors," he added, justifying that, "regarding the issue at hand, there is no element of confidentiality, everything has been explained."

The requests from the PS and PCP came after statements by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on 14 May, when he praised Portugal for accepting the United States' request to use the Lajes base in the conflict with Iran.

In an interview with Fox News, Marco Rubio said that this authorisation was given even before Portugal knew what the request would be.

On the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarified in a statement that "the request to Portugal for the use of the Lajes Air Base was only made after the attack on Iran, and the Portuguese Government only authorized it under conditions that were immediately made public and are known" - in response to attacks suffered, that are necessary and proportionate, and that do not target civilians.

Paulo Rangel "vehemently" condemned the PS's position on this issue, guaranteeing that the party was "informed and consulted beforehand".

The Socialist Secretary-General, José Luís Carneiro, lamented that there was no "sense of state from the Portuguese Government" and considered that "one of the two is not telling the truth", while the PS parliamentary leader, Eurico Brilhante Dias, spoke of a "humiliation on a planetary scale" and said that the country "has lived, since that moment, crouching, on its knees".

Regarding Marco Rubio's statement, the Portuguese official said that "everyone knows it has no literal value," recalling that he clarified on Thursday that "obviously there was authorisation for the use of the Lajes base in the context of this conflict."

"There is no problem with the United States," he assured.

"One thing is before the attack [by the US and Israel on Iran on 28 February], and another thing is after the attack. Therefore, from the moment the attack took place, there was formal authorisation, and it was given," he explained.

Before the start of the Israeli-American attacks, the Lajes base "was used like all European bases in February," namely in Spain or Italy, "in accordance with the general regime of tacit authorisations," he explained.