LISBON, 5 December 2003 — The occupation of Iraq by US-led forces is intolerable and Washington should rapidly return sovereignty of the oil-rich country to Iraqis, Portugal’s president said in remarks published yesterday.
“No country can tolerate today living under a foreign occupation, especially a country with Iraq’s history and past,” Portuguese daily newspaper Jornal de Noticias quoted President Jorge Sampaio as saying Wednesday while on an official visit to Algeria.
He added the United Nations is “the only organization with the necessary legitimacy” to oversee the transfer of sovereignty back to Iraqis.
Sampaio, a Socialist, has spoken out against the US-led war and invasion of Iraq, however Portugal’s centre-right government has been a staunch ally of Washington’s Iraq policy. Lisbon deployed 128 military police to the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah last month to take part in the international stabilization force in the war-torn country.
Sampaio wrapped up a two-day visit to Algeria on Wednesday.
