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of Defense, it is concluded that he himself had assumed the extinction of the fund, having not procceded to no démarche related to it:

«As Minister of National Defense, I wus nut aware of anything strictly, nor in terms of plans or programs, or in terms of budgets, revenue or expenditure, in relation to the Fund.

They will ask me: why? Perhaps because he was convinced that the Fund was extinct. Do not know! Bui, above all, and it is good to remember, because at the time when I was Minister of Defense, that is, from September 1987 to December 1982, the Armed Forres remained in regime self-management. And the Armed Forces General Staff depended directly on the President of the Republic or, from the 1980 presidential election, the Head of State Major-General, since, by agreement with the Socialist Party, General Eanes accepted noi accumulate, in his second term, the functions of President of the Republic with those of Chief of General Staff and appoint a Chief of Staff, who was, without error, General Melo Egidio, recently deceased.

Therefore, the Minister of Defense had ubsolutely nothing to do with the General Stuff General of the Armed Forces or with the Armed Forces. It was a little sui generis figure that was created in 1974 to maintain links with NATO but that had no powers over the Armed Forces *.

3.3. Arms trade to Iran

In some way related to the investigation of the Overseas Military Defense Fund and the accounts of the CEMGFA Office, the investigation into the arms trade to Iran in 1980 played an equally important role in the work of the CPI.

Reports of the sending of military material to Iran have crossed national borders: following the taking of the US embassy in Tehran and the consequent taking of hostages by Iranian forces associated with the new theocratic regime, was being broadcast by some press that the negotiation of the release of the American hostages was essential for the victory of the candidacy Reagan i Bush in the elections later this year. The thesis remains, still to be proved, that there to an agreement between Ayatollah Khomeini and the Republican candidacy, namely through George Bush and Henry Kissinger, for holding hostages until some time after the elections in USA, in order to undermine the candidacy of then President Jimmy Carter. According to some of these reports, this negotiation took place in Luxembourg and Paris, where senior Iranian officials and Bush would have met in secret.

The role referred to by some as having been that of Portugal was limited to serving as a platform for the sending military material to Iran, something that was prohibited by the international community and the

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understanding of the Portuguese Government according to information sent to X CPITC by the Ministry Foreign Affairs, on April 18, 1980, a general and