Lisbon, March 23, 2026 (Lusa) - Portugal's government could resort to "structural measures to ease the burden on companies and families" if the Middle East conflict drags on, a "very worrying situation," the foreign minister said on Monday.

"If there is a fairly quick solution to the conflict, I think we can easily accommodate the negative impact of these weeks and return to a kind of normalisation. If that is not the case, we will naturally have to take some more concrete structural measures to ease the burden on companies and families," Foreign Minister, Paulo Rangel said on Monday during a press conference in Lisbon with his Icelandic counterpart, Thorgardur Katrin Gunnarsdottir.

He added the goal would be to ensure that "especially growth and investment are not as affected as they would be without any government intervention".

Answering a question about the impact of the Middle East conflict, which has worsened with US and Israeli attacks against Iran since 28 February and Iranian retaliation against several countries in the region, Rangel described the situation as "very worrying," and said the government was analysing the situation "very, very carefully daily, sometimes twice a day, to determine the best policies to mitigate the situation".

The minister pointed to the conflict’s economic consequences, with rising oil prices having "a huge impact not only on transport, but on the entire production and distribution chain," and also on agriculture, as much of the fertiliser produced pass through the Strait of Hormuz, currently blocked by Iran.

Rangel recalled that, like other countries, Portugal has been implementing many mitigation packages that try to ease the immediate impact of inflation on prices over the last two weeks.

Regarding Iceland, the foreign minister, who is visiting Lisbon on Monday, noted the island is energy sustainable due to hydroelectric and geothermal energy, but has a sensitive economy "with the world's smallest currency" and is noting "some impact on inflation".

She stressed that Iceland’s government "has very strongly criticised the Iranian regime, a terrorist regime that has harmed its citizens and also violated their rights to life and human rights".

"But, on the other hand, Iceland is also a country that stresses the importance of the rules-based order and international law," she said.

JH/LYT // AYLS

Lusa