Lisbon, Oct. 16, 2024 (Lusa) - The Portuguese flag has been permanently removed from a ship that is carrying explosive material bound for Israel, among other countries, after the necessary technical steps were completed, an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has told Lusa.

"The technical steps have been completed and the flag has been removed," said the source. "The registration has been definitively cancelled." 

On 30 September, an official source had told Lusa that the ‘Kathrin’ had asked for the Portuguese flag to be withdrawn, in an "irreversible" decision, after Portugal's government had made representations to its owner about its cargo.

The German-owned vessel, which was until Tuesday of this week registered in Madeira, was carrying explosive material destined for arms manufacturers in Israel, Poland and Slovakia. 

The opposition Left Bloc (BE) had asked the Public Prosecution Service to "monitor and prevent Portugal from being accused internationally of complicity in genocide" as well as proposing that the minister of state and foreign affairs in the right-of-centre coalition government, Paulo Rangel, come before the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs to testify on this case.

In September, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, called on Portugal's government to "urgently" request the removal of the Portuguese flag from the ‘Kathrin’.

"After recognising the plausibility of genocide in Gaza in January 2024, the ICJ [International Court of Justice] made it clear that all states have an obligation to ‘respect and enforce’ the Genocide Convention ‘in all circumstances’, and that states have ‘international obligations regarding the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict’," Albanese said at the time. 

JH/ARO // ARO.

Lusa