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BRAZIL-IRAN: New Boost to South-South
Diplomacy
Analysis by Beatriz Bissio
RIO DE JANEIRO (IPS) - Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial visit to
Brazil further underscored the independence
of this country's diplomacy, and gave Tehran
a chance to defend its points of view on the
construction of a lasting peace in the
Middle East.
Ahmadinejad's one-day trip to Brasilia
Monday was the third visit to Brazil by a
Middle Eastern leader in two weeks. Earlier
this month, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva met with Israeli President
Shimon Peres, and a few days ago he hosted
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas.
The flurry of high-level visits was one more
show of Brazil's growing role in
international diplomacy.
But unlike the first two visits, which drew
little attention from the media and scant
interest from the public, Ahmadinejad's has
sparked controversy both in and outside
Brazil, and was closely tracked by the
international press.
Protests were held in Rio de Janeiro Sunday
by representatives of the Jewish community,
women's groups and organisations of gays
complaining about the lack of respect for
human rights in Iran and Tehran's policy
towards Israel.
And during the Iranian leader's visit to
Brasilia, the Brazilian Jewish Community
held a march protesting his presence, while
the Brazilian Palestinian Society and the
Direct Democracy Movement held
demonstrations in support of his trip.
The controversy and the interest with which
every detail of Ahmadinejad's meetings with
Brazilian officials - including a three-hour
talk behind closed doors with Lula, and a
visit to Congress - was followed confirm the
importance that both countries have on the
regional and global fronts.
The most concrete result of the visit was
the signing of eight cooperation agreements
in areas like science, technology,
agriculture and industry, which reflect the
desire of both Brazil and Iran to strengthen
South-South cooperation and increase
bilateral trade, which currently stands at
around two billion dollars, while the goal
is to raise that amount to 10 billion
dollars in the near future.
Some 200 business leaders accompanied
Ahmadinejad on his visit.
But the less tangible results of the Iranian
leader's visit to Brazil may be the most
significant.
In first place, the visit made it clear that
both Brazil and Iran are keen on playing a
more active role on the world stage, based
on each nation's clout in their specific
areas of influence.
The heir to the Persian empire, Iran enjoys
significant territorial, linguistic and
cultural cohesion, added to its abundant
natural resources and considerable
technological development - it launched a
domestically made satellite in 2008, and 48
percent of the population has access to the
internet - all of which give it a strong
sense of national pride and a central role
in Middle Eastern geopolitics.
Brazil, for its part, buoyed up by strong
economic indicators, besides its position as
Latin America's giant, has expanded its
influence on the international scene.
In South America, in particular, it has
consolidated its leadership, fuelling the
regional integration process by means of
political, economic and infrastructure
initiatives during Lula's nearly seven years
in office.
Despite criticism of the visit by several
major local media outlets and opposition
leaders and lawmakers, the Brazilian
government went ahead with the invitation to
Ahmadinejad, thus reinforcing the
independence that has marked its diplomacy
on earlier occasions.
The president himself repeatedly defended
the visit saying that peace cannot be built
in the Middle East without talking with all
political and religious factions. In his
opinion, if dialogue only took place between
politically aligned countries, the
conversation would be restricted to a "club
of friends" which would fail to lay the
foundations for real peace in the region.
During the recent visits by Middle Eastern
leaders, Lula took the opportunity to state
that he believed that key to peace in the
region was the emergence of a viable and
dignified sovereign Palestinian state
co-existing alongside Israel, and
recognising its right to exist.
He also emphasised nuclear non-proliferation
and disarmament, and said he backed Iran's
right to develop the peaceful use of nuclear
energy, just as Brazil has done.
For his part, Ahmadinejad declared his
support for Brazil's aspiration to becoming
a permanent member of the United Nations
Security Council.
He expressed that support during a visit to
the Brazilian Congress, where he explicitly
acknowledged the Holocaust, placing
controversial earlier remarks on the subject
in a broader context.
The Iranian leader said Palestinians should
not have to pay for an error that occurred
on European soil, and asked whether
Brazilians would give up their territory for
crimes committed in another part of the
world.
According to Ahmadinejad, the Palestinian
question has not yet been solved because the
peace proposals formulated by the U.N.
Security Council for the region have not
been based on a sense of justice.
That was another reason, he said, for Iran's
backing for Brazil's aspiration to a
permanent seat on the Security Council,
where - he argued - China, France, Russia,
the United Kingdom and the United States
should be stripped of their veto power.
From that key position in the global body,
Brazilian diplomacy could play a positive
role in peace initiatives, he said.
Only the future will tell whether the
results that both governments hope for from
the heightened cooperation will be
forthcoming. If they are, not only the
economic ties between Brazil and Iran will
be strengthened, but the Lula administration
will begin to play a more decisive role in
peace efforts in the Middle East.
That would be welcomed by both Israeli and
Palestinian authorities, as indicated by the
recent visits by Peres and Abbas.
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