BRASILIA (Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Brasilia yesterday seeking support for his controversial nuclear programme, the first leg of a South American tour that critics say could dent Brazil’s ambitions on the global diplomatic stage.
Opposition politicians in Brazil condemned the visit, citing concern over Iran’s nuclear program, its denial of the Holocaust and human rights abuses. Hundreds of people protested in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, urging President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to take a hard line with Ahmadinejad.
Lula defended the visit, saying any progress on the nuclear standoff with Iran and on the stalled Middle East peace process required dialogue with all parties involved.
“It doesn’t help isolating Iran,” Lula, who has been pushing to bolster Brazil’s clout on the world stage, said yesterday in his weekly radio address.
Ahmadinejad’s trip follows visits in the last two weeks by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres, who called on Lula to use Brazil’s growing influence to help curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Lula, who has defended Iran’s right to develop civilian nuclear energy, was expected to urge Ahmadinejad to accept the terms of global nuclear non-proliferation when the two meet later yesterday.
Iran has long countered Western suspicions it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons by saying its programme is purely for civilian energy use. In hopes of wooing the Brazilians to his side, Ahmadinejad has sought to liken Iran’s nuclear programme to Brazil’s.
“If the Brazilian people stand beside the Iranian people in this unfair dispute of Western countries against Iran’s nuclear programme, it is because of a similar experience,” Ahmadinejad wrote in an article distributed by the Iranian embassy in Brasilia.
Brazil, which has renounced nuclear weapons, is developing its own technology to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear energy programme. It is also partnering with France to develop a nuclear-powered submarine.
World powers have urged Iran to reconsider its rejection of a UN-drafted deal which aimed to delay Tehran’s potential ability to make bombs by at least a year, by divesting the country of most of its enriched uranium.
Almost a thousand people protested against Ahmadinejad in Rio at the weekend, condemning his denial of the Holocaust and urging Lula to demand freedom of speech in Iran. Groups of anti- and pro-Ahmadinejad demonstrators traded barbs outside the foreign ministry in Brasilia yesterday.
The Israeli Federation of Sao Paulo state took out an advertisement in Brazilian newspapers on Sunday showing a picture of a Holocaust victim displaying an identification number tattooed on his forearm.
“Mr Ahmadinejad, the numbers don’t lie,” the ad read.
