Diplomats: Brazil’s Lula shows support for Ahmadinejad

The Brazilian president has demonstrated his support for his Iranian counterpart through the Brazilian foreign minister’s recent visit, diplomats said on Monday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, these Brazilian diplomats who accompanied Foreign Minister Celso Amorim to Iran said that the visit to Isfahan last week indicated that Brazil is in favor of dialogue with Iran.

The diplomats said that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wanted to show the Brazilian government’s support for Iran’s nuclear program and uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes.

They added the government was not afraid the Brazil-Iran relationship was being used by the Iranians to get out of the ongoing stalemate.

The Brazilian president addressed the topic in his talks with European leaders during his recent visit. Lula believed that it is necessary to give Iranians the chance to prove that their nuclear production furnishes no grounds for suspicion.

President Lula argued that in order to have the moral authority to demand that Iran dispose of its alleged nuclear weapons program, countries with nuclear weapons must get rid of their own nuclear arsenals as well.

“It is important that those who have an arsenal let go of it, so that we will not have any more arguments,” he said during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

During his visit to Brazil on Nov. 23, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the world powers for raising doubts about the purpose of Iran’s nuclear program.

The plants that are part of Iran’s nuclear program have been subject to more inspections, and the Iranian government is under pressure from the international community, which is accusing it of concealing the development of research and production of nuclear weapons.

The Brazilian president also argued that since his country has a program of uranium enrichment for energy production, Iran should be allowed to have a similar program.

“The same things Brazil accepts for itself, it accepts for Iran,” Lula said.