Ahmadinejad to visit Brazil in late November

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Brazil in November, a Brazilian official said Tuesday amid the South American powerhouse s opposition to international pressure on Tehran s nuclear drive.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will host Ahmadinejad for the state visit — the Iranian leaders first to Brazil — between November 23 and 26, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said in comments cited in local media.

Ahmadinejad was initially scheduled to visit South America’s biggest economy in May, but that trip was cancelled on the eve of the disputed June 12 elections that gave him a second term in office.

Brazil, which unlike most Western countries recognized the results of the Iranian elections that took place amid violent protests, is seeking to boost its standing on the global stage.

It already boasts vast new oil discoveries, a solid industrial base and the bulk of the Amazon forest.

In an interview with AFP last month, Lula slammed a renewed push by the United States and European countries for sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program.

“We need to convince them politically. They can t be backed into a wall,” he said. “This policy of all or nothing doesn t exist.”

He insisted that Iran had a right to peaceful nuclear energy and said the US-led criticism of its arch-foe in the Middle East was reminiscent of Washington s fallacious justification for the war in Iraq.

Ahmadinejad and Lula met in New York last month during the United Nations General Assembly.

Israel — largely considered the Middle East s sole, albeit undeclared nuclear power — and Western countries accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of what Tehran insists is a civilian program for peaceful purposes.