Brazilian FM visits Iran for talks on nuclear issues

Ten days after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Brazil, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim paid a short visit to Iran on Thursday to continue the talks started in Brasilia, including Iran’s controversial nuclear program.

Amorim went to Iran from Geneva, Switzerland, where he participated in a round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), and spent the whole Thursday talking to Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

In addition to Amorim’s meeting with Ahmadinejad, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is on a visit to Germany, called on the international community to hold talks with Iran.

“The best … is to engage in negotiations and be patient. I think … increasing pressure each day may not result in a good thing. We need more patience to raise the level of conversation with Iran,” said Lula, shortly after German Chancellor Angela Merkel had said there are possibilities of “losing patience” with Iran due to Iranian positions.

Ahmadinejad’s visit to Brazil has sparked controversy, as the Iranian president called Lula “my friend,” who has defended Iran’s right to develop a nuclear program for peaceful purposes.

Ahmadinejad assured that the plant to enrich uranium in his country has no military objectives.

However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed are solution on Nov. 27, censuring Iran’s nuclear program on building a plant to enrich uranium suspected of having military purposes.