Brazil Reaffirms Position On
Iran Nuclear Issue
BRASILIA - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva reaffirmed on Thursday
Brazil's position of maintaining dialogue
with Tehran about the Iranian nuclear
program and trying to avoid sanctions, in
separate bilateral meetings with Chinese and
Indian leaders on the sidelines of the BRIC
summit.
In a brief statement about the bilateral
meetings, Brazil's Foreign Relations
Minister Celso Amorim said that the Iran
nuclear issue was one of the topics
discussed.
"We told them (the Chinese and Indian
leaders) our position, explained it, and
heard their analysis as well," he said.
"President Lula said that the Iranian
government must show some flexibility on the
matter, because Iran needs to have the right
to a nuclear program for peaceful purposes,
but it is important that the international
community is reassured that the nuclear
program will not be used for military
purposes," he said.
"The president also reaffirmed his
conviction, based on past experiences and on
Iran's situation itself, that sanctions not
only are inefficient but in some cases can
be counterproductive even for the objectives
(for which) they are being applied," the
minister added.
Amorim also said that President Lula's
explanation was only for transparency
purposes, and that the discussions were
brief, lasting about fifteen minutes each.
"There was an exchange of ideas about how
the process is going on, about how to find a
peaceful solution about the matter. The
conviction that we have is that it is still
possible to try," he added.
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