2023-11-28 02:44:45
From Brasilia
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva begins this Tuesday in the Middle East what may be his last international tour of this year, with stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two countries that will join the BRICS in January, a group from which Argentina will disengage. as promised by Javier Milei. Two months ago, the Brazilian president gave his support to Argentina’s entry into the organization formed by emerging powers, shortly before the start of hostilities on October 7 between the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas and Israel.
The current five members of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have expressed themselves, with nuances, in favor of a ceasefire, for the creation of the Palestinian state, and coexistence between both states following the postulates of the UN.
Lula is going to meet this Tuesday in Riyadh, with the Arab prince Mohamed bin Salman, to talk about an ambitious investment plan in Brazil that ranges from energy to infrastructure and the environment. It is not ruled out that the leaders or their diplomatic teams analyze the war in the Middle East and the fate of dozens of Brazilians trapped in the Gaza Strip from which they asked to be rescued.
The war was addressed last week during a virtual BRICS conference when the president and leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) called for an end to hostilities and for more intense activity of humanitarian corridors on the border with Egypt.
Before that, he had deplored the massacre of Jewish civilians by Hamas at the beginning of October and described as “genocide” and “insane” the attacks launched by the Israeli army against Gaza, leaving “thousands of children dead.”
Gaza and Ukraine
The defense of peace in Ukraine was the main banner of the intense diplomatic agenda deployed by the Brazilian president since the beginning of his third term, last January, a topic on which he spoke with the presidents of the United States, China, Russia, and Ukraine. and Pope Francis.
After the outbreak in October of this new chapter of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, Lula reiterated his pacifist proposal with the UN Security Council, temporarily chaired by the Brazilians, as his main sphere of dissemination. But after a month of mandate in the Council, the balance was adverse: no resolution presented by Brasilia was successful.
Diplomatic years
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to Lulist criticism of the attacks on Gaza was emphatic. Through his ambassador, Daniel Zohar Zonshine, he hinted that Brazil is tolerant of the actions of alleged members of the Lebanese organization Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, arrested in São Paulo. And he demanded that Planalto classify Hamas as “terrorist”, a proposal rejected by Lula, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and international advisor and former foreign minister, Celso Amorim.
The Bolsonaros
Former president Jair Bolsonaro made common cause with the Israeli ambassador in the attacks against Lula, whom he accused of complicity with the “terrorists” of Hamas. The same position was adopted by his son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has frequently traveled to Argentina in support of the leader of La Libertad Avanza (LLA) Milei and is an activist in the global far-right movement created by the North American publicist Steve Bannon. , linked to Donald Trump.
Isolated Jair
Jair Bolsonaro’s agenda of meetings with dignitaries abroad in 2023 will be summarized in those he will have on December 10 in Buenos Aires, where he will travel for Milei’s inauguration.
Since leaving the government, the retired captain has fallen into diplomatic ostracism, which he hopes to reverse with the arrival of his co-religionist to the Casa Rosada while he crosses his fingers so that the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court does not order his arrest for any of the various reasons. processed against him, including the coup d’état that failed in January of this year.
A parenthesis: the retired soldier would also have nowhere to seek asylum, except Milei’s Argentina, if he were found guilty by the Supreme Court and his imprisonment was ordered. This is because in Italy the lower house has just approved a norm (intended against him) that denies the granting of citizenship to those involved in coup attempts. He, too, could not take refuge in the United States where the FBI is investigating him in a case about alleged money laundering and jewelry trafficking.
Let’s return to the tension between Lula and Israel. While the Bolsonaros, Jair and their son Eduardo, made common cause with the Israeli ambassador against the PT president, the press revealed a system of political espionage set up during the previous government (2019-2022) using equipment purchased, without bidding, in Israel.
According to the news, later confirmed by the authorities, the information obtained illegally by the “First Miles” software was stored by Bolsonaro intelligence and possibly also by Tel Aviv services, thanks to a “defect” that allowed the leak of sensitive data. .
Mercosur
Lula’s tour that begins this Tuesday in Saudi Arabia will end next week in Germany. He will be there between December 3 and 4 to meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whom he already received at the beginning of the year in Brasilia, and businessmen. The PT and the social democrat Scholz must deal with an agenda that ranges from the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, investments, Ukraine, the advance of the global extreme right (including Milei) and the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU).
Brazil commands the South American bloc until December 7 when a regional summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro, the last in which Argentina will participate under the mandate of Alberto Fernández.
Last month the Minister of Finance, the powerful Fernando Haddad, expressed his concern about the negative impact that a Milei victory would have on the negotiations that South Americans and Europeans are carrying out against the clock to reach a successful conclusion with the project that began to be negotiated in 1999.
December 10
The designated chancellor of Argentina, Diana Mondino, said in Brasilia that the future government does not reject the possibility of signing an agreement between Mercosur and the Europeans and confirmed the lack of interest in ratifying the incorporation of the expanded BRICS, which will have Saudi Arabia among its new partners. Saudi and the United Arab Emirates that Lula will visit this week.
Mondino was received last Sunday at the Itamaraty Palace by Foreign Minister Vieira, in a meeting where Ambassador Daniel Scioli and his Brazilian counterpart in Argentina, Julio Bitelli, were also present.
The designated minister brought in hand a letter from Milei in which she formalized her invitation for Lula to be part of the December 10 ceremony.
Such diplomatic deployment for the presentation of a protocol letter is rare, or not at all common. But in this case that trip (preceded by intense efforts by Scioli), kept under wraps until the last moment, was justified due to the insults uttered by the former anarcho-capitalist candidate against the progressive president.
Whether or not Lula will choose to travel to Buenos Aires remains to be seen. For now, she would have to wait for his return from the tour of the Middle East and Europe and, perhaps, wait for more signs about how far the incoming president’s turn is going.
One detail, Lula is known for his pragmatism, but those around him maintain that he is very upset on two counts: due to Milei’s insults and the invitation he made to Bolsonaro before officially communicating with Brasilia.
#Lulas #intense #pacifist #diplomatic #agenda #Brazilian #leader #begins #tour #Middle #East #Germany