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Iranian president postpones visit to South American countries

Tuesday, May 5th 2009 - 08:00 UTC
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cancelled on Monday a trip to Brazil this week without explanation amid criticism in Teheran from the country’s clerical leader and US concern about Iran’s growing influence in Latin America.

The state visit of more than 100 officials and businessmen was set to begin Tuesday in Brasilia and focus on expanding the countries’ trade, which quadrupled to 2 billion US dollars in 2007 from 2002.

Since coming to power in 2005, he has visited Venezuelan President, Washington’s fiercest critic in the region, as well as allied governments in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, where US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week Iran was building a “huge” embassy that undermines US interests in the region.

The trip, including stops in Venezuela and Ecuador, was postponed indefinitely, Ahmadinejad’s office said in a statement, without explaining why the plans changed. Roberto Jaguaribe, a political undersecretary at Brazil’s foreign ministry, told reporters in Brasilia it will be rescheduled for a date after Iran’s June 12 elections.

Brazilian president Lula da Silva may visit Iran following an Ahmadinejad trip to Brasilia, he said.

In Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei overturned a decision by Ahmadinejad to merge two state organizations, the Islamic Republic news agency reported. The leader’s statement, which comes in advance of June 12 presidential elections, is a public setback for Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian president was invited to Brazil after Brasilia for the first time in 17 years sent its foreign minister to Tehran, and following government managed oil corporation Petrobras began exploration in the Iranian waters of the Caspian Sea.

Iran’s push (and China, Russia) to expand economic and political ties in Latin America is “disturbing” and not in US interests, Hillary Clinton said May 1.

Iran and Venezuela last week signed an agreement to deepen military ties after a series of deals that include funding a bilateral development bank with 200 million USD of capital. Iran has also promised investments in the energy and petrochemical industries of Chavez’s allies Ecuador and Bolivia.

Brazil’s foreign ministry in a diplomatic note expressed “concern” over Ahmadinejad’s April 20 speech at a UN racism conference in Geneva, in which he accused the West of using the Holocaust as “pretext” to oppress Palestinians, and said objections would be raised during the visit.

That didn’t satisfy Brazil’s 100,000-member Jewish community. A few thousand rallied over the weekend in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, carrying banners that read “President Lula: explain to your guest what freedom of expression means.”

Marco Aurelio Garcia, Lula da Silva’s top foreign policy adviser, downplayed the controversy, telling reporters April 27 that Ahmadinejad’s visit “doesn’t mean that we share the same opinions.” He pointed to Obama’s own steps to engage Iran, like delivering a videotaped message and joining European allies in talks over its nuclear program, which drew UN sanctions in 2006.

The US State Department would not comment on the invitation. A spokesperson said in a statement, before the visit was postponed, that it was a country’s sovereign decision whether to pursue ties with Iran, and that those who did should push Iran to meet its international obligations.

“I can’t think of any national interest that justifies such a loss of credibility,” said Rubens Ricuperio, who was Brazil’s ambassador to the U.S. from 1991-1993. “There’s no point being defiant just to prove your independence”.

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