BRAZIL REITERATES SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIAN INDEPENDENCE
Bethlehem, 5 Rabi’ul Akhir 1435/5 February 2014 (MINA) – The Brazilian ambassador to Palestine on Tuesday reiterated his country’s support for a free and independent Palestine.
During a visit to Ma’an News Agency’s Bethlehem headquarters, Paulo Roberto Franca told Ma’an’s editor-in-chief Nasser Lahham that Brazil would continue to support the Palestinian people in their pursuit of freedom.
Franca also discussed the possibility of media cooperation between Palestinian and Brazilian outlets based on mutual respect and friendship, Ma’an News quoted by Mi’raj islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Lahham highlighted that the Palestinian people “would never forget Brazil’s praiseworthy support to the Palestinian people and their cause.”
Head of Ma’an Network’s satellite TV channel, Muhammad Faraj, explained to the Brazilian guest that the channel would give special focus to the upcoming football World Cup, which is to be hosted by Brazil.
Since 2010, Brazil has recognized the state of Palestine along the 1967 borders before Israel’s seizure of the West Bank, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry said in a notice posted to its website.
Brazil’s outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva issued the recognition in a letter responding to a request from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“Considering the request made by Your Excellency is fair and consistent with the principles advocated by Brazil to the Palestine question, Brazil, through this letter, recognizes a Palestinian state on 1967 borders,” da Silva wrote in the letter to Abbas.
“In doing so, I reiterate the understanding of the Brazilian government that only dialogue and peaceful coexistence with its neighbors will truly advance the Palestinian cause,” he wrote.
“The move surprised us,” a U.S. Latin American expert said Friday on condition of anonymity. “What we had heard is that the Brazilians were looking at this and talking to some people in the region about it.”
It was his understanding, he added, that the Israelis had only been told of the Brazilian decision, but “even then, it wasn’t clear that the letter made a firm commitment” to recognize Palestine. “Now it is.”
Brazil was the last of the so-called BRIC nations [Brazil, Russia, India, China] to recognize Palestine. More than 100 countries, including almost all the African and Arab ones, had recognized it, “so it was the natural thing to do”.(T/P02/P04)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
