Lula Claims Brazil Is Peacemaker, Should Not Take Sides in US/Iran Conflict

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ex-president Lula considered Brazil’s interference in the conflict between the United States and Iran to be “inappropriate,” adding that the country is a peacebuilder.

“The time is not right for Brazil to get into a foreign fight. Brazil has no dispute with the world, it has always maintained a harmonious diplomatic policy. We should be a peacebuilder,” Lula wrote on Twitter.

The former head of state used Twitter to share a number of messages regarding the conflict between the United States and Iran, as well as Brazil’s role in this split, accusing Brazil’s current president, Jair Bolsonaro, of “licking Donald Trump’s boots”.

“In international relationships, there are always two interests: yours and the others’ interests. You always have to balance theirs with yours. Bolsonaro doesn’t make the slightest attempt at not being Trump’s bootlicker. (…) The US likes to raise havoc, preferably away from their territory. There is no need to concoct ‘terrorism’ in Iran,” said the former president.

Lula further commented on decisions made by former US President Barack Obama against Iran. “When we built the agreement in Tehran, Obama betrayed common sense and decided to raise the punishment against Iran, to two years later build an agreement much worse than what we had achieved. Today it is proven that there were no chemical weapons in Iraq (…) The USA always needs to elect an enemy. That smells like an election campaign to me,” he added.

Jair Bolsonaro’s government expressed its support for the US on Sunday following the death of the Iranian general, which resulted in a demand for explanations from the Middle Eastern country.

Maria Cristina Lopes, in charge of business at the Brazilian Embassy in Tehran, Iran’s capital, has already met with representatives of the Iranian Government, but the content of the conversation has not been disclosed.

In its statement issued on Friday, the Itamaraty advocated the “fight against the scourge of terrorism”, after a US attack in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, killed Iranian General Qassem Soleiman. “The Brazilian government expresses its support to the fight against the scourge of terrorism and reiterates that this fight requires the cooperation of the entire international community without seeking any justification or rationalization for terrorism,” said Itamaraty.

The executive branch, led by Jair Bolsonaro, a declared supporter of US President Donald Trump, stressed that “terrorism cannot be considered a problem restricted to the Middle East and developed countries”.

Thus, he argued, “Brazil cannot remain indifferent to this threat, which even affects South America”.

“Brazil is closely following the unfolding of the action in Iraq, including its impact on oil prices, and calls once again for the unity of all nations against terrorism in all its forms,” he said.

More than a dozen Iranian missiles were launched against two Iraqi bases with US troops, in Ain al-Assad (west) and Erbil (north).

The attack was claimed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a “revenge operation” in retaliation for the death of General Qassem Soleimani, commander of his Al-Quds force, on Friday in an airstrike in Baghdad ordered by US President Donald Trump.

The Iranian state television reported that that military operation was named “Martyr Soleimani” and that it killed “at least 80 US military personnel,” but President Trump has denied any US or Iraqi casualties.

The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has banned US commercial aircraft and pilots from flying over areas of Iraq, Iran, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

Several airlines, such as Lufthansa, Emirates and Malaysia Airlines suspended flights over Iraq and Iran or changed routes to avoid the two countries’ airspace yesterday.