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Three articles

Brazil recognizes state of Palestine

[Translation of an article from Estadão of São Paulo for December 4. See original here.]

In a note from the Minister of Foreign Relations, Brazil announced yesterday its recognition of a Palestinian state within the borders existing before the Six-Day War of 1967. The note states that the decision was made in response to a request made in November by the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

In Mar del Plata, Argentina, where he is particdipating in the Ibero-American Summit, Brazilian Chancellor Celso Amorim declared that the recognition should not alter Brazil’s relations with Israel and “the decision does not imply an abandonment of the conviction that negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians are esssential, with the goal of reaching mutual concessions on questions central to the conflict.” (more…)

[Translation of an article from Correio da Cidadania for June 15.]

José Serra -- ABC Photo

By Duarte Pereira

Presidential candidate José Serra, of the PSDB-DEM-PPS coalition [Partido da Social Democracia Brasileiro – Demócratas – Partido Popular Socialista], has not made any statement about the act of piracy by the state of Israel in its assault, in international waters, on a Turkish merchant ship involved in carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. As is known, Israeli military forces boarded the Turkish ship, killed nine and wounded hundreds of crew members and passengers, and captured all the cargo, the ships, the crews and the passengers making up the peaceful convoy. Condemned in words, Israel has still not suffered any sanction on the part of the United Nations nor has it so far allowed any international investigation of this serious incident. Candidate José Serra has kept silent on the episode and on Brazil’s justified position condemning Israel’s criminal and intimidating action.

Yesterday, however, during a visit to Campo Grande, the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, candidate José Serra found it necessary to criticize Brazil’s diplomatic intervention on behalf of Iran, which has just been subjected to new sanctions by the United Nations Security Council for insisting on keeping its nuclear program. The state of Israel developed its own nuclear program and became a mid-sized nuclear power without being challenged . The PSDB candidate, supported by the DEM and the PPS, justified his position by charging that “Iran is not trustworthy, they have a violent government that sends all its opponents to the gallows, with no mercy.” (more…)