Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BRASILIA1391
2009-12-02 17:40:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Brasilia
Cable title:  

PERES AND ABBAS VISITS IN PERSPECTIVE

Tags:  PGOV PREL KHUM KPAL IS IR 
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FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5529
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 0183
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0033
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 0166
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 0094
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 0145
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BRASILIA 001391 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL KHUM KPAL IS IR
SUBJECT: PERES AND ABBAS VISITS IN PERSPECTIVE

REF: A. BRASILIA 1368

B. BRASILIA 1112

C. BRASILIA 658

D. BRASILIA 391

BRASILIA 00001391 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: Charge D'Affaires Lisa Kubiske for reasons 1.4 (b) and (
d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BRASILIA 001391

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL KHUM KPAL IS IR
SUBJECT: PERES AND ABBAS VISITS IN PERSPECTIVE

REF: A. BRASILIA 1368

B. BRASILIA 1112

C. BRASILIA 658

D. BRASILIA 391

BRASILIA 00001391 001.2 OF 003


Classified By: Charge D'Affaires Lisa Kubiske for reasons 1.4 (b) and (
d)


1. (C) Summary. The November visits by Israeli President
Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, both
shortly in advance of Iranian President Ahmadinejad's visit
(ref A),led to few substantive results but helped Brazil
craft its narrative as a hopeful emerging player in the
Middle East. During the Abbas visit, President Lula made
separate comments criticizing the U.S. role in the Middle
East and arguing that the United Nations, not the United
States, should play a mediating role in the region. The
Israeli Embassy expressed satisfaction with the Peres visit
but does not see Brazil as a viable neutral third party in
the region, given the GOB's lack of regional knowledge and
its lean against Israeli interests in efforts to accumulate
supporters of a permanent Brazilian UN Security Council seat.
Diplomats representing Israel/Palestine's neighbors with
whom we have spoken welcome Brazil's interest in the region
and generally support Brazil's goals, but see the current
aggressive outreach as largely a product of Lula's strong
presidency, and expect little from Brazil besides an emerging
commercial relationship. End summary.

Brief Summary of Peres and Abbas Visits
--------------


2. (SBU) In his November 11-12 visit to Brazil, Shimon Peres
met separately with President Lula and Defense Minister
Jobim, then addressed a joint session of Congress, before
departing to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro for meetings with
business leaders (including Petrobras) and the Jewish
community. Various minor commercial agreements were signed.
In many ways the agenda for the visit -- the first by an
Israeli president since 1966 -- mirrored the November 23
agenda of Ahmadinejad. Iran was a consistent topic of
discussion in Peres' visits with Brazilian officials,
businessmen and politicians. Local press coverage was
relatively limited and highly favorable; nothing particularly
interesting was said in the media during the visit.



3. (C) President Lula met Palestinian President Abbas on
October 20 in the state of Bahia on Brazil's northeastern
coast. Abbas was warmly supportive of a Brazilian role in
the Middle East peace process. In the Bahia press
conference, Lula criticized the USG role in the region,
saying, "As long as the United States is trying to negotiate
peace in the Middle East there won't be peace...The one who
should oversee the negotiations is the United Nations, and
that's why Brazil wants to reform the UN system." The
following day he made similar comments blaming the United
States for problems in the Middle East. Despite this, Lula's
policy prescriptions for the region were nothing outside the
mainstream, calling for a halt to new West Bank settlements
(but not removal of existing ones),and preservation of
current borders for a future Palestinian state. Ministry of
Foreign Affairs (MRE or Itamaraty) officials from both the
Iran/Central Asia and Israel/Palestine desks later told
poloff that Foreign Minister Amorim weighed in with Lula and
his advisors right after the Abbas visit to get him to
refrain from directly criticizing the United States or other
countries by name during the Ahmadinejad visit. This effort
apparently proved to be successful (ref A).

Israeli and other Perspectives
--------------


4. (C) Israeli Deputy Chief of Mission Raphael Singer told
poloff November 27 that he was happy with the Peres visit
outcomes, and content with the Abbas visit outcomes. Peres'
joint session before Congress was a particular point of
pride, since it was difficult to set up, drew several dozen
sympathetic senators and deputies from a wide range of
parties, and contrasted sharply with Ahmadinejad's relatively
frosty courtesy call with the presidents of the Senate and
Chamber of Deputies. He was also proud of setting up a
widely run photo of Peres with soccer star Ronaldo. Singer
acknowledged concerns about Lula's rhetoric during the Abbas
visit but believed the visit was helpful at least to the
extent that Abbas explained to Lula how Iranian assistance to
Hamas and Hezbollah undermines his position and peace in the
region generally. Media reports assert that Abbas pressed

BRASILIA 00001391 002.2 OF 003


Lula to push Ahmadinejad to stop such assistance. (Comment:
Previous poloff discussions with MRE indicate very little
institutional Itamaraty understanding of Iran's role in
Israel/Palestine/Lebanon. End comment.)


5. (C) The MRE Israel/Palestine desk officer offered general
pleasantries about the visits and had no comment on President
Lula's remarks in Bahia concerning the USG role in the Middle
East. He told poloff that MRE has committed to providing
additional support to the Palestinian Authority (PA),but
allocation decisions won't be made until 2010. Singer told
poloff that the Israeli Embassy has no problems with the GOB
providing funding to the Palestinian Authority, but would
appreciate advance consultation with MRE, which did not
happen before Amorim's March announcement that Brazil would
provide 20 million reais (then USD 10 million) to the PA (ref
D).

Getting in the Game?
--------------


6. (C) Leading Brazilian officials, including Undersecretary
Jaguaribe, have described -- to us and to other diplomatic
missions -- their initiatives in the Middle East as an effort
to "get in the game." Lula took that metaphor literally in
meetings with his counterparts, frequently calling for a
soccer game between Israelis, Palestinians, and Brazilians as
a precursor to peace. Singer takes exception to Brazil's
tendency to look at the Middle East through this prism,
arguing that it underscores the point that Brazil's
involvement has to do more with burnishing its own self-image
than being an honest broker in the Middle East. While he
describes Israel-Brazil relationships as amicable, Brazil's
tendency to look at the region in terms of potential votes
for a theoretical UN Security Council seat consistently puts
them against Israeli interests. Peres, he said, was
particularly annoyed with Lula's "unserious" response to
Peres' inquiries about Brazil voting consistently for
anti-Israel resolutions in the UN.


7. (C) Singer emphasized Brazil's lack of capacity in the
region, a point also made by diplomats from neighboring
states who are much more favorably inclined to Brazil's basic
policy. The Jordanian DCM, who has been in Brasilia nearly
three years, told poloff recently that he has never spoken
Arabic with anyone at Itamaraty in a work situation and said
he doesn't know of anyone in MRE not of Syrian-Lebanese
Christian descent who can comfortably speak the language.
(Note: MRE admits it has no Farsi speakers, and the Israeli
Embassy counts one passable Hebrew speaker in MRE. End
note.) There is also an awareness among many that Lula and
his advisors in the Presidency are the driving force behind
this effort, one that might have difficulty outlasting Lula's
presidency. In a mid-November conversation with poloff, the
Turkish Ambassador and DCM spoke in glowing terms of a recent
Turkish congressional visit to Brazil and envisioned robust
growth in Turkish-Brazilian commercial relations. They also
talked about how Lula's personality draws world leaders into
wanting a closer relationship, and joked about how there was
no way that Lula's handpicked presidential candidate Dilma
Rousseff could be able to project herself the same way in the
region.

Comment
--------------


8. (C) The Israeli DCM told us that Brazil is "a long way
from being a player in the Middle East." While that may be
true, the package of presidential visits -- Peres, Abbas,
Ahmadinejad -- helped Lula underscore his point both
domestically and with certain Middle Eastern leaders that
Brazil should be considered a rising player in the region.
Return visits by Lula to Israel, Palestine, and Iran, all
planned for roughly March-April 2010, will further advance
his case. Lula's expectations are rising rapidly, as seen in
his November 26 reply letter to President Obama, which
includes demands to involve new players (Brazil) in Middle
East peace negotiations. The GOB's Middle East strategy,
designed to position Brazil as a "leader of the South" and
one-day permanent UNSC member, has led Lula and his advisors
to pick at minor policy differences rather than play an
overtly supportive role of efforts by the major players.
This was seen clearly in the Abbas visit, when Lula sharply
criticized the USG, then laid out policy recommendations for
Israel/Palestine essentially identical to our own. Moving
forward, our lack of serious visible policy differences on
Israel/Palestine suggests ample room for cooperation with

BRASILIA 00001391 003.2 OF 003


Brazil, such as providing coordinated financial support to
the PA for purposes of improving negotiation prospects.
Unfortunately, the current Brazilian government may see the
need to balance such coordination with needling statements
aimed at maintaining its role as an independent player. End
comment.
KUBISKE