MEDIA REACTION: AHMADINEJAD VISITS BRAZIL

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000686 SIPDIS STATE INR/R/MR IIP/R/MR WHA/PD DEPT PASS USTR 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC OIIP BR XM XR KMDR IR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: AHMADINEJAD VISITS BRAZIL "Better Close than Inaccessible" Op-Ed in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (11-24) by influential columnist Eliane Catanhede says: "...The intent [of the visit of Ahmadinejad] is to do what Brazil has done with Chavez's Venezuela: keep close enough to have penetration and dialogue, but far enough in order not to commit to the regimes, the governments and their decision....having moral strength to criticize them. It is better to have Iran close and subject to some commitments than to have it isolated and do whatever it wants.....Those who think that [receiving the Iranian President] was an act against the U.S are wrong. On the contrary, it is a very well arranged game." "The Visitor" Article in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (11-24) by Janio de Freitas notes: "The criticism against Lula for receiving Ahmadinejad....is conventional and controversial.....The visit can only be positive, at least for making this president listen to a voice that gives some importance to him....We don't know.....what Ahmadinejad in fact said in private conversations with Lula, but no one should worry about Brazil helping Iran, because there is no way it can worsen the situation already in place in the Middle East." "The Gloomy Alignment with Major Powers" Analysis in liberal Folha de S. Paulo (11-24) by Clovis Rossi says: "The visit....[of the Iranian President] was a test for Brazil's diplomacy....[in which] it passed if we look only at acknowledging Brazil's new weight in the global arena. [Nonetheless] It is worth noting that the interest in Ahmadinejad's visit had more to do with Iran's interests than Brazil's..... In July on the margins of the G8 summit in Italy, Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs said to Folha that his boss had suggested to Lula that he used the weight of trade relations between Iran and Brazil to try and convince Ahmadinejad to follow the Brazilian example of exclusively using nuclear energy for peaceful ends..... This was exactly what Lula did....Regarding human rights....the arguments are unassailable from a moral and ethical point of view. But the "realpolitik" that commands global diplomacy always prevails - and Barack Obama's trip to China was just an example of this last week..." White