By Sean Goforth (Latin America blog)
During his tenure President da Silva has been a welcome, universally adored, conciliator in Latin America. In this week’s TIME, the annual “World’s Most Influential People” list starts with Lula. I am still not sure what to make of Michael Moore’s essay on him.
Now Lula is moving center stage in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. President Ahmadinejad reportedly told his Venezuelan “brother” he was prepared to accept, in principle, a nuclear fuel swap deal brokered by Brazil. Under it, Iran would ship its nuclear fuel to France and Russia for refinement.
Recently I penned a piece for the Portuguese Journal of International Relations on Brazil’s relations with Russia, positing that Russian foreign policy hamstrings Western engagement because the softer approach of Medvedev runs up against the hard line offered by Putin. And on the issue of Iran, Lula is listing toward the Putin camp, essentially sharing Putin’s response last fall that “there is no need to scare the Iranians” with threat of further sanctions. Iran’s program seems unlikely to be brought to an agreeable end thanks to Lula’s involvement.
