BRASÍLIA, March 12, 2010 (WAFA)– On the eve of travelling to Israel, Palestine and Jordan, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said, in an interview to ANBA and to Israeli papers Haaretz and The Marker, that “the world is lacking global governance” due to lack of representation of multilateral institutions, which he believes are essential to mediation of the conflicts in the Middle East, especially between Israelis and Palestinians.
“I believe that the United Nations, if they return to representativeness, could help much in the peace process in the Middle East, as a neutral party capable of telling the truth to the Israelis, telling the truth to the Palestinians, to Iranians, to Syrians and to whoever wants to hear the truth. I sincerely feel that multilateral organisations are lacking that a little,” said the president.
To the Brazilian president, new players must participate in the peace process in the Middle East to “bring new air” into the discussion. Brazil has been offering to play a greater part in the talks for a long time. He said he plans to work on the matter up to the end of his term in office, in December this year.
“I recently spoke to [Israeli] President Shimon Peres, to the President of the PNA (Palestinian National Authority), [Mahmoud] Abbas, and they all agree that something new must take place. That is why we must continue speaking. As I believe in that, and I have one more year in office, I am going to work to see if we can bring new air into this discussion,” he said.
To Lula, who is going to visit the three countries for the first time next week, Brazil has authority to participate as a mediator, as, in his evaluation, the country is an example of peaceful coexistence between people from different origins. “I think Brazil has an important part to play, as we are a peaceful country. Because here, maybe 150,000 Jews live in harmony with 10 million Arabs. I think that the example of Brazil, being the largest country in Latin America, a continent that does not have nuclear weapons, where the greatest difference, the largest conflict is verbal - I believe that we could have some teaching to offer those living in conflict in the Middle East,” he said.
Lula said that the disposition for dialogue is lacking among the leaders. “There are talks I follow through the press that are developed by speakers in the third, fourth echelon. I believe that at some moment it will be necessary to call on the ‘black coats’ of each country and put them in a room in the United Nations to discuss the matter with greater objectiveness, in a more serious way. I currently have experience in second and third echelon negotiations. They are very important, but do not reach 1% of the importance of leaders sitting around a table and speaking looking into each other’s eye. I think that is lacking. See, politics is mostly contact, and people must look at each other,” he said.
