By Iuri Dantas and Fabiola Moura Bloomberg November 20, 2009

The U.S. is responsible for the crisis in the Middle East and
shouldn't be coordinating peace talks for the region, Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians ought to be managed
by the United Nations, Lula said in an interview today with two
local radio stations in Salvador, Bahia state, where he met Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. An audio file of his remarks
appeared on the presidency's Web site.

"As long as the United States is trying to negotiate peace there
won't be peace," Lula said. "The one who should oversee the
negotiations is the United Nations, and that's why Brazil wants to
reform the UN system."

Brazil is seeking a broader role in the Middle East after hosting
Israeli President Shimon Peres last week and Abbas today. Lula is
scheduled to welcome Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Nov.
23 in Brasilia for talks built around trade with the wider objective
of engaging the Persian country in political discussions.

While a call for mediation by the UN in the Middle East might boost
Brazil's regional standing, the government needs to be more careful
with policy positions in pursuing expanded influence, said Christopher
Garman, a Washington-based analyst at consulting firm Eurasia Group,
who specializes in Brazil.

Overreaching'

"Lula's administration may be running the risk of overreaching in
the extent to which they assume positions antagonistic to the United
States," Garman said in a telephone interview. "It has to be crafted
in a well thought-out foreign policy strategy, which I think Brazil
hasn't fully developed."

U.S. and European officials support the implementation of the "road
map" that envisages an Israeli and a Palestinian state living side
by side, once questions of borders, refugees and the status of
Jerusalem are settled.

Lula today supported the engagement of all "actors" in talks, citing
Iran, Syria, Qatar and the Islamist movement Hamas, which has ruled
the Gaza Strip since 2007. Abbas "fights against the tyranny of
those who keep the Palestinian people segregated and imprisoned,"
he said in a speech in Bahia, the capital of Salvador state.

Abbas, at a joint press conference with the Brazilian president in
Salvador, said Lula is prepared to, and should, play a role in the
negotiating process.

"Lula's foreign policy wants to demonstrate independence from the
U.S., which is understandable," Garman said. "The delicate balancing
act here is how to do it without overly antagonizing the U.S. or
assuming very controversial positions that may have ripple effects
that compromise their ability to actually play a more important
international role."

Lula also urged Israel today to freeze all settlements in the West
Bank and called the human rights situation in the Gaza Strip
"unsustainable."

"I wish that Ahmadinejad would come here, talk to President Lula
and the outcome would be major change in the Iranian policy toward
the nuclear program," Israeli Ambassador to Brazil Giora Becher
said in an interview on Nov. 6. "I wish, but I don't believe that
this would happen."

A call to the U.S. State Department wasn't immediately returned.

To contact the reporter on this story: Iuri Dantas in Brasilia at
idan...@bloomberg.net<mailto:idan...@bloomberg.net>; Fabiola Moura
in New York at fdemo...@bloomberg.net<mailto:fdemo...@bloomberg.net>
Last Updated:

November 20, 2009

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aH7EJ9IB9XVI

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from
http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm

__._,_.___

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional Change settings
via the
Web<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/progchat_action/join;_ylc=X3oDMTJmNmdyN...
F9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzk5MjY1NDAEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYwMzc1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xr A3
N0bmdzBHN0aW1lAzEyNTg3ODQ2OTc-> (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings
via email: Switch delivery to Daily
Digest<mailto:progchat_action-dig...@yahoogroups.com?subject=Email%20Delivery
:%20Digest> | Switch to Fully
Featured<mailto:progchat_action-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com?subject=Change%2
0Delivery%20Format:%20Fully%20Featured> Visit Your Group
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/progchat_action;_ylc=X3oDMTJkNGJybmo4BF...
Dc2NTkwBGdycElkAzk5MjY1NDAEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYwMzc1BHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA2hwZgRz dG
ltZQMxMjU4Nzg0Njk3> | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> | Unsubscribe
<mailto:progchat_action-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>