Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Photo: AP
Brazilian FM in bid for Gaza ceasefire
Celso Amorim said to meet Foreign Minister Livni, Palestinian President Abbas; visit Syria, Jordan in effort to negotiate armistice between Hamas, Israel. Brasilia to weigh in on conflict at Iran's request
Brazil's foreign minister is traveling to the Middle East in an attempt to help negotiate a ceasefire to Gaza's worst fighting in decades, state media said Friday.
Foreign Minister Celso Amorim will meet Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, and will then travel to Jerusalem to hold talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni the same day, the Agencia Brasil news agency said.
Amorim later will go to the West bank city of Ramallah to visit Palestinian Authority PresidentMahmoud Abbas, and will visit Jordan for an expected meeting with King Abdullah, Agencia Brasil said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requested that Brazil join international efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, in a letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The letter was delivered Friday by Mohammad Abbasi, Iran's minister of cooperatives, who told reporters that Ahmadinejad asked Silva to help "create an international network aimed at re-establishing peace in the region as quickly as possible."
Abbasi said he will take the same message to the leaders of Bolivia and Ecuador. Silva was not in Brasilia on Friday because he is on vacation.
