Brazil reaffirms position on Iran nuclear issue

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reaffirmed on Thursday Brazil's position of maintaining dialogue with Tehran about the Iranian nuclear program and trying to avoid sanctions, in separate bilateral meetings with Chinese and Indian leaders on the sidelines of the BRIC summit.

In a brief statement about the bilateral meetings, Brazil's Foreign Relations Minister Celso Amorim said that the Iran nuclear issue was one of the topics discussed.

"We told them (the Chinese and Indian leaders) our position, explained it, and heard their analysis as well," he said.

"President Lula said that the Iranian government must show some flexibility on the matter, because Iran needs to have the right to a nuclear program for peaceful purposes, but it is important that the international community is reassured that the nuclear program will not be used for military purposes," he said.

"The president also reaffirmed his conviction, based on past experiences and on Iran's situation itself, that sanctions not only are inefficient but in some cases can be counterproductive even for the objectives (for which) they are being applied," the minister added.

Amorim also said that President Lula's explanation was only for transparency purposes, and that the discussions were brief, lasting about fifteen minutes each.

"There was an exchange of ideas about how the process is going on, about how to find a peaceful solution about the matter. The conviction that we have is that it is still possible to try," he added.

Source:Xinhua