Netanyahu pushed Brazil but no embassy move announced

Name: Netanyahu pushed Brazil but no embassy move announced
Uploaded: 12/29/2018 7:30:16 AM
Description: Brazil's far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and while both pledged to deepen ties, there was no announcement as some anticipated of Brazil moving its embassy in Israel to the city of Jerusalem al-Quds.

Saturday, 29 December 2018 07:30 [ Last Update: Friday, 04 October 2019 12:00 ]

Brazil's far-right President-elect Jair Bolsonaro met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday and while both pledged to deepen ties, there was no announcement as some anticipated of Brazil moving its embassy in Israel to the city of Jerusalem al-Quds.

Iran Press/ America: Benjamin Netanyahu, the first Israeli prime minister to visit Brazil, flew in to Rio de Janeiro to meet with Bolsonaro, who takes office on January 1 after his election victory in October.

"Israel is the promised land. Brazil is the land of promise," said Netanyahu, adding that Israel could help in areas such as economics, security, agriculture, and water resources, Washington Post reported.

"We will be starting a difficult government from January, but Brazil has potential," without pointing out to embassy move, Bolsonaro said. "So that we can overcome obstacles, we need good allies, good friends, good brothers, like Benjamin Netanyahu."

Netanyahu said he had invited Bolsonaro to visit him in Israel, and Bolsonaro said he intended to go next March.

Bolsonaro and top aides have repeatedly said he would move Brazil's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds, but since his election he has come under pressure to ditch the idea from powerful backers in the agricultural sector, who fear the decision would hurt their halal meat sales in Arab countries.

The Arab League had told Bolsonaro that moving the embassy to Jerusalem al-Quds would be a setback for relations with Arab countries, according to a letter seen by Reuters earlier in December.

Such a move by Bolsonaro would be a sharp shift in Brazilian foreign policy as it was for the United States when President Donald Trump relocated the US embassy to Jerusalem al-Quds in May. Brazil has traditionally backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Donald Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem al-Quds from Tel Aviv in May 2018 delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinians and upset the wider Arab world and Western allies.