President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva guaranteed this Tuesday (1st) that Brazil will repatriate Brazilians from abroad “wherever necessary”. He regretted the behavior of the Israeli government in attacking Lebanon.
This Wednesday (2) a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane will pick up Brazilians in Lebanon.
The region suffers from continued Israeli airstrikes against civilian areas in Beirut, the south and the Beqaa Valley. Last week, the Israeli bombings caused the death of two Brazilian teenagers. The largest community of Brazilians in the Middle East is currently in Lebanon, with 21 thousand citizens living in the country.
President Lula is in Mexico for the inauguration of the country’s elected president, Claudia Sheinbaum, and spoke briefly to the press upon arriving at the ceremony in Mexico City. He once again criticized the incapacity of the United Nations (UN) to act in the resolution of international conflicts.
“What I regret is the behavior of the Israeli government. It is inexplicable that the UN council does not have the moral and political authority to make Israel sit down at a table to talk instead of just knowing how to kill,” he said.
Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group have been exchanging fire on the border since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7 last year, which began after an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, an ally of Hezbollah, which controls Gaza. Over the past week, Israel has intensified its military campaign in Lebanon.
Last year, Brazil failed to approve a resolution at the UN Security Council on the conflict involving Israel and Hamas. At the time, the vote of the United States, a permanent member, made approval unfeasible, even after long negotiations by Brazilian diplomacy. Other resolutions presented also failed, either due to votes against the United States or Russia, another permanent member.
According to Security Council rules, for a resolution to be approved, the support of nine of the total 15 members is required, with none of the permanent members being able to veto the text. They are: United States, Russia, China, France and United Kingdom.
Mexico
President Lula participated in the inauguration of Mexican Claudia Sheinbaum, in a ceremony that took place in the Chamber of Deputies, at the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro. Sheinbaum is a climate scientist, was a member of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and is the first woman to hold the Presidency of Mexico.
“I think the world will be surprised by the quality of the president of Mexico, she is an extremely prepared woman from a political point of view, extremely friendly, who will make women feel proud to enter politics. I hope that, with her way of doing politics, she can help women around the world realize that it is time for women, who are the majority in every country in the world, and to definitively assume that politics is a woman’s thing.” , said the president.
On Monday (30), Lula had meetings with the country’s now former president López Obrador and also with the new president. The topics discussed in the bilaterals involved the environment and challenges in the climate area, gender issues and trade relations.
The president arrived in Mexico on Sunday (29) and, on Monday, participated in a forum with Brazilian and Mexican businesspeople. “Mexico has begun a very interesting opening process with Brazil, we have reached a trade flow of over US$14 billion, and there is the possibility of growth”, highlighted Lula.
The delegation’s return is scheduled for this Tuesday.
