Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) is in Brazil for talks with far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who is to be sworn-in in a ceremony in Brasilia on January 1, 2019 Fernando FRAZAO (AGENCIA
BRASIL/AFP/File)
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday slammed plans by Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro to move their embassy to Jerusalem after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the move was imminent.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi denounced the move, saying it would “not help with peace, stability, security and retrieval of the Palestinian people’s rights.”
However, Ghasemi added that Iran’s relations with Brazil would “eventually be continued” despite their opposition to the embassy plan.
On his visit to Brazil Sunday, Israel’s Netanyahu championed Bolsonaro’s reported promise to move the country’s embassy to Jerusalem, allaying fears that the South American leader had u-turned on his post-election declaration.
“It’s not a question of ‘if’ but of ‘when’,” Netanyahu had said the Brazilian president-elect had told him to members of Rio’s Jewish community on Sunday during the third day of his six-day trip, according to Reuters.
The issue of the embassy has been hovering over Netanyahu’s visit to Brazil, as Bolsonaro appeared to remain mum on the matter in the leaders first meeting on Friday.
Netanyahu told reporters on his outbound flight to Rio de Janeiro on Thursday that “you can be certain I will speak with him about that in our first meeting.” But neither man raised the topic in their comments to media, and no questions were taken.
