Brasília – Honoured by the Council of Arab Ambassadors on Wednesday (4), in Brasília, Brazil’s vice president, Michel Temer, restated Brazil’s engagement with peace in the Arab world. “I want to stress Brazil’s engagement with full peace in the Middle East,” said the leader to guests at a dinner in his honour, which also ended the activities of the Arab Week in the Federal Capital. The Arab Week celebraded the National Day of Arabs in Brazil and the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.
On Wednesday evening, Temer met with the Arab community at Porto Vitória club, at an event organized by the Council of Ambassadors. According to the vice president, one of the natural beliefs of the Arab people, as is the case with the Brazilians, is in peace. “When Brazil proposes peace in the Middle East, it is a result of the goodwill of the Brazilian people, which is peace loving and possibly for such a reason all Arabs who travelled to Brazil felt blessed in this land,” said the politician, who is of Lebanese descent.
Temer said that his dream as a Brazilian politician is to see full peace in the Middle East. He demonstrated his love for his routes and said that in his heart two worlds live in harmony, that of his past, of his parents, of the Arab world, and that of his present, in Brazil. Temer said it is a joy to make contact with the countries as Brazil’s vice president. “I travelled there three times this year and twice last year. I visited the countries with good results: five countries in the Middle East,” he said.
Temer explained that, among the Arabs who live in Brazil and those who live in the Arab world, there are strong fraternal ties. “I am always met like a brother, like someone from the family, and that is not just with me,” said the vice president of the Republic. He recalled that these strong ties between Arabs and Brazilians are also economic and have resulted in expansion of trade over the last eight years. Temer was asked by president Dilma Rousseff to take care of relations between Brazil and the Arab nations, and he has been working on that.
The Brazilian vice president was given by the Council of Ambassadors the Brazilian shield made by Palestinian technicians. The dean of the council and ambassador of Palestine, Ibrahim Alzeben, was one of the diplomats who delivered the present to the Brazilian politician. In his address at the opening ceremony of the homage, Alzeben said that relations between Brazil and the Arab countries are at their best moment. “We are closer than ever,” he said.
The joint secretary of the Arab League, Mohamed Sobeih, also spoke to those present and recalled the contribution that the Arab immigrants made to development of nations. He also made an appeal for the occupations of Israel and Palestine to cease. “The settlements must stop. We want the end of the embargo imposed on Gaza Strip,” he said.
Alzeben was touched at the end of the Arab Week in Brasília. “Brazil sang and danced in Arabic for a week,” he said. He added that he was certain this was just the start of a long route for closer ties with the Brazilian people. At an event, art groups from the Arab world made presentations. Among them was Egyptian group Attanorah, with men playing percussion music while dancers showed the best of Arab dance, with wide colourful skirts.
Leaders at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, like president Marcelo Sallum and CEO Michel Alaby participated in the dinner, as did politicians and businessmen.
*Translated by Mark Ament
