{"id":212274,"date":"2019-04-11T20:35:49","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T23:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=212274"},"modified":"2019-06-30T16:58:46","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T19:58:46","slug":"bolsonaro-muslim-diplomats-pave-way-for-talks-over-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/bolsonaro-muslim-diplomats-pave-way-for-talks-over-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolsonaro, Muslim diplomats pave way for talks over dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo & Bras\u00edlia \u2013 Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce <\/strong><\/a>president Rubens Hannun said this Thursday (11) that the fact that 37 ambassadors from Islamic countries, including Arab ones, had dinner with Brazil\u2019s president Jair Bolsonaro Wednesday (10) in Bras\u00edlia, is a positive thing. \u201cThis dinner put an end to a \u2018non-conversation.\u2019 No one was speaking to anyone else. This paved the way for dialogue,\u201d said Hannun, who was in attendance.<\/p>\n

The meeting came in the wake of Bolsonaro\u2019s visit to Israel and the announcement of a\u00a0new trade office in Jerusalem<\/a>. The Brazilian government\u2019s overtures to Israel and Bolsonaro\u2019s pledge to move the Brazilian Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem bred discomfort in Arab and Islamic countries, since Palestinians also claim the city as the capital to their would-be State.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bolsonaro (R) greets Morocco ambassador as Hannun looks on in the background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ag\u00eancia Brasil\u00a0<\/em><\/a>quoted Bolsonaro as saying Islamic and Arab trade relations with Brazil must translate into ever-growing ties of friendship and respect. In an address, Bolsonaro also said the federal government has its \u201carms open\u201d to all countries. \u201cMay these ties in trade evolve more and more into ties of friendship, respect and fraternity,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n

No official initiatives were made known, but Hannun pointed out that the dinner event enabled Brazilian authorities and the diplomats to speak. \u201cThese contacts sparked a conversation and left the doors open for further dialogue down the way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He stressed, however, that the question is yet to be resolved, since the \u201cill-being\u201d and \u201cnoise\u201d are still there. The Arab countries are major importers of goods from Brazil, especially food, and industry players fear that Bolsonaro\u2019s nods to Israel could get in the way of that.<\/p>\n

Agribusiness<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dinner was organized by the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA, acronym in Portuguese) and featured the ministers of Agriculture, Tereza Cristina (in the center in the photo)<\/em>, and Foreign Relations, Ernesto Ara\u00fajo, as well as CNA president Jo\u00e3o Martins.<\/p>\n

Cristina highlighted the government is intent to build relations with every country, valuing the role of agribusiness in foreign trade. \u201cBrazil will keep determined to be a friend for all countries and our role in agriculture is to increasingly strengthen not only this friendship but Brazilian agribusiness with these great countries that are part of the Arab League,\u201d she said, according to Ag\u00eancia Brasil.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hannun highlighted the minister is aware of the importance of Arab and Muslim countries, the relevance of the relations between them and Brazil, and the long history of Arab immigration to the country. He complimented Cristina\u2019s role in seeking a dialogue with the ambassadors<\/a>. \u201cThis access allows very interesting possibilities, to see things happening, to see if we\u2019ve overcame this discomfort,\u201d commented the Arab Brazilian Chamber president.<\/p>\n

Breaking the ice<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/em>, Palestinian ambassador and Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brazil Ibrahim Alzeben (left in the picture)<\/em>, said this encounter served to \u201cbreak the ice\u201d in the diplomatic relation. For him, the conflict between Israel and Palestinians is a local politics issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis conflict does not involve Brazil. We will maintain good relations with Brazil and wish the best to Brazil,\u201d said the ambassador, who described the dinner as \u201camenable.\u201d \u201cThis was a unique opportunity to break the ice after a series of news who hurt our bilateral relations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda & Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan Santos\/PR<\/div>\n
Alan Santos\/PR<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So said Arab Chamber president Rubens Hannun, who sat in the Wednesday evening meeting in Bras\u00edlia. Brazil\u2019s overtures to Israel caused discomfort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1454,"featured_media":212268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[238,552,5154,232,268,8158,28252,6251,2770,1767,522,8157],"class_list":{"0":"post-212274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-foreign-affairs","8":"tag-agribusiness","9":"tag-arab-countries","10":"tag-bolsonaro","11":"tag-brazil","12":"tag-camara-arabe","13":"tag-cna","14":"tag-cna-en-2","15":"tag-ernesto-araujo","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-jerusalem","18":"tag-rubens-hannun","19":"tag-teresa-cristina"},"wps_subtitle":"So said Arab Chamber president Rubens Hannun, who sat in the Wednesday evening meeting in Bras\u00edlia. Brazil\u2019s overtures to Israel caused discomfort. ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}