Brasilia - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to visit Brazil on November 20, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim confirmed Wednesday. His visit follows that of Israeli President Shimon Peres and comes days before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to arrive in Brazil - on November 23.
Amorim said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government will try and convince Abbas to seek re-election in 2010. The 74-year-old Abbas said last week that he would not seek a second term of office in elections scheduled for January 24, and insisted that his decision was "not debatable."
Amorim met with Peres earlier Wednesday and said the discussions centred around the situation in the Middle East, but noted that the upcoming visit of Ahamadinejad - an outspoken critic of Israel, who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust - was not "especially debated."
The Brazilian minister said he discussed with Peres, from a "more philosophical" standpoint, the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
In an address before the Brazilian Congress Tuesday, Peres called on Abbas to return to the negotiating table and said Israel acknowledges the Palestinians' right to have their own state.
"Israel is ready to make difficult and painful concessions to make the Palestine state viable and so we can live like good neighbours," Peres said.
Peres also said he would welcome Brazil's mediation in the Middle East, and noted that the South American giant "rejects threats of destruction and rejects terror."
"Brazil's clear and positive voice sounds strong across the whole world," Peres said. He was to meet with Lula Wednesday in Brasilia.
