THEIRAN FACTOR
A March 11, 2021 report by the Arab News Research and Studies Unit examined Brazil’s role as an important strategic trade partner for Iran in Latin America.
The report’s author, Hamdan Al-Shehri, noted that relations between Iran and Brazil have passed through several distinct phases in recent decades, sometimes reflecting general shifts in the latter’s foreign policy, at other times resembling an illdefined relationship based primarily on mutual trade interests.
He said: “The dynamic of the relationship has also been influenced by the personalities of successive leaders of both states, their ideological leanings, and their perceptions of the West.”
As president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “placed a high value on the relationship with Iran because he wanted to move the focus of his foreign policy away from the countries of North America and Europe and toward the developing nations of Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.”
In contrast, Al-Shehri said: “The warmth went missing from the relationship after Dilma Rousseff became president of Brazil between 2011 and 2016.
“The election of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018 did little to improve ties. The rightwing president aligned himself closely with former US President Donald Trump, becoming one of the few world leaders to openly back the elimination on
Jan. 3, 2020, of Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ extraterritorial Quds Force.”
As opposed to its diplomatic accomplishments, Iran, currently being rocked by anti-government protests, has had limited success in winning over the peoples of Latin America.
According to 2015 poll data from the Pew Research Center, which involved 45,435 respondents across 40 countries, about 79 percent of Brazilians said they held a negative view of Iran, while only 11 percent looked upon the country favorably.
Al-Shehri said: “Relationships with Latin American nations remain primarily the Iranian regime’s way of countering the impact of international sanctions and diversifying its means of survival.
“Through these connections, Iran hopes to project the image of a global power, overcome diplomatic isolation, win support for its nuclear program, and potentially respond to US pressure from close proximity.”
He pointed out that the Brazil-Iran trade surplus in 2018 reached $2.2 billion in favor of the former.
“Regardless of who is in power, economic and commercial interests have been and will remain a consistent driver of bilateral ties between the two countries, particularly in oil, gas, mineral exploration and agriculture,” he added.