The Brazilian minister of Foreign Affairs, Celso Amorim, reaffirmed on Thursday divergences with the United States regarding the political crisis in Honduras before the opening of the Amazon basin countries and France Summit on climate change in Manaus, Brazil.
Amorim spent over an hour on the phone with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday, and Honduras was one of the topics of the conversation.
For Brazil, the Honduran presidential election scheduled for next Sunday will not be recognized if deposed Honduran President José Manuel Zelaya is not reinstated in office. However, the US President Barack Obama administration believes "elections are a good starting point" to overcome the crisis and will be sending independent observers to monitor the event.
"There is an obsession that if Brazil does not agree with the United States a beam will fall on our heads. There are not major divergences," pointed out the Brazilian minister.
What really matters added Amorim is that Brazilian President Lula and Obama always manage to discuss issues in a very friendly tone.
Amorim also pointed out that the Organization of American States (OAS) is not divided on the issue. The Brazilian position is shared by an overwhelming majority of Latinamerican and Caribbean countries, while only the US and Panama are willing to accept Sunday’s results as legitimate.
"The coup d'état cannot legitimate a government, but we will not turn this in a confrontation point. It is not in the interests of the United States that Honduras becomes (exclusively) linked to them," said Amorim.
Mercopress
