JERUSALEM _ Palestine News Network
Brazilian President Javier Paulsonaro confirmed in a television interview on Thursday his intention to transfer his country´s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, voicing at the same time the importance of any retaliatory action by Arab countries against Brasilia.
Paulsonaro said in an interview with CBS television that he had agreed to transfer the embassy to Jerusalem during his talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited Brazil specifically for the inauguration ceremony of the right-wing president.
"As the Israeli prime minister said, the decision was taken and there is only a definition of when it will be implemented," said Polsonaru.
On Sunday, Netanyahu said during a visit to Rio de Janeiro that Brazil would transfer its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, leaving only a date for its implementation.
"The relocation of the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem is not a question, but a matter of when," the Brazilian news site UAL quoted Netanyahu as saying to several members of the Jewish community in Rio de Janeiro.
In early November, Paulsonaro said he planned to follow US President Donald Trump and transfer his country´s embassy to Jerusalem, but he later repeated it, saying "no decision has yet been made."
The transfer of the embassy could pose a threat to Brazil´s "halal" Brazilian meat exports, worth about $ 1 billion.
In his interview, Paulsonaro played down the importance of reprisals that Arab countries might offer if Brazil moved its embassy to Jerusalem.
"A large part of the Arab world is lining up with the United States or lining up," he said, "and the question of Palestine is fed up with people in much of the Arab world."
Paulsonaro has expressed his desire to strengthen ties with the United States and Israel, a change for Brazil, which has been ruled for decades by center-left and center-right governments committed to international consensus on issues related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the disputed status of Jerusalem.
In 2010, Brasilia recognized the Palestinian state.
