Gays among those protesting Ahmadinejad's Brazilian visit

The Iranian leader is set to meet privately Monday with Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who called it an honor to receive Ahmadinejad and defended Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy. It’s a much-craved pat on the back from a moderate nation as Ahmadinejad faces intense internal and external political pressure.
"With Brazil he gets more bang for his buck in the sense you’re getting legitimacy from a more mainstream player," said Daniel Brumberg, an Iran expert at the Washington-based United States Institute of Peace. "One would hope Brazil’s diplomacy would be skillful enough to get certain types of messages across to the Iranians and not just give Ahmadinejad the red-carpet treatment."

Ahmadinejad said Sunday that the two countries may discuss cooperation in the nuclear field, where Iran is under intense international pressure to stop uranium enrichment for fear that it is developing atomic weapons.

"We can build partnerships to build nuclear plants," he said in an interview with Brazil’s Globo TV News. "Our two countries need nuclear power to generate electricity. Both Brazil and Iran are entitled to benefit from nuclear technology."

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Ahmadinejad said in Sunday’s interview that critics are politically motivated and believe only wealthy countries should have the technology.

Silva, a deft negotiator whose skills were honed as a union leader, says a new tact is needed with the Iranians. It may not be as embracing as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, a close ally whom Ahmadinejad will visit next on his tour of South America. But it also shouldn’t be as punitive as the U.S. or European approach.

"I told President Obama, I told President Sarkozy, I told Prime Minister Angela Merkel that we will not get good things out of Iran if we corner them. You need to create space to talk," Silva said last month.