Such a meeting of heads of diplomacy will be held on February 21-22 in Rio de Janeiro.

“In fact, this call for peace that President Lula has made from the beginning is absolutely crucial,” Lyrio noted.

The negotiator considered that “the good news we have today is that the draft resolution of the UN Security Council, the body in charge of coping with peace and security issues in the sense of a request for a cease-fire in the Gaza should be voted on.”

For the diplomat, “this is a proposal that the country already made years ago, with a draft resolution in the Security Council. It is an absolute priority for the Brazilian Government”, he reaffirmed.

The authority insisted that the issue now focuses on the question of the vote by the council on a possible proposal on the matter.

“The defense of peace by the Brazilian Government is a defense applied to all conflicts. That has been a clear position of the Brazilian Government which is to preach for peace,” he stressed.

Brazil’s relations with Israel are not going through a good moment.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was declared persona non grata by Tel Aviv after a statement issued on Sunday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in which he compared the extermination in the Gaza Strip to the Holocaust promoted by the Nazi regime led by Adolf Hitler during World War II.In that regard, former Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim described Israel’s decision as illogical.

omr/npg/ocs