Dilma Opens UN General Assembly By Stating Support For Palestinian Bid, Proclaims “Century of Women”

Dilma Rousseff At the UN

The UN General Assembly’s opening speech was delivered on Wednesday by Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, who thus marked the first time in history when a woman opens the UN’s assembly and the new ambitions of the largest country in Latin America, which Rousseff so dignified represents.

Dilma’s speech is consistent with the foreign policy line she has launched since she took office on January 1, 2011, that of cooperation with major powers, so that Brazil be acknowledge as one of them.

On Wednesday, she made it clear that the country wants a more important role at the United Nations, the goal of the Brazilians being no less than obtaining a permanent chair in the Security Council.

She also made it clear that Brazil wants to repair bruised relations with the United States, after Lula da Silva, her predecessor and mentor, soured them with his initiatives of brokering, along with Turkey, a nuclear fuel swap deal with Iran, which created a rift between Brazil and the United States.

On Tuesday, Dilma met with president Obama, who later presented her at the UN Open Government Partnership, an initiative co-chaired by both nations, as “my friend.”

In spite of the fact that the Brazilian foreign minister Antonio Patriota was given specific orders by the new president to intensify relations with the United States, Dilma announced in her opening speech that her country still supported the Palestinian bid for statehood within the borders before 1967, a declaration that may displease Americans more than Lula’s nuclear swap deals with Iran.

The recognition of Palestinian people’s legitimate right to sovereignty and self-determination, she said, increases the possibilities of a lasting peace in the region. Brazil was the first country to recognize last year the state of Palestine.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Later on Wednesday, the President of the United States was of a different opinion about that, saying that there are no shortcuts for peace in the Middle East, and that Palestinians must return to the negotiation table with Israel.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is expected to deliver a speech on Friday, by which he will formally demand that his country be recognized as a full member of the UN.

People in the West Bank have already begun rallying in his supports in moves that the Israeli authorities consider not dangerous since they are in cities controlled by the Palestinian security.

Israel announced that if Abbas goes on with his bid, it may renounce collecting taxes on behalf of Palestine, which would leave the new state at the mercy of donors.

As for a seat in the Security Council, Dilma Rousseff said that it was time the United Nations had a representation in accord with the realities of the world. She said that more countries should have a permanent or nonpermanent seat in the Security Council, especially the emerging countries. At the present time, Dilma observed, the Security Council lacks representativeness.

In her speech she referred to the upholding of human rights by saying that as a woman who was tortured in the prison of the military dictatorship in Brazil, she has a good appreciation of democracy and human rights.

In March, Brazil voted a UN resolution that established a commission to look into the abuses committed in Iran. Dilma herself spoke loud against the intention of Iranians to stone to death Sakineh Ashtiani, a woman convicted of adultery and murder, who was sentenced to death by stoning, and who received sanctuary in Brazil from the former president. At the time, Iranians criticized Lula for interfering with their decisions without having all the data about Ashtiani. In her speech, Dilma Rousseff said that this century will be the century of women.

Unlike Lula’s foreign policies, that were based mainly on his extraordinary personal charisma, Dilma’s approach is a more technical one. Though she is not expected to sweep her political partners off their feet, as Lula used to, she is expected to set ambitious goals for the “awaking giant” she rules and to see them carried out.