Bolsonaro stretches the rope to Iran | Brazil keeps …

From Rio de Janeiro

Since the beginning of June, two Iranian ships have been detained in the port of Paranaguá, in the southern province of Paraná. One of them, Bavand, is responsible for about 50,000 tons of maize. The other, Termeh, should have sailed on Sunday June 9 at the port of Imbituba, south of Paranaguá, to receive tons of corn.

The unusual situation is due to the fact that the public company Petrobras refuses to supply fuel to the ships, pretending to fear American sanctions. Questioned on the subject, President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing extremist whose guide is his American counterpart Donald Trump, responded in a typical style: "You know that we are aligned with US policy. That's why we do what we need to do.

The state oil company and the president should know that Trump's sanctions on Iran open up exceptions for the sale of food and medicine. And, as far as we know, corn is a food.

In addition, Bolsonaro should – or should – know that one-third of all Brazilian corn exports are destined for Iran. And that much of the urea used in making Brazilian fertilizer comes from Iran. In addition, Iranians are good buyers of soy and Brazilian meat.

Another point the president seems to despise is that bilateral trade with the Iranians leaves big surpluses in Brazil. In the first half of 2019, that is to say, while Bolsonaro was in the chair, this surplus was negligible, in thousands of $ 273 million. Brazil exported exactly $ 299 million to Iran, an increase of nearly 18% from the first half of 2018, while Iranians sold only $ 27 million to the country.

The fuel that Petrobras refuses to deliver was bought by the Brazilian company Eleva, which imported Iranian urea. The owner of the ships, Sepid Shipping, installed in Iran, is on the list of companies sanctioned by Washington, but who buys the fuel is a Brazilian company. There is no Iranian money in the purchase that the state refuses to deliver.

Petrobras says that there are other companies that sell diesel in the port of Paranaguá, which is true. It turns out that the state company is the only company that sells the type of diesel used by Bavand and Termeh. In addition, for safety reasons, it is excluded that the tanks are filled from another vessel.

According to the Brazilian state company, urea is one of the Iranian products sanctioned by the United States.

This is also true. But these sanctions began to be applied last May and the sale of the product to Eleva had already been duly authorized by Washington.

In other words, none of Petrobras' arguments is retained. It is a question of putting forward the new Brazilian foreign policy, transformed into an absolute follower of what Washington determines.

The issue has caused diplomatic friction – for the moment discreet – between Brazil and Iran. On Tuesday, 23, the Iranian ambbadador went to the Foreign Ministry in Brasilia to learn about possible Bolsonaro government initiatives to solve this problem. He left without hearing anything concrete. The question must reach the Supreme Court.

This tense situation is the first concretely experienced by the relations between Brazil and Iran after the absolute alignment of Bolsonaro on Trump's foreign policy.

On the same Tuesday, as Foreign Minister, Iranian Ambbadador Seyed Ali Saghaeyan gave an interview to a news agency claiming that his country was studying the possibility of suspending purchases of Brazilian maize.

What is at stake is one of the main destinations for maize exported by Brazil. Not to mention, of course, something that was before the arrival of the new government, an old concept called "sovereignty".