BRASILIA: The first-ever summit between South American and Arab leaders in Brazil next week is intended to boost trade and investment, but has already prompted US and Israeli concern it will become a platform to attack their Middle East policies. Brazil, South America’s biggest economy which like much of the continent has strong Arab immigrant ties, proposed the summit as part of a drive to be a diplomatic power in a region that has turned politically to the left in recent years.

The gathering of leaders from 11 South American countries and 22 Arab states is billed as a means to reduce dependence on the United States and Europe and strengthen alliances in forums like the World Trade Organization and United Nations.

But Arab nations have pushed issues like terrorism, Iraq and Palestine onto the agenda, according to diplomatic sources.

A summit declaration, to be released on May 11, could strain relations between South America and the United States if it is seen to tacitly back groups, like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, that Washington classifies as terrorist organizations.

A draft copy of the declaration published in the Brazilian press raised expectations the meeting would criticize US and Israeli use of force and back the rights of peoples to resist occupation.

“The positions and worries of Israel regarding the summit have been expressed directly to the government of Brazil and other South American governments,” the Israeli embassy in Brazil said in a statement.

“We have made our concerns known to the Brazilian government about the importance of not doing anything to undermine the world’s shared goal of peace in the Middle East,” a US government official said.

The US embassy declined to comment on the matter. Brazil has said the motivation behind the summit are Arab-South American ties dating back over 500 years. Some of the first sailors to land in the Americas off Spanish ships were exiled Moors.

“Obviously the positions these countries take won’t please everyone,” Vera Pedrosa, political undersecretary at Brazil’s foreign ministry and who helped draft the summit declaration, said.

But Pedrosa added: “There is nothing frightening about this meeting for any country, no one is going to invent a new solution (for Middle East problems).”

Arab representatives have denied the league has an anti-US or Israeli goal.

“We are against the policies of Israel, not against Israel itself,” Secretary General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said during a visit to Brasilia last month to plan the gathering. “The meeting isn’t against anyone.”

—Reuters