Ricardo Stuckert

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on November 16th, 2011
Lula shaves his iconic beard.

I was once at a dinner party in the United States not too long ago, when a guest asked me a simple, straight-forward question: “Is that guy with the beard still the president down there in Brazil?”

The guy with the beard.

I chucked, and answered, no, the bearded guy is no longer president. It’s now a woman. The guest, who admitted to not following Brazil news that closely, gave me a quizzical look and then I think the conversation quickly moved on to the weather or something like that.  

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Lula da Silva and his famous beard when he was president of Brazil [Getty] 

By Gabriel Elizondo in Middle East on May 16th, 2010
Photo by Ricardo Stuckert/PR

As I type this post it is about 7pm Sunday in Sao Paulo, shortly after 2am Monday in Tehran.

I just spoke on the phone with a source within Brazil's diplomatic delegation currently in Iran who tells me that after 18 hours of negotiations the Brazilians are "very optimistic" and that talks on Sunday went "very well" on a negotiated solution to the Iran nuclear standoff.

The Brazilian member of the diplomatic corps said there was hope that an agreement could be announced as early as Monday morning.

Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, who is spearheading Brazil's negotiating team, apparently returned to his Tehran hotel room shortly after 11pm.

The news from the Brazilians seems to back up a late Reuters report on Sunday night in which Turkey Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was asked by a reporter whether there would be an agreement and he allegedly said: "Yes, it has been reached after almost 18 hours of negotiations."

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