Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has indefinitely postponed a trip to South America which was scheduled for later this week, according to a report published on the president’s official Web site on Monday. No explanation was given for the change of plan. Ahmadinejad was scheduled to visit Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil.
In Sao Paulo, some 1,000 people including secular and Orthodox Jews, as well as Evangelical Christians, homosexuals and Gypsies, gathered in a major square to protest. In Rio, another 1,000 demonstrators walked along Ipanema beach carrying signs and shouting messages against terrorism, homophobia and racism.
A contingent from Rio was scheduled to take part in a protest in the capital of Brasilia on Monday. The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had declared that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would express his discontent with Ahmadinejad's description of Israel as a "cruel and racist" entity.
The Islamic Republic's IRNA news agency said on Monday that the Iranian president would visit Syria on Tuesday.