Lula met Iran's president at COP31 and called for free navigation in Hormuz, then discussed buying more Iranian fertilizer, while Washington is still negotiating with Tehran to end the war that closed the strait to normal traffic.
ANTALYA, Turkey — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday on the sidelines of the COP31 climate summit and called for “free navigation” through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a statement from the Planalto Palace. The meeting came while Washington is still negotiating with Tehran to end a war that escalated in February and that has left one of the world’s most important shipping lanes under Iranian restrictions.
Iran is the country restricting traffic in Hormuz. Lula asked for open waters, then talked about buying more Iranian fertilizer. Nobody in Brasília has explained which of the two messages Tehran was supposed to hear.
According to the Planalto statement, Lula raised the impact of the Middle East conflict on global fuel and food prices. Pezeshkian briefed him on the talks with the United States. Lula urged a peaceful solution and brought up the 2010 Tehran Declaration, the nuclear fuel deal Brazil and Turkey brokered with Iran. The two leaders also discussed bilateral trade, which reached about $3 billion in 2025, and Brazil’s interest in importing more fertilizer from Iran.
What’s at stake for Washington
Between 20% and 30% of the world’s oil and at least 20% of its liquefied natural gas pass through Hormuz. Every week the strait stays restricted, Americans pay for it at the pump. The United States is the party carrying the military and diplomatic weight of reopening it. The Lula regime chose this moment to sit down with Tehran, offer its old role as mediator and talk about expanding trade with a government Washington is at war with.
This is not new. In May 2010, during Lula’s second term, Brazil and Turkey signed the Tehran Declaration with Iran over the objections of the Obama administration. Washington said the deal did nothing to stop enrichment, and weeks later the UN Security Council approved a new round of sanctions against Iran anyway. Brazil voted against them. Sixteen years later, Lula is back in Turkey, back at the table with an Iranian president and back to presenting that episode as a model.
The pattern goes beyond Iran. Iran joined the BRICS bloc, of which Brazil is a founding member, in 2024, and the Lula regime has spent the year in open friction with the Trump administration over tariffs and the treatment of the opposition. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said recently the United States will keep dealing with Lula, but Washington is still waiting for Brasília to approve its ambassador.
The record
What is documented: the meeting took place on Thursday at COP31, Lula defended free navigation in Hormuz, the conflict’s effect on prices was discussed, and trade and fertilizer imports were on the agenda, according to the official Brazilian statement. The Planalto did not say whether Lula asked Iran to lift the restrictions or offered Brazil as an intermediary in the talks with the United States. Iran has not published its own account of the meeting.
The question for Washington is simple. President Trump has said he would rather lose the Senate than let Iran build a bomb. The largest country in South America, governed by a regime whose 2022 victory is still disputed by millions of Brazilians, just spent a summit day widening its business with Tehran. If the White House treats that as a routine climate-conference handshake, Brasília will read it as permission.
The Watch Post Daily will continue to follow this story. Sources: official statement from Brazil’s Planalto Palace on the Lula-Pezeshkian meeting, Nov. 12, 2026; public record of the 2010 Tehran Declaration and UN Security Council Resolution 1929.
Featured image: Ricardo Stuckert/PR (Brazilian Presidency).
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