Washington, D.C.--Congressman Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, released the following statement in advance of Monday's meeting between Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"President Lula is making a serious error in meeting with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Iran has already carried out two deadly terrorist attacks on South American soil in the 1990s. Under Ahmadinejad, today, Iran is calling for the destruction of another nation state while secretly developing nuclear weapons. President Lula should not lend legitmacy to Ahmadinejad by meeting him in Brazil.

"Brazil is a rapidly modernizing democratic country which wants to join the UN Security Council and be a world leader. I truly hope Brazil reaches that point, but expanding ties to Ahmadinejad is not the way to get there."