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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he’ll visit President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran next year after the Iranian leader comes to Brazil, adding he can’t judge Iran’s elections or nuclear ambitions.

“I defend for Iran the same rights with respect to nuclear energy that I do for Brazil,” he said, adding that Brazil had clout to engage Iran in talks on its nuclear program because it’s the only country in the world whose constitution bans it from seeking nuclear weapons. “If anyone is ashamed of having relations with Iran, it’s not my case.”

Lula has drawn criticism from Jewish and human rights groups in Brazil and abroad for seeking closer ties to Iran at a time that other world leaders are shunning Ahmadinejad over concerns about his nuclear program, disputed elections, his human-rights record and comments against Israel.

Lula downplayed Ahmadinejad’s questioning of the Holocaust, saying that “if he thinks differently, it’s his problem not mine.”