Juan Carlos spearheaded Spain's food agency campaign

Juan Carlos chats with Lula as Moratinos looks on

 ROME -- Spain's King Juan Carlos lobbied the King of Saudi Arabia and other monarchs to try and secure support for the ultimately unsuccessful Spanish candidate to run the U.N. Food and Agriculture agency, Angel Moratinos, Brazilian diplomatic sources say.

 "Brazil's candidate was able to draw on the personal prestige and support of former President Lula but we didn't have a monarch to plug into the close international links between royal families as Spain did," said a well-placed Brazilian Embassy source. "Juan Carlos personally telephoned the Saudi and Jordanian kings to ask them to have their countries support Angel Moratinos," the source added.

 Jubilant Brazilian diplomats analysing the victory of their candidate, José Graziano, the new FAO director general elect, said that the media publicity surrounding Moratinos' global travels to lobby for his candidature had helped Graziano's strategists.

 "Everywhere Moratinos went was publicised in the Spanish press so were able to know exactly what he was doing and mount campaigns to try and neutralise him," said the source.

 Graziano narrowly defeated former Spanish foreign minister Moratinos in a knife-edge run-off vote when Indonesian and Iranian candidates urged their supporters to support Graziano after dropping out of the race after the first round vote, the sources said.

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