Brazil Rebuff for Iran Sanctions Drive

Daniel Dombey and Jonathan Wheatley
Financial Times
March 4, 2010

Brazil delivered a wounding blow to Washington's hopes of international consensus for sanctions on Iran yesterday when its president declared his opposition to such measures hours before meeting Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state.

In an indication of Brazil's growing self-confidence on the international stage - and its effort to chart a path independent of Washington - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated his backing for Iran's nuclear programme, as long as it remained purely peaceful.

The US and its partners say that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons capacity, while the United Nations nuclear watchdog recently suggested Tehran could be working on a warhead.

But despite strong condemnation of the nuclear programme by the European Union and Russia in recent days and Mrs Clinton's visit to Brazil, in which she will focus on the Iran file, Mr Lula de Silva remained unmoved.

"It is not prudent to push Iran up against a wall," he said, outlining his opposition to the US drive for sanctions, a push that is perhaps Washington's top international priority at present.

"The prudent thing is to establish negotiations."

He added he would have a "frank discussion" of the issue with Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iran's president, when he visited Tehran in May...

Eric Farnsworth, vice-president of the Council of the Americas in Washington and a former state department official, said Brazil's resistance to US pressure showed the limits of Washington's ability to persuade other countries in the region to align with its policy goals.

"It's not the way it used to be," he said. "A lot of people in Washington are asking themselves if Brazil is a true partner of the US or an emerging rival. In my opinion there will be a bit of both.

To read the entire article, click here.

To speak with one of our experts on this topic, call 212-277-8384 or email communications@as-coa.org.

See more in:  Brazil, Security