On Tehran visit, Brazil backs Iran nuclear fuel swap
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim pushed Tuesday for an Iran nuclear fuel swap deal during a visit to Tehran. But Brazil's resistance to US pressure for UN sanctions on Iran might backfire.
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He recently hosted the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India, and China – and has led the fight for a greater voice for developing nations in the World Trade Organization.
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Last month, Brazil signed a landmark military agreement with the US.
Ties to Iran
Lula’s relationship with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes as Iran has sought closer ties to Latin America over the past few years, most notably with Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador.
Marifeli Perez-Stable, a non-resident senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, wrote in a recent Miami Herald opinion piece that Iran’s presence in the region is most worrisome with Venezuela.
“Venezuela and Brazil represent two different approaches to Iran: one ideological, the other pragmatic," she writes. "Tehran is courting both in an all-out diplomatic initiative against the isolation that the United States in particular seeks. Iran revels in unnerving Washington in its own backyard.”
On Monday, Ahmadinejad compared the Security Council and its veto rights “to satanic tools,” according to state media.
US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, meanwhile, said Monday officials at the UN were working daily to draft possible penalties against Iran “as rapidly as possible.”
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