Brazil-Turkey Deal with Iran Undermines Big Power Politics

By Thalif Deen  IPS – Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, May 19, 2010 (IPS) – When Brazil and Turkey clinched a deal with Iran over its disputed nuclear programme last weekend, the two non-permanent members of the Security Council not only challenged the unbridled political power exercised by the five big powers but also jeopardised U.S. plans for a unanimous resolution imposing sanctions against Tehran.

As a result, the 15-member Security Council now remains split, with at least two countries – and possibly more – lined up against a U.S.-inspired resolution against Iran.

The Brazil-Turkey initiative, which has undermined the upcoming resolution likely to be adopted next month, has also triggered implicit political threats against the two “renegade” countries.

According to unnamed government sources both in Europe and Washington, Turkey’s longstanding attempts to join the European Union (EU) are likely to be derailed further.

And so would Brazil’s plans to join as a permanent member of the Security Council (along with Japan, Germany and India).

Both countries, with strong economic links to Iran, stand accused of thwarting mostly Western efforts to isolate Tehran.

Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, told IPS that rather than wisely encouraging Turkey and Brazil to pursue their new diplomatic efforts with Iran, the U.S. government is spurning those constructive efforts.

“Washington is failing to affirm the enormous positive potential of the kind of diplomacy that Turkey and Brazil are offering,” he said.

Instead of searching for a new configuration, the administration of President Barack Obama is falling back on an old one: confrontation, he noted.

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