Clinton Seeks to Press Brazil on Iran

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton faces an uphill battle as she tries to win support from a skeptical Brazil for new United Nations sanctions against Iran.

Clinton was in Brasilia on Wednesday for talks aimed at convincing senior Brazilian officials to back fresh penalties on Iran for ignoring demands to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful and not aimed at weapons development.

Brazil is a voting member of the U.N. Security Council and its support will be critical to convincing Iran of international solidarity on the matter. But Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is an outspoken opponent of sanctions and is seeking closer ties with Iran. He hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year and is set to visit Iran in May.

With Brazil asserting itself as a growing power in the Americas and on the world stage, U.S. officials say they want to persuade Silva to assume greater responsibility for global security, particularly on the Iran question.

Before arriving in Brazil on Tuesday night, Clinton said she would explain to Silva the U.S. position that Iran has the right to atomic energy, but not weapons. Its refusal to come clean on its nuclear intentions violates Security Council resolutions and must be punished, she said.

”It has been found to be in violation by the International Atomic Energy Agency and by the United Nations Security Council,” Clinton told reporters. ”These are not findings by the United States. These are findings by the international community.”

”And the discussion about Iran’s nuclear program is in the United Nations,” she said. ”It is going to be the topic of the United Nations Security Council. So I want to be sure he (Silva) has the same understanding that we do as to how this matter is going to unfold.”

The Obama administration, backed by its European allies Britain, France and Germany, is leading the charge to impose tough new sanctions on Iran. They appear to have won the reluctant support of traditional sanctions foe Russia but not that of council members Brazil or China.

Clinton told Congress last week that she expected new sanctions were only 30 to 60 days away, but on Monday she seemed to roll back that timeline, saying only that she thought they would be considered ”in the next couple months.”

The comment, made as she flew from Uruguay to Argentina during a weeklong tour of Latin America, seemed to reflect difficulties in winning broad support for sanctions even after the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog warned he could not confirm all Iran’s atomic activities are peaceful.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow is ready to consider new sanctions. But the Chinese, who also hold veto power on the Security Council, remain opposed.

Iran already is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze uranium enrichment — a potential pathway to nuclear weapons — and other activities, generating concerns that it seeks to make fissile warhead material. It insists it is enriching only to make nuclear fuel for an envisaged reactor network.