Arab nations finally won agreement from the US and the other nuclear powers to take the first step toward banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. Now, the next move is Israel's.
Brazil and Turkey, which were represented by their presidents in the talks, invested significant diplomatic cache in the negotiations. It is rare for non-permanent members of the Security Council to intervene in a process led by nuclear powers, and in many ways the result could be seen as a revolt by smaller powers over the rights to nuclear power and prestige.
Um dia depois de a secretária de Estado americana, Hillary Clinton, criticar a aproximação do Brasil com o Irã, o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva voltou nesta sexta-feira a defender o acordo nuclear que mediou ao lado da Turquia.
The deal widens a divide between a group of countries led by the U.S., on the one hand, and developing nations on the other, over the right of Iran and other developing nations to use nuclear energy.
O Brasil soube buscar aliados - Rússia, China, Turquia, França - para abrir um espaço de negociação política, que se revelou possível e correto. A posição brasileira de que os EUA - e outras potências - possuindo imensos arsenais nucleares, não tinham moral para buscar acordos que limitem a disseminação de armamento nuclear, abre caminho para outras iniciativas de paz.
Iran's nuclear fuel swap deal with Brazil and Turkey could be a positive step forward in resolving the international impasse over its nuclear program.
Even as the United States is stepping up efforts toward UN-mandated fresh sanctions against Iran, it is praiseworthy that members of the international community have stuck to diplomatic means to defuse the tension.
Brimming with confidence, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva is raising his country's global status with increasing forays into international politics. In his most recent coup, he convinced Iran to agree to a controversial nuclear deal. Could it offer an opportunity to avoid both sanctions and war?
O acordo nuclear entre o Brasil, a Turquia e o Irã se gue, ponto a ponto, todas as solicitações que o presidente Barack Obama havia exposto em carta a seu colega Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, datada de 20 de abril, apenas três semanas antes, portanto, da viagem de Lula ao Irã, da qual resultou o acordo. A Folha obteve, com ex clusividade, cópia integral da carta, na qual Obama es creve que o objetivo era ofe recer "explicação detalhada" de sua perspectiva "e sugerir um caminho a seguir".
Last week, Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Turkish Prime Minister Reccep Erdogan announced a breakthrough agreement on the Iranian nuclear impasse that they claimed would make further sanctions on Iran "unnecessary." The agreement, accepted by Iran, was immediately rejected by the US and its European allies, who chose instead to continue the three-decade long US effort to strangle and isolate Iran by all means available. In what Graham Fuller, a top-ranking former intel official, called "a stunningly insulting response," Hillary Clinton proudly announced consensus for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran days later, which she called "as convincing an answer to the efforts undertaken in Iran in the past few days as any we could provide."
On Monday, Brazil and Turkey brokered a deal with Iran that would see it trading enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. Observers in Germany see a diplomatic coup for the rising powers, but warn that it could just be another ploy on the part of Iran.
The United States reached agreement Tuesday with Russia, China and other major powers on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would modestly expand and stiffen sanctions on Iran for its failure to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
China and India stand to lose a lot from reducing their trade with Iran, so the Americans will find it difficult to preserve these giants' commitment to sanctions.
Earlier on Tuesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the nuclear fuel swap with Iran was a "positive step" and it was waiting for Tehran to provide full written details, as China and Lebanon also voiced their support for the new deal.
As President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva heads to Tehran this weekend to make what many Western diplomats consider a last-ditch attempt at persuading Iran to temper its nuclear ambitions, officials in Washington have expressed concern that the effort could backfire, helping the Islamic republic to block - or at least delay - the United States and its allies from imposing sanctions.
The efforts of Brazil and Turkey to find a negotiated solution to the standoff over Iran's nuclear program, which generated a negotiated agreement with Iran last week, must be seen in the context of a growing challenge to the international political order.
Russia and Iran publicly traded barbs on Wednesday, showing strains in their longstanding alliance because of Moscow's support for a new set of American-backed sanctions over the Iranian nuclear program.
Beyond the usual anti-American rhetoric, some analysts say that Iran is trying to avoid sanctions and resolve tensions with Washington over its nuclear program.
The catastrophe in Japan has made apparent just how fragile the global economy has become. Factories around the world have had to slow production due to a lack of parts. But the problems are surmountable -- provided the nuclear disaster in Fukushima doesn't worsen.