SAO PAULO: Hillary Clinton was in town today. She caused a little bit of traffic jam in the downtown area. She also addressed students at a private university in a town-hall style meeting, as if she was still campaigning for the US presidential election (someone needs to remind her that election is over and she didn’t make it). More than that she didn’t do or achieve anything. The local newspapers didn’t become hysterical at her appearance and television here more or less ignored the US secretary of state’s visit to the city, which is the capital of the state whose economy is bigger than that of Argentina.

The reason: Hillary Clinton’s visit to Brazil was a total flop show. The American leader came here – Brasilia and Sao Paulo -- to drum up support for UN sanctions against Iran, but the Brazilian leaders rebuffed her, telling the American in clear terms that Brasilia is not going to side with the US in its diplomatic games against Iran. "We will not simply bow down to evolving consensus if we do not agree. We have to think by ourselves and with our values,” Brazil’s foreign minister Celso Amorim said at a joint press conference with Hillary.

Amorim said that recent statements about Iran reminded him of the time in 2003, when there were similar allegations about Iraq that turned out to be "smoke and mirrors". "Yet the charges against Iraq never materialised," the Brazilian foreign minister added even as a red-faced Hillary looked on. In her meeting with President Lula too, Hillary failed to impress the Brazilian leader with her "facts" on Iran’s "secret bomb-making facility".  

The fact that Hillary wore a silver cross necklace (an attempt to impress the president of the world’s biggest Catholic nation) failed to make any impact on Lula. "It is not prudent to push Iran against a wall," said Lula. "The prudent thing is to establish negotiations."

Today’s development in Brasilia is very important. Finally, someone has shown the courage to stand up to American pressure tactics. Amorim actually called Hillary’s bluff when he spoke about the days when the American and the British were beating war drums on the basis of "intelligence reports" that claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Seven years later and after the death of more than one millions Iraqis, there is still no trace of any WMD in Iraq. It was a lie. The whole Iraq invasion was based on a big lie but the entire world bought the American-British story.

The Americans are playing the same game now. Now, the target is Iran. Hillary Clinton is travelling around the world making a case for "action" against Iran. The Americans know very well that Iran is not going to stop its nuclear energy plan. This diplomatic charade by Hillary is just a prelude to military action against Iran. The American have been itching to launch their missiles on Iran for a very long time. That’s why they have been pushing Iran into a corner. Those who remember the invasion of Iraq can recall the pattern: sanctions, more sanctions, intelligence reports on WMD and then military attack. Hillary is working on the same template. By refusing to be part of her plan, the Brazilians have taken a bold step.

By rebuffing Hillary, the Brazilian leaders told Hillary Clinton that the era of US as a regional power is over and South America is no longer Washington's backyard.  

Hope the leaders in New Delhi, Islamabad and Kabul are paying attention.