From New York to Brazilia: When Negotiating Gadhafi’s Punishment, the U.S. Irritates Brazil in the U.N. Security Council.

Barack Obama will be visiting Brazil next month, and its relations with the U.S. cannot be considered risky. But the U.S. president will hardly support Brazil’s inclusion as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. India was left out of the Council last year.

After Brazil’s position against the Iranian sanctions in June of 2010, a new disagreement occurred this Saturday during the negotiations on a resolution against Moammar Gadhafi and members of his regime. By voting in favor of the text on Saturday night, Brazil indirectly criticized the United States. The problem of the relationship between Americans and Brazilians was referred to the International Criminal Court.

In one of the main debates about the resolution, Barack Obama’s representative demanded the inclusion of a paragraph that would guarantee exemption of citizens from countries not signatories to the Treaty of Rome about ICC jurisdiction. The U.S. fears that some American authorities could be sued in the Court for their roles in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Besides the Americans, two other permanent members are not signatories to the treaty of Rome — Russia and China. The Russians and Chinese are not making inclusion or lack of inclusion of this paragraph a priority, and Libya is not even part of the ICC.

Considering Washington’s position hypocritical, Brazilians threatened to vote against the resolution and only came to support the text because of the urgency of the issue.

In the meantime, the Americans had leaked information that the Brazilians would be sabotaging an agreement with Portugal, and this news had been broadcast by various international media vehicles. I was then at the headquarters of the Council with many of my colleagues from other news organizations. Also present was a Portuguese spokesman and a Brazilian diplomat who had been involved in the negotiations. They both denied the veracity of the information that had appeared by the media.

The U.S. posture angered the Brazilian diplomatic team; they made it clear that they were dissatisfied with the U.S. attempt to explain the vote of the Security Council Saturday night. “We expressed our strong reservation to the inclusion of paragraph six (the one which required an exemption). We reiterate our conviction that efforts that seek to establish exemptions from ICC jurisdiction over certain categories of individuals do not contribute to the strengthening of the Court,” said Brazil’s ambassador to the U.N., Maria Luiza Viotti, when explaining the Brazilian vote.

The U.S. ambassador, Susan Rice, in explanation of her country’s vote, did not specify the reasons that led to the inclusion of the paragraph, which provides an exemption of citizens from countries not signatories of the Rome Treaty that recognizes the jurisdiction of the ICC. But, according to the U.S. State Department, the Americans had threatened to veto the resolution if paragraph six was not included, stating that such language had been used in the past against Sudan and its leader, Omar Bashir, which also involved the ICC.

And the U.N. had to wait for the Chinese leader to wake up. …

The delegations of all countries of the U.N. and the Security Council were up early on Saturday to discuss a resolution against Moammar Gadhafi and members of his regime. After seven hours of negotiations, an agreement was reached.

By then, it was 4:00 p.m. in New York, and journalists and diplomats were getting hungry. But the U.N. cafeteria was closed due to construction in the building; getting in and out was a little difficult. In addition, everyone wanted to enjoy their weekends, and they were very anxious to be done with work before sunset.

But that was not possible: The members of the U.N., as well as we journalists, had to wait for sunrise on the other side of the world, in Beijing. The Chinese delegation asked all members to wait until the Chinese leader, Hu Jinkao, gave his OK to the agreement. But he was sleeping, since it was nighttime in the East. Only after they received a phone call from the Chinese leader was it affirmed that the vote could be taken to the plenary. When the Chinese ambassador raised his hand in favor of sanctions, journalists and diplomats celebrated. It was 10:00 p.m. in New York, and everyone could finally enjoy what was left of the Saturday.