WASHINGTON: The US has launched a diplomatic campaign to block Venezuela’s bid to become a member of the United Nations Security Council out of concern that Hugo Chávez’s government would use its seat to try to block punitive measures against Iran.

Washington has publicly backed Guatemala’s rival effort to take the two-year rotating council next year, but it has reportedly gone further in recent weeks — threatening retaliatory action against Latin American countries who support the Venezuelan bid.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Chile is one of the countries under pressure. Washington has agreed to sell the country F-16 warplanes, but has since warned that Chilean pilots would not be trained to fly them if the government backed Venezuela’s bid.

The Chilean embassy in Washington had no comment on the report on Monday, but a state department spokeswoman, Amanda Rogers-Harper, said the story was false. However, she added that, while it was up to each country to decide whom to vote for, “it should not come as a surprise that we believe Venezuela would not contribute to the functioning of the UN Security Council, as evidenced by its behaviour in other international fora”.

Ms Rogers-Harper said that Guatemala’s contributions to the UN, for example in sending peacekeepers to the Democratic Republic of Congo, showed it was a “viable candidate”. The diplomatic offensive, in which Condoleezza Rice is playing a leading role, is intended to deprive Venezuela of a vote and a platform in the Security Council at a time when the Bush administration anticipates a confrontation with Iran over its nuclear programme.

Mr Chávez has expressed full support for Iran and announced his intention to visit Tehran. He is also at odds with Washington on other foreign policy issues.

If Latin American countries nominate Venezuela to take the region’s seat on the 15-member council, currently held by Argentina, Mr Chávez would not get a UN veto (which are reserved for the five permanent members), but his opposition to UN sanctions on Iran could prove a rallying point for other small countries. Venezuela would also have a one-month turn as the council chairman, when it would have an important role in setting its agenda.

Larry Birns, a Latin American expert at the liberal think-tank the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, predicted the US diplomatic offensive would fail. “The Latin American caucus at the UN has always been sensitive to US intervention in their choice of the region’s representative,” he said. “The US previously attempted to isolate Chávez in the OAS [Organisation of American States] and failed. To my mind, there is no question that it will backfire.” Mr Birns said that Venezuela had its own leverage over its neighbours in the form of cheap oil. “Chávez’s petro-diplomacy has made him relatively immune from US pressure.”

In Brazil, the presidential assistant for international issues, Marco Aurelio Garcia, said last week that it would be natural for his country, which shares a long border with Venezuela, to back Mr Chávez.

The Venezuelan leader has shown his determination to press on with his bid, declaring on his weekly television show: “Venezuela is a candidate and it will not withdraw.”

The country’s ambassador to the UN ridiculed Guatemala’s rival bid as a thinly veiled proxy for US interests. Francisco Javier Arias Cárdenas told the Los Angeles Times Guatemala’s candidacy “is not really its own. It does not defend or promote its aspirations and concerns, but it is rather endorsing foreign interests.”

Any vote for Guatemala “is really going to the United States,” he said.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service