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Brazil and the US clashed on Wednesday over how to rein in Tehran’s suspect nuclear ambitions as Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva warned the world not to “push Iran into a corner.” In talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Lula and his Foreign Minister Celso Amorim backed continued international negotiations to ensure Iran does not enrich uranium to the point it can build a nuclear bomb.

Lula set a tough tone for his and Amorim’s talks with Clinton when he said it is “not prudent to push Iran into a corner. It is prudent to make it so that Iran continues to negotiate.”

In a combative press conference with Amorim, a stern-faced Clinton retorted that the US-led drive to impose a fourth set of UN sanctions on the Islamic Republic was the only way to bring it back to the negotiating table.

“Only after we pass sanctions in the Security Council will Iran negotiate in good faith,” Clinton said in a foreign ministry briefing room where she was continually pressed by local journalists on Washington’s hard stand.

Clinton echoed Amorim when she said both shared the goal of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear weapons country, but said the two differed in how to attain it.