Mohamed ElBaradei

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Mohamed ElBaradei
محمد البرادعي
4th Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
Incumbent
Assumed office 
December 1, 1997
Preceded by Hans Blix
Born June 17, 1942 (1942-06-17) (age 65)
Cairo, Egypt
Nationality Egyptian

Mohamed ElBaradei (Arabic: محمد البرادعي, transliteration: Muḥammad al-Barādaʿī) (born June 17, 1942) is an Egyptian and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an inter-governmental organization under the auspices of the United Nations. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Contents

[edit] Early career

ElBaradei earned a Bachelor's degree in law from the University of Cairo in 1962, followed by a DEA degree in International Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies HEI in Geneva and a Ph. D in International Law at the New York University School of Law in 1974. His diplomatic career began in 1964 in the Egyptian Ministry of External affairs, where he served in the Permanent Missions of Egypt to the United Nations in New York and in Geneva, in charge of political, legal, and arms control issues. From 1974 to 1978 he was a special assistant to the Egyptian Foreign Minister. In 1980, he became a senior fellow in charge of the international law program at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. From 1981 to 1987 he was also an Adjunct Professor of International Law at New York University School of Law.

In 1984, ElBaradei became a senior staff member of the IAEA Secretariat, serving as the Agency's legal adviser (1984 to 1993) and Assistant Director General for External Relations (1993 to 1997).

ElBaradei is also a member of the International Law Association and the American Society of International Law. He is married to Aida Elkachef, an early childhood teacher. They have a daughter, Laila, a lawyer, married to Neil Pizey, an investment banker - who live in London - and a son, Mostafa, an IT manager, who lives in Cairo.

[edit] Views and controversies

Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on January 10, 2003. [2]
Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on January 10, 2003. [2]

ElBaradei began serving as Director General of the IAEA on December 1, 1997. Controversy surrounded his election to a third four-year term in 2005, which was opposed primarily by the United States. The stated reason was that the US favoured a limit of two terms for all heads of international organizations. But the US opposition may have been motivated by other factors. ElBaradei had strongly questioned the US rationale for the 2003 invasion of Iraq from the time of the 2002 Iraq disarmament crisis, when he, along with Hans Blix, led a team of UN weapons inspectors in Iraq. ElBaradei told the UN Security Council in March 2003 that documents purporting to show that Iraq had tried to acquire uranium from Niger were not authentic. The US failed to win enough support from other countries to oust ElBaradei. On 9 June, after a meeting between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and ElBaradei, the US dropped its objections, and ElBaradei was unanimously re-appointed by the IAEA Board on 13 June. [3]

The US has also accused ElBaradei of having a lenient approach to Iran's nuclear program [4] after revelations that Iran had covered up substantial aspects of its nuclear program for nearly two decades and was continuing to develop a uranium enrichment capability. ElBaradei's response is that he works strictly within the mandate given to him by Member States. ElBaradei and the IAEA have also been criticized for failing to detect the “nuclear supermarket” run by the Pakistani scientist A Q Khan. [5]

In November 2007, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz called for ElBaradei to be sacked, saying "The policies followed by ElBaradei endanger world peace. His irresponsible attitude of sticking his head in the sand over Iran's nuclear programme should lead to his impeachment." [6]

In December 2007, a new US National Intelligence Estimate concluded that there had been no on-going nuclear weapons program in Iran since the fall of 2003. ElBaradei noted that the Estimate tallied with the Agency's consistent statements over the last few years. Although Iran still needed to clarify some important aspects of its past and present nuclear activities, the Agency had no concrete evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program or undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran, he added. [7]

In February 2008, after the Agency's latest report on Iran's nuclear programme, commentators Ray Takeyh and Joseph Cirincione wrote in the Financial Times: "The point that Mr ElBaradei's critics miss is that he is judiciously achieving the goals that they seemingly desire - the disarmament of the Islamic Republic."

They added: "Instead of sanctions, the west should appreciate that a nuanced diplomacy of reconciliation could both regulate Iran's nuclear programme and help stabilise the Middle East. It is the much maligned Mr ElBaradei that has paved the way for success." [8]

However, that same month a Wall Street Journal editorial accused ElBaradei of being "a deeply political figure, animated by antipathy for the West and for Israel on what has increasingly become a single-minded crusade to rescue favored regimes from charges of proliferation," and repeated claims from earlier press reports that Elbaradei has repeatedly attempted to remove content harmful to Iran from his reports and pressured IAEA officials to follow suit. [9]

In a statement to the IAEA's Board of Governors on 3 March 2008, ElBaradei said the Agency had managed to clarify all but one of the outstanding issues relevant to Iran's past nuclear activities, although it continued to seek corroboration of its findings. The Agency was still investigating the one remaining issue - the so-called "alleged studies" involving possible weaponization activities. Contrary to the call by the Security Council, Iran had not suspended its enrichment-related activities and continued with R&D on more efficient centrifuges.

ElBaradei added: "I continue to call upon Iran to work with the Security Council to meet its requirements for building the necessary confidence about Iran's future nuclear activities. Building confidence in the future is a matter that goes beyond inspection. To that end, I hope that conditions will be created at the earliest possible date for a resumption of negotiations between Iran and the relevant parties." [10]

[edit] Response to Kouchner statement on Iran

Responding to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warnings that the world had to be prepared for the possibility of war if Iran acquired atomic weapons, he characterized talk of attacking Iran as "hype", saying: "I would not talk about any use of force. There are rules on how to use force, and I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 70,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons." "We need to be cool," he said, adding: "We need not to hype the issue."[1] He further added "I do not believe at this stage that we are facing a clear and present danger that requires we go beyond diplomacy."[2]

[edit] 2005 Nobel Peace Prize

On October 7, 2005, ElBaradei and the IAEA itself were announced as joint recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize for their "efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way". This implicitly disavowed criticism of them since the second Allied-Iraqi Gulf war,[original research?] and especially the failed US-led attempt to deny ElBaradei a third term in office. ElBaradei donated all his winnings to building orphanages in his home city of Cairo. The IAEA's winnings are being spent on training scientists from developing countries to use nuclear techniques in combating cancer and malnutrition.

[edit] Other awards

ElBaradei has received many awards for his work as an international civil servant. These include:

ElBaradei has also received honorary doctoral degrees from: New York University; the University of Maryland; the American University in Cairo; the Free Mediterranean University (LUM) in Bari, Italy; Soka University of Japan; Tsinghua University of Beijing, the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Konkuk University in Seoul, the University of Florence, the University of Buenos Aires and the National University of Cuyo in Argentina.

[edit] Quotes

In an op-ed piece on the dangers of nuclear proliferation, in the New York Times (February 12, 2004), ElBaradei stated:

"We must abandon the unworkable notion that it is morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction, yet morally acceptable for others to rely on them for security - and indeed to continue to refine their capacities and postulate plans for their use." [13]

In the same article, ElBaradei stated:

"If the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction."[14]

In an interview with the BBC in May 2007, Dr ElBaradei gave one of his sternest warnings against using military action against Iran -a state signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Referring to "the extreme people who have extreme views" he said:

"...You do not want to give additional argument to some of the 'new crazies' who want to say let us go and bomb Iran"

In other comments on Iran, in an Oct. 22nd interview with French newspaper Le Monde, ElBaradei said:

"I want to get people away from the idea that Iran will be a threat from tomorrow, and that we are faced right now with the issue of whether Iran should be bombed or allowed to have the bomb. We are not at all in that situation. Iraq is a glaring example of how, in many cases, the use of force exacerbates the problem rather than solving it."

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]IAEA boss warns against Iran attack UK Press Google accesed September 22, 2007.
  2. ^ ElBaradei concerned over Iran rowBBC Sep17, 2007

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
Hans Blix		 Director General of the IAEA
1997 – present		 Incumbent
v • d • e
Nobel Peace Prize laureates
Complete roster: 1901–1925 · 1926–1950 · 1951–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present
Persondata
NAME ElBaradei, Mohamed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES محمد البرادعي (Arabic)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Egyptian diplomat and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Egypt
DATE OF DEATH living
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_ElBaradei"
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