Overruled on El Baradei Posted by Suzanne Nossel

So despite being vilified by conservatives for being weak-kneed on Iran, IAEA Chief Mohamed El Baradei was reappointed today with U.S. support.  The Administration, which had been waging a noisy but lonely battle against a third term for the Egyptian nuclear watchdog abruptly reversed its position last week. 

Bush first turned against El Baradei when he refused to accept their assertions about Saddam Hussein's WMD program.   The Administration has since decried the IAEA's failure to take a tougher line on Iran.  But as has happened at the OAS and in the UN Security Council over the referral of Darfur to the ICC, the U.S. found itself isolated in its opposition to El Baradei, and ultimately had no choice but to back him. 

Some observers believe that their acquiesence to El Baradei signals that the Administration has lost patience with prevention tactics in relation to Iran, though given the paucity of alternatives its hard to know what precisely that means.  The Administration has mitigated some of its concerns by securing El Baradei's agreement to take a tougher line on inspections and reports on Tehran's nuclear program.

One thing that's clear is the consistent pattern of the U.S. being isolated in multilateral forums.  In this case, the Administration's failure to put forward and build support for a clear strategy at this year's Non-Proliferation Conference (see here and here) meant that there was little prospect of consensus over whether El Baradei was doing a good job or not.  The U.S. also failed to put forward a viable alternative candidate.   None of this is because the IAEA does not matter.  The agency is a focal point of legislation in the Congress that would strengthen what is viewed as a critical UN body.

No matter what you think of El Baradei, the U.S. should not wind up backed into a corner on such an important appointment.

Comments

[profmarcus]

broken links in the baradei article

[Greg Priddy]

Quick factual point -- Mohamed El-Bardei is Egyptian, not Moroccan.

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