UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohammed ElBaradei is expected to be the only candidate when his post comes up for election next year but is not a shoo-in as Washington finds him too soft on Iran, diplomats said.
| He'll be less of a shoo-in if they come up with an alternative candidate... |
The deadline for submitting candidacies to become director general of the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency falls December 31 but after that the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors must approve a candidate by a two-thirds vote. The United States wants ElBaradei replaced at the crucial Vienna-based agency since it feels he is not tough enough against an Iranian nuclear program which Washington charges hides covert weapons development, diplomats said. Washington officially says it opposes ElBaradei, a former Egyptian diplomat who has run the IAEA since 1997, getting a third four-year term, referring to the Geneva group of top 10 contributors to international organizations' policy that agency heads should not serve more than two mandates. The United States, however, is having trouble finding "a good competing candidate," a Western diplomat told AFP, and reportedly failed to convince Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to put himself forward.
| Tough to rally against a guy when you don't have your own candidate waiting in the wings. |
Meanwhile, ElBaradei has solid support from non-aligned countries on the IAEA's board of governors and some European states as well. Diplomats on the board said they did not expect there to be other candidates besides ElBaradei, who put his hat in the ring in September, since neither the United States nor a possible Japanese choice wants to go up against him without being sure of winning, even if Japan was still mulling the matter ahead of year's end.
| Big mistake. You can't win an election if you don't have a candidate. Find a respected neutral with good credentials and no history of offending anyone, and put him/her forward. |
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