Israel Matzav

ElBaradei leaps into action: Calls efforts against Iran a failure

Inept nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the feckless International Atomic Energy Association called international efforts to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons a failure in an interview published in Saturday's Los Angeles Times. But fear not, says ElBaradei, Iran won't attack Israel anyway.

"We haven't really moved one inch toward addressing the issues," said Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. "I think so far the policy has been a failure."

The 66-year-old Egyptian diplomat and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize laureate also urged world leaders to address broader unease about security, poverty and perceived injustice rather than zero in on narrow security concerns, such as nuclear weapons.

"Now, I am talking more and more about poverty, HIV/AIDS" and other matters, he told The Times this week during a rare one-on-one interview at the agency's headquarters in Vienna. The nuclear issue "is the tip of the iceberg."

Still, atomic energy remains the focus of his U.N.-related agency and ElBaradei said he felt optimistic about an eventual U.S.-led settlement between Tehran and the West.

He said U.S. President-elect Barack Obama gave him "lots of hope" after he inserted a proposal to abolish all nuclear weapons in the Democratic Party platform and advocated opening diplomatic dialogue with rivals.

"He is ready to talk to his adversaries, enemies, if you like, including Iran, also [North] Korea," he said, adding that the Bush administration was reluctant to do so. "To continue to pound the table and say, 'I am not going to talk to you,' and act in a sort of a very condescending way -- that exaggerates problems."

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In retrospect, the sanctions may have led to "more hardening of the position of Iran," ElBaradei said. "Many Iranians who even dislike the regime [are] gathering around the regime because they feel that country is under siege."

One hope of a diplomatic solution, he said, was for the U.S. and Iran to meet to begin talking, not just about nuclear technology but also about grievances that stretch from the 1950s, when the U.S. helped overthrow a democratically elected government, to the present, when Iranian and American surrogates vie for supremacy in several Middle East battlegrounds.

ElBaradei argued for a "grand bargain" between the West and Iran that recognizes Tehran's role in the region and gives it "the power, the prestige, the influence" it craves.

In other words, the US should surrender and allow the entire Middle East to go Islamic while ElBaradei retires to his newly purchased home in southern France. Yeah, sure.

He brushed aside the argument of some U.S. analysts who describe Iran as a messianic state determined to obtain nuclear weapons to launch a war against its archnemesis, Israel.

"When I go to Iran I see . . . that there are all different shades and colors in Iran, from atheist to religious zealots," he said. "So Iran is no different than any other country. I mean, they are connected with the rest of the world."

And there are a lot of other countries in the world that hate Israel too. Let him stake his own security on Iran's intentions - not mine or my family's.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:19 PM