VIENNA – The UN atomic watchdog begins a two-day meeting Thursday, the last to be chaired by Egyptian diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei, who steps down on November 30 after 12 years at the helm of the IAEA.
But the 67-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner will be leaving a difficult legacy to his successor, 62-year-old Yukiya Amano of Japan, with the International Atomic Energy Agency no closer to knowing the true nature and extent of Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, despite seven years of intensive investigation.
Indeed, the shock revelation in September that Tehran has been concealing a second uranium enrichment site could see the IAEA’s 35-member board of governors vote on a resolution condemning Iran for the first time in nearly four years.
Diplomats at the agency have said that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – plus Germany have drawn up a draft resolution to put to the two-day meeting. It is not yet clear from pre-meeting talks whether the text will actually win the support of the majority of board members, so the so-called P5+1 may finally decide to issue it merely as a statement rather than put it to the vote, one diplomat said. – AFP