Aides say atomic chief won't heed U.S. on Iran

The Associated Press, International Herald Tribune:

The head of the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency is ready to listen to U.S. suggestions while in Washington but will not become tougher on Iran just to secure American support for his campaign for another term, agency officials said Wednesday. READ MORE

The comments by officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency appeared calculated to counter speculation that the IAEA director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, was prepared to strike a deal with the Americans to ensure his future at the organization. They spoke as ElBaradei flew to Washington for talks with the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and other senior officials.

Agency spokesmen were noncommittal on the trip. An IAEA spokesman, Mark Gwozdecky, said that Rice had invited ElBaradei "for a discussion on a variety of important nonproliferation matters" before the agency's board meets Monday in Vienna. He said ElBaradei's bid for a third term as head of the agency would "in all likelihood" be discussed but declined to talk about specifics on the agenda.

A senior Western diplomat familiar with ElBaradei's plans, however, confirmed Iran would be discussed when ElBaradei meets Thursday with Rice and Bob Joseph, the designated under secretary of state in charge of nonproliferation issues. And other diplomats, who are accredited to the agency, said he hoped the Americans would drop their opposition to his renewed candidacy.

All five diplomats or agency officials contacted by The Associated Press spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge information to journalists.

ElBaradei's campaign for a third term is on the agenda for the IAEA board's Monday meeting.

The United States wants to increase pressure on Iran, for what it says are clandestine attempts to build nuclear weapons, and at past board meetings has pushed the option of referring Tehran to the UN Security Council to face the possible imposition of sanctions. It has suggested ElBaradei has been too soft on Iran for not declaring it in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

A senior IAEA official, who asked not to be named, suggested ElBaradei would not give into pressure from Washington in exchange for U.S. support.

"One of the reasons he's been successful," the official said, "is because he has not pandered to any one country's agenda or any group of countries' agenda and always strives to maintain his impartiality."

Another agency official denied links to ElBaradei's bid to secure U.S. support and a recent decision to have a senior agency official deliver an oral report on Iran that would be likely critical of Tehran's failures to meet agency requests meant to help it investigate the country's nuclear program. He said the decision to draw up such a report came before the U.S. invitation was issued.

However, several diplomats said ElBaradei might agree not to stay on beyond a third term or endorse U.S. plans to create a special IAEA committee policing possible nonproliferation violations if Washington decides to drop its opposition to his candidacy.

There has been no recent U.S. on-the-record comment on what Washington plans to do regarding ElBaradei. But diplomats familiar with the issue said the Americans were looking for a way to bow out graciously, adding that with less than a week to go Washington appeared alone in its outright opposition to reappointing him - far from the 12 votes needed to block his chances at the 35-nation meeting.

The issue of who controls the IAEA is key for the United States, which wants someone sharing its view of which countries represent nuclear threats and what to do about them.

ElBaradei has challenged those views - particularly over Iran and prewar Iraq, both of which President George W. Bush labeled part of an "axis of evil" with North Korea.

Before refusing to endorse Washington's stance that Iran was working to make nuclear weapons - something Tehran denies - ElBaradei disputed U.S. assertions that Saddam Hussein had an active nuclear weapons program, claims that remain unproven.