El Baradei Says He'll Quit If Iran Attacked

By Cernig

Reuters Africa is carrying breaking news that Atom watchdog chief Mohammed El Baradei is threatening to quit his post if Iran's nuclear program is used as an excuse for a strike.

"I don't believe that what I see in Iran today is a current, grave and urgent danger. If a military strike is carried out against Iran at this time ... it would make me unable to continue my work," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamad ElBaradei told Al Arabiya television in an interview.

And the Straits Times has even more - he told Al Arabiya that a strike on Iran "would turn the region into a fireball." and that "If you do a military strike, it will mean that Iran, if it is not already making nuclear weapons, will launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons with the blessing of all Iranians, even those in the West."

The AFP also notes that Russia's foreign minister Lavrov has today followed Putin in stating that Russia does not believe Iran has a current weapons program. He told reporters that, despit asking the US and Israel for proof of their claims, none has been forthcoming.

"We must be responsible for our policies, especially policies which touch upon the...territorial integrity of others countries. They must be based on facts," he said.

"You remember the facts, the so-called facts, which were presented before Iraq was attacked," he said, in reference to faulty U.S. intelligence used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

No doubt the warmongering American Right will accuse El Baradei of trying to dictate national policy...again. But to me it just looks like a statement of deeply held principle. He doesn't believe, even after all the hype, that Iran is an imminent nuclear threat and he's willing to vote with his feet if the international community allow themselves to be railroaded into aggression by the neocon lobby.

Now, if only some senior US military and DoD types had the same backbone. One did, but he's already gone.

Comments

[1MaNLan]

The American press, of course, will continue to amplify the IAEA report at the end of May that accused Iran of stonewalling on vital information about their weapons programs, rather than on El Baradei's core message, which is that there is no evidence-based justification for an attack on Iran.
I admire El Baradei's ethics, but am pretty clear that he and his team will be "filtered out" at the end of the day. Perceptions (and the management of perceptions) appear to count for more than reality.

I still hear from otherwise very smart people that "Everyone" thought that Iraq had WMD. I remind them that Hans Blix and the entire UN weapon inspection team didn't see any evidence to support the WMD assertion, and said so clearly. In response, I get something to the effect of..."Hans Who?"