ElBaradei's legacy tied to war in Iraq
Mohamed ElBaradei's message was clear: "We are not going to say that this is a material breach unless obviously we see a gross violation of the resolution," the Director General of the International Atom Energy Association (IAEA) said at the end of January 2003. He was responding to demands by the administration of US President George W. Bush to find the so called "smoking gun," i.e. proof that Iraq possessed or developed nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction.
In the same statement, ElBaradei estimated that the IAEA needed four or five months to verify that Iraq did indeed not possess that weapons capability. Less than two months later the military invasion of Iraq began.
While his steadfast opposition to the Iraq war alienated the US, it is perhaps also the one fact that he is known for most by people around the world. "But in the end he couldn't prevent the war, even though he was morally and factually correct", says Goetz Neuneck, Deputy Director of the Hamburg-based Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy. "But can one really demand of any international organisation that it prevents a war that has been decided upon by the world's superpower already half a year before?"
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In the same statement, ElBaradei estimated that the IAEA needed four or five months to verify that Iraq did indeed not possess that weapons capability. Less than two months later the military invasion of Iraq began.
While his steadfast opposition to the Iraq war alienated the US, it is perhaps also the one fact that he is known for most by people around the world. "But in the end he couldn't prevent the war, even though he was morally and factually correct", says Goetz Neuneck, Deputy Director of the Hamburg-based Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy. "But can one really demand of any international organisation that it prevents a war that has been decided upon by the world's superpower already half a year before?"