El Baradei: embodiment of calm in the storm

Long after the dust settles, the name Dr. Mohammed El Baradei will continue to reverberate in the international arena. War or no war on Iraq, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be credited for having created a rigorous inspection regime to guard against the proliferation of nuclear armaments in the world.

Dr. El Baradei is one of the top few Arab politicians to have taken centre-stage in world politics through his adept crisis management. Although he leads a world body under the UN auspices and is responsible for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons across the globe, Dr. El Baradei will be remembered for being closely associated with disarming Iraq.

An Egyptian diplomat who joined his country's foreign ministry in 1964, Dr. El Baradei proved a high flyer reaching the top echelons of international diplomacy. This was a turn to a career that started in 1984 when he joined the IAEA.

A legal practitioner by training, first gaining a law degree from Cairo University and a PhD from New York University's School of Law, Dr. El Baradei is today proving he is not just a civil servant, a man who follows orders.

Although his demeanour points to a quiet, modest, academic diplomat, over the past few months he has proved a skilled operator able to handle complex international issues while attempting to arrive at a consensus to the satisfaction of all. While many would say that his job is to answer to the UN Security Council especially on the question of Iraq, he has proved thus far that he is not afraid of speaking his mind whether to the Americans, the Iraqis, or anybody else.

While this may irritate the U.S. administration, which demands that Iraq disarm immediately, Dr. El Baradei appears to have adopted a more patient, practical approach. Armed with a legalistic sense of arriving at a resolution, the 61-year-old passionately believes that rigorous inspection under the UN umbrella is the only way to come out of the Iraqi crisis.

Although one would expect international diplomats, especially those civil servants representing world organisations, to remain very much under the guise of anonymity, El Baradei, is never afraid of speaking out. In his wide-ranging interviews across international satellites over the past few months, at no time did he appear to be afraid of speaking his mind as someone who is jurist, a UN inspector involved in world peace, as well as a politician.

As a sign of his forcefulness under that very quaintly subdued Mediterranean accent, he told Tim Sebastian on the BBC's Hard Talk programme last October: "I find it a dangerous precedent that you will go and use military force every time you suspect a country is developing weapons of mass destruction."

On the same programme as well as on many other talk shows, El Baradei never tires of saying "the use of force should clearly be the last resort and not the first option," and "the international community could only decide on military action [against Iraq] after carrying out proper inspection.

"Regardless of how events unfold in the foreseeable future, inspection will be the key in the long haul to ensuring that clandestine efforts to develop nuclear weapons in Iraq or elsewhere are detected and thwarted," he told a Carnegie conference on non-proliferation in December 2002.

With regard to Iraq and in a bid to dampen what is being seen as world hysteria, he points out candidly the UN inspectors must be given more time - say between "four to six months" - to do their job properly and effectively, pointing out so far "no such evidence [exists] that proved that Iraq [is] developing nuclear weapons."

With the touch of the diplomat under the limelight, El Baradei seeks to balance his views without implying he is walking a tightrope and suggesting America is tallying with his views by pointing out "Washington is also saying let us use all methods at our disposal before we resort to force, and I absolutely subscribe to that."

Playing the role of the objective international diplomat, and speaking to the media, after January 28, when he and Hans Blix, Unmovic chief, delivered the first report on the status of the inspection, he appeared to be tough on Iraq.

He told one interviewer Iraq needs to cooperate fully with the inspectors in a "pro-active inspection process," pointing out "Iraq needs a change of heart," and "rather than say we have done everything possible, they [Iraqis] should say let us see what an inspector wants," he told Gwen Ifell of the Jim Lehrer News Hour.

"…To continue to say we [Iraq] have nothing more to provide, we have no more evidence, I don't think that is helpful."

The quiet diplomat, the man with the rimmed glasses, has become much adept with answering questions posed by the media with dexterity. Maybe it is because of his especially sensitive position at this moment in time - where a wrong comment could decide whether there will be war or peace - El Baradei has developed much patience, and going at length with an elaborate "explanatory" approach when answering questions. This is despite such questions being provocative or designed to intimidate.

El Baradei, changing from politician, diplomat, to someone in charge of making the world a safer place free from nuclear weapons, has become an "image-maker", a media guru responding to every question through careful calculation, subtlety and tonality.

One interview by George Stephopoulos of ABC News revealed the skill of El Baradei in answering "back and forth" questions as somebody who has been there before without the slightest hint of hesitation or nervousness and moving with the interviewer to patiently comment or explain points of detail.

Indeed, the interview showed the mark of a calm, experienced diplomat who knew his work on the inspection process level. In addition to that, it could be argued that he actually knew how to get journalists or broadcasters to his side or at least establish a kind of rapport with the interviewer.

In many interviews or television programmes, El Baradei would be on a first name basis and continue to repeat the name of the anchor or broadcaster. The effect of this is to establish a "chummy" relationship, at least subconsciously while the interview lasts.

El Baradei has been described as a diplomat with one foot in the Arab world and one in the West and this is something that is helping to bridge the "civilisational" gap between the two cultures. But many, especially in the Arab world, are not seeing it that way, stressing he was on a U.S. ticket to head the IAEA in 1997, something which is rejected by El Baradei.

"I was nominated by the African Group and supported by the majority of countries in the IAEA," he told one interviewer.

In a further interview to the Qatari-based Al Jazeerah Channel last November, he implicitly rejected the criticism saying: "After 25 years of continuous work, I came to the belief that how you view issues is within a world perspective, an international perspective, my goal is what is good for humanity is good for every member country in the agency…so all of my decisions and how I view issues are outside…the framework of regional interests or 'tight' national interests…I [don't] serve one