I'm thinking: Fresh start on controlling nukes

By Micah D. Halpern

Issue of July 10, 2009 / 18 Tammux 5769

The IAEA, The International Atomic Energy Agency, is the organization charged with the responsibility of monitoring and policing nuclear programs around the world. It is an arm of the United Nations. The future of the world as we know it is dependent on how the IAEA carries out its mandate. If the IAEA does its job well, the world will be a safer place.

Inspecting Iran falls to the IAEA. So does keeping a watch on North Korea and making certain that neither nuclear weapons nor materials fall into the hands of unsavory characters, thuggish leaders or terrorists.

It surprised me that when the thirty five members of the council that oversees the International Atomic Energy Agency sat down for only the second time in their history to vote for a new head of the organization, the world was not monitoring the proceeding more closely.

The previous head of the IAEA was Mohamed el Baradei, an Egyptian. El Baradei held the position for three terms and was expected to have entree and status in the developing world. Unfortunately, he did not and he was blocked out — the head of the IAEA was never permitted the unfettered access that had been hoped for.

As a result, this election was infused with internal conflict. Council members were divided over choosing a candidate more pro-West than their previous head or a candidate who would truly have the support of the developing world.

Pro-West won out. Yukiya Amano of Japan, the new head of the IAEA, squeaked through with exactly the number of votes required for declaring a winner - 23 out of 35 votes — two thirds of the vote. This had been the second attempt to elect a new director; the group failed to choose a winner in a March election.

The bad news is that two thirds is hardly a ringing endorsement.

The good news is that, by Western standards, the election went to the better candidate.

Had Yukiya Amano’s opponent, a South African named Abdul Samaad Minty who was backed by developing nations, won out, the direction of the IAEA would have been radically altered and the safety of Israel and the West would be in real jeopardy. The world is at such a critical juncture in the development of nuclear technology that an IAEA director who does not push hard against those regimes eager to attain, develop and, possibly, even use nuclear technology, is an enabler of dangerous nuclear technology.

Amano does not yet have the credibility he will need, but he carries the clout. He has the opportunity to shape the direction in which the world is taken vis a vis nuclear power and technology.

Immediately after the election results were declared, Israel, which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but does cooperate with the West in trying to responsibly manage nuclear development, issued a statement saying that they will fully cooperate with Amano.

Israel will be a friend to Amana and we hope that Amano will be a friend to Israel. And when it comes to nuclear activity, Israel needs a friend.

Micah D. Halpern is a columnist, a social and political commentator, and the author, most recently, of “THUGS.” He maintains The Micah Report at www.micahhalpern.com.