El Baradei Will Be Sorely Missed, Except By Israel

By Steve Hynd

Sylvia Westall at Reuters Global News Blog has a post showing just how badly Mohammed el Baradei will be missed by everyone except Israel and its supporting cast of hawks. In his remarks he had a go at Iran, Iran's critics and critics of the IAEA evenhandedly. On negotiations between the US and Iran he said that:

�I�ve told (Iran) I don�t see where the problem is. The U.S. is making an offer without preconditions on that base of mutual respect. Soltanieh has said they are ready to have a comprehensive dialogue. I say the offer by the US can not be refused because it has no conditions attached to it and is based on mutual respect.�

While he also told nations claiming the IAEA is hiding information about Iran's nuclear program that:

�If anybody�has any information we have not shared, that has passed muster, been assessed critically in accordance with our practices, please step forward today. Otherwise, as a preacher would say, you should forever hold your peace.�

And on documents from the infamous Laptop of Death, the single source of all the current uncertainties about Iran's pre-2004 program, he said:

 �It�s alleged (studies), the whole question is about accuracy, whether this is real � that is the $64,000 question. That is where we are stuck, we have a limited ability to authenticate.�

That's because the IAEA haven't been given the original documents to study.

Later, Israel was the lone absence from a tribute to el Baradei's work. During a ceremony in which the outgoing IAEA head was presented with a silver platter in thanks, the Israeli delegate left his seat and sat at the back of the board of governors' conference chamber as 39 other nations, including the U.S. and all the major European nations, thanked el Baradei for his efforts over the years.

Now, even as the U.S. accepts Iran's offer of wider talks, Israel and it's shills in America are beating the war drums again. A few are even ingloriously and dishonestly trying to link Iran and 9/11.

Here's a prediction for you - Iran will be the next foreign policy hotspot. Since they have his back on escalating the war in Afghanistan, the far Right will use negotiations with Iran to accuse Obama of being a "spineless surrender monkey"; some simply to play domestic political games and others because they really do love war.