Yukia Amano To Replace ElBaradei As IAEA Head

After three previous rounds of inconclusive voting back in March, the UN nuclear agency’s 35-nation board finally chose Yuikya Amano to replace Mohammad ElBaradei as IAEA head. He will start in November 2009.

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Mr Amano won the required two-thirds majority from the IAEA governing board, defeating his South African rival, Abdul Samad Minty, by 23 votes to 11.

…

Mr Amano had the support of many industrialised countries while Mr Minty was favoured by most developing nations.

The vote reflected that split, with Mr Amano scraping through to victory by the bare minimum margin, without the support of developing states. There was also one abstention.

Mr. Amano has held senior arms control posts in Tokyo and most recently was Japan’s representative at the IAEA.

…

{The Rest of The Article}

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The jury is still out on what type of difference this election make on the agency, if any. While some are very unenthusiastic about this change, the BBC (as quoted above) seems to consider Mr. Amano to be the West’s guy.

However, insofar that Japan just entered into a major oil deal with Iran, I’m not very optimistic that Mr. Amano is going to be the watchdog we are looking for.

Tags: IAEA, Japan, Mohammad ElBaradei, oil, Yukiya Amano

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 10:31 am and is filed under Iran, Nuclear Weapons, United Nations, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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19 Responses to “Yukia Amano To Replace ElBaradei As IAEA Head”
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newsjunkie_ky

1 | July 2, 2009 10:51 am

I’m not holding breath expecting things to change.

First!
savage

2 | July 2, 2009 10:52 am

Second!
vagabond trader

3 | July 2, 2009 10:55 am

Turd, as for this useless pursuit,more ring around the nukees.
m

4 | July 2, 2009 11:02 am

OT, but it’s slow today so…

From Babba’s place:

‘Obama’ Think-Tank: Israel Should Cede Jerusalem Sovereignty
WrathofG-d

5 | July 2, 2009 11:03 am

re: #2 by savage

BTW: I think I scooped everyone on this one. Score one for The Blogmocracy.
WrathofG-d

6 | July 2, 2009 11:06 am

re: #4 by m

OT:

Part of Obama’s “Saudi Plan” is to turn Jeruslaem over to the U.N., &/or “East” Jerusalem to the Arabs.

Bibi already said “heck no!”. (http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=18197)

Wrath said: Before Islam, Medina Was Originally A Jewish City
-1/2 of Medina for 1/2 of Jerusalem – Terrorism Should NOT Be Rewarded!
m

7 | July 2, 2009 11:12 am

re: #6 by WrathofG-d

I really hope he meant it.
m

8 | July 2, 2009 11:12 am

^ Bibi
vagabond trader

9 | July 2, 2009 11:14 am

re: #5 by WrathofG-d

Awright, way to go Wrath!

Israel should demand Medina be returned.
savage

10 | July 2, 2009 11:17 am

re: #5 by WrathofG-d

You have done well, grasshopper!

You are free to go.
vagabond trader

11 | July 2, 2009 11:21 am

re: #6 by WrathofG-d

What??? No Ronpaulcreationismamateurphtographyiphonepatbuchananeuronazi nirtherthread???

I bid you adieu!
vagabond trader

12 | July 2, 2009 11:24 am

rotflol! Rush is doing an Abba sendup of “Dancing Queen,” with Barney Frank as “The Banking Queen.”
WrathofG-d

13 | July 2, 2009 11:31 am

I.A.E.A. on Iran
WrathofG-d

14 | July 2, 2009 11:41 am

Ed Waage On Mr. Amano.

“…
The choice is good news for the United States and the European countries since Minty would probably have governed in a manner similar to ElBaradei in dealings with Iran. Amano is a technocrat who will likely be more aggressive in carrying out the inspection requirements of the Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear weapons.

The Bush administration was dissatisfied with ElBaradei because of his failure to take a stronger stance against Iran as it pursued its uranium enrichment program.When ElBaradei sought re-election in 2005, the United States initially opposed ElBaradei, but there was no other viable candidate and ElBaradei was re-elected.

The IAEA is supposed to be a technical agency which provides reports to the UN Security Council at its request, yet ElBaradei often engaged in diplomatic maneuvers with Iran which have ultimately failed to have any impact on slowing the Iranian efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability.

Amano had the support of the developed nations while Minty was supported by the developing nations. The member states of the IAEA still have to ratify the selection later in the year, but that vote is normally just a rubber stamp. ElBaradei’s term ends on November 30, 2009.”
A_to_the_F

15 | July 2, 2009 12:39 pm

A Japanese Technocrat is orders of magnitude better than an Egyptian Muslim. Japan is our ally, in the real sense that Egypt is not. This is a victory for the forces of non-proliferation and a defeat for the nuclear black market enablers.
WrathofG-d

16 | July 2, 2009 12:45 pm

More background on Minty and Amano.
George guy, Lizard-in-exile

17 | July 2, 2009 1:22 pm

First, Japan is going to be a very important ally in the coming struggle against the Islamic Axis. So far as I know they’re still likely to be among the last nations to fall to the disciples of Muhammad, which makes them more important than most of them probably realize.

Second, the Japanese are the only people with firsthand experience of how terrible nuclear weapons are. In this sense, Mr. Amano is probably one of the best possible people to be in this position. Given the currently emerging situations in Iran and Pakistan, chances are reasonably good that Amano will be considerably less of a pushover than ElBaradei in dealing with the Middle East.

On the other hand, quite a lot of Japanese are, unfortunately, stuck on a sort of nuclear Chewbacca argument:

Q: Weren’t the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki utterly terrible?
A: Yes they were.
Q: Then how can any civilized nation keep a nuclear arsenal in good conscience?

The answer to that is, of course, any nation that would honor a nuclear disarmament treaty should be disarmed last after rogue leaders like Kimmy and Amadmanonjihad, who are tricksy and false. But typically they don’t get to that part.

Also, this is really worth seeing– Atlas: Attempted Nuclear Terrorism Already Happened
randian

18 | July 3, 2009 8:44 pm

The South African delegate is Muslim too? There sure are a lot of Muslims on the IAEA. In any case, it’s good that El Baradei is gone, he was a very good Muslim in his efforts to hide, obscure, and lie about nuclear weapons proliferation in the Muslim sphere.
nuclear bomb » Nuclear weapon

19 | July 5, 2009 2:10 pm

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