ElBaradei warns U.S. against spying on IAEA

1/5/2005 5:30:00 PM GMT

Mohammad ElBradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), warned the United States on Wednesday against spying on the UN atomic watchdog, saying that eavesdropping is a blow to “multilateralism and the United Nations system as we know it.”

In December, the Washington Post reported that the Bush administration listened in on phone calls between ElBaradei and Iranian officials, in an attempt to find evidence against the head of the UN watchdog.

The U.S. wants to oust ElBaradei as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It allegedly accuses him of being biased towards Iran, a charge strongly rejected by the IAEA chief who described it as a "gutter accusation".

Washington accuses Iran of covertly developing a nuclear weapons program and wants the IAEA to send Tehran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. But ElBaradei said that the "jury is still out" on whether Iran’s program is peaceful or not.

Iran denies the U.S. allegations and insists that its nuclear program is mainly aimed at the peaceful generation of technology.

“Major violation”

ElBaradei said that he knew about the issue from the media and wasn’t aware of the reported eavesdropping but added that “if it were true of course it would bother me a lot.”

“If it were true obviously it's something which is a major violation of our right to independence,” he said, adding that “our independence is the key to our success, to our credibility.”

“If you tamper with our independence, you really tamper with the whole fabric of multilateralism and the United Nations system as we know it,” ElBaradei said.

The White House declined to comment on the report that the U.S. was spying on ElBaradei.

But the U.S. government spokesman, Scott McClellan, said in December that the U.S. rejects awarding ElBaradei a third term as IAEA head, when his current term ends in November.

However, ElBaradei, 62, is the only candidate to head the IAEA in the next term as the deadline for submitting candidacy expired on December 31.

The 35 members of the IAEA must approve a candidate by a two-third votes.

A western diplomat said that the U.S. “can still block ElBaradei with 13 votes but the challenge remains to find another candidate”.