Mohamed ElBaradei

Vice-president of Egypt and Director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency

• Born: June 17, 1942
• Place of Birth: Cairo, Egypt

Mohamed ElBaradei emerged as a key player in international politics after nuclear proliferation in Iraq and Iran became front-page stories during the administration of US president George W. Bush. As director of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for twelve years, he was at the forefront of efforts to determine whether Iraq and Iran were developing nuclear bombs in defiance of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). After retiring from the IAEA at the end of 2009, ElBaradei returned to Egypt with a view toward challenging incumbent president Hosni Mubarak in elections scheduled for September 2011. After popular demonstrations against Mubarak in January 2011, ElBaradei supported, and emerged as a possible leader of, demonstrators demanding Mubarak's immediate resignation. For one month in 2013, following the ouster of both Mubarak and his first elected successor, Mohammed Morsi, ElBaradei served as acting vice president of Egypt under acting president Adly Mansour.

Egyptian law scholar and diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei served as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations organization devoted to monitoring and controlling the spread of nuclear weapons, from 1997 until 2009. During this time, he emerged as a widely trusted neutral monitor of the activities of countries accused of developing nuclear weapons, notably Iran and Iraq, for which work he and the IAEA were jointly awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. After retiring from his position in November 2009, ElBaradei returned to Egypt in February 2010 and announced he was considering launching a second career as a politician, challenging the longtime presidency of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

ElBaradei had no built-in constituency in Egypt, where Mubarak had held the presidency since the assassination of his predecessor, Anwar Sadat, in 1981. While presidential elections were held every six years, no candidate was allowed to oppose Mubarak until 2005; Egyptian citizens could only vote to approve or reject the candidate appointed by Parliament. In 2005, Mubarak asked Parliament to amend the rules to allow for multicandidate elections. Despite this, he was reelected once again by an overwhelming majority, amid accusations of vote rigging, corruption, and intimidation of opposing candidates. The 2011 election, in which ElBaradei hoped to run, seemed unlikely to have a different outcome.

All this changed in January 2011, when tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities in apparently spontaneous demonstrations to demand Mubarak's immediate resignation. The demonstrations were part of what was soon dubbed the Arab Spring, a wave of popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa at the time. ElBaradei, whose experience at IAEA had given him an international reputation, and therefore access to leading Western news media, joined in those calls, putting himself forward as a secular alternative both to Mubarak and to Egypt's main political opposition, the outlawed Islamist organization known as the Muslim Brotherhood.

ElBaradei had earlier come into conflict with George W. Bush's administration over the question of whether Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction—the rationale given for the United States' invasion in March 2003. ElBaradei was also active in investigating whether Iran was developing nuclear weapons. In December 2004, the Washington Post reported that the Bush administration had wiretapped ElBaradei's telephone conversations with Iranian diplomats "in search of ammunition to oust him" as IAEA director general. The administration complained that ElBaradei had questioned its claims about Iraq's nuclear program and was "now taking a cautious approach on Iran." Nevertheless, when efforts to replace ElBaradei as head of the IAEA received no support from any other countries, the Bush administration reluctantly acceded to his appointment to a third four-year term.

Under ElBaradei's direction, the IAEA played a key role in four international crises: Iran's insistence on proceeding with a program to enrich uranium; a similar program in North Korea, which resulted in a nuclear test explosion in October 2006; the question of whether Iraq had a nuclear-weapons program; and the black market in nuclear materials and technology run by A. Q. Khan, the man responsible for Pakistan's successful effort to develop a nuclear weapon in the 1990s.

Biography

ElBaradei was born in Cairo on June 17, 1942, the son of a lawyer and one-time president of the Egyptian Bar Association. He earned his bachelor's degree in law from the University of Cairo in 1962, followed by a master's degree in international law from Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies in 1971 and a doctor of juridical science degree in international law from New York University in 1974.

ElBaradei entered Egypt's diplomatic service in 1964. Twice he served as a member of Egypt's permanent missions to the United Nations, in New York and Geneva, specializing in the areas of legal issues, political issues, and arms control. He was named special assistant to Egypt's foreign minister in 1974. In 1980, he became a senior fellow in charge of the international law program at the UN Institute for Training and Research.

ElBaradei began his career with the IAEA as a staff member in 1984. He later served in various policy positions, including legal adviser and assistant director general for external relations. ElBaradei was appointed to a four-year term as director general of the IAEA on December 1, 1997, a second term in 2001, and a third term in 2005.

In October 2005, ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for their commitment to preventing nuclear energy from being used for military purposes. In its press release announcing the prize, the Nobel committee declared, "At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation. This principle finds its clearest expression today in the work of the IAEA and its director general. . . . The director general has stood out as an unafraid advocate of new measures to strengthen that [nuclear nonproliferation] regime."

Political Career

In February 2010, ElBaradei returned to Egypt, where he was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd urging him to run for president against longtime incumbent Hosni Mubarak in elections scheduled for September 2011. Although not formally declared a candidate, ElBaradei had issued statements critical of Mubarak for several months preceding his return. Analysts said ElBaradei faced several serious challenges in a possible presidential run, including a law that requires candidates to have held a leadership position in their parties for at least a year before running.

In 2010, Mubarak's opponents fell into two main camps—members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was legally not allowed to run a candidate, and pro-Western secular reformists—two camps unlikely to agree on a single candidate. The members of the Muslim Brotherhood were further divided between conservative older members, who opposed participating in politics, and more politically aggressive younger members.

This political balance changed dramatically in the second half of January 2011, when tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets to demand Mubarak's resignation. After a week, Mubarak announced he would not be a candidate for the presidential election scheduled for September, but he also vowed to remain in office to fulfill his term. ElBaradei was among those demanding that Mubarak resign sooner. Ten days later, on February 11, 2011, Mubarak's vice president announced that he had officially resigned.

Following Mubarak's resignation, the Egyptian military assumed temporary control of the government until elections could be held the following summer. ElBaradei announced his intention to run for president in March 2011; in January 2012, however, he withdrew his candidacy in protest of the military's continued control of the government, saying in a statement, "My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a real democratic system." That April, he formed and became leader of the Constitution Party, a liberal center-left political party intended to "save the great 25 January revolution" and remain true to its demands and ideals.

Egypt's first elections following the revolution were held in May and June of 2012. The winner was Mohammed Morsi, chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood–founded Freedom and Justice Party. Throughout Morsi's first year as president, however, Egyptian citizens grew increasingly disenchanted as he seemed to be consolidating executive power and allowing Islamist ideals to have greater influence in what was formerly a largely secular state. In November 2012, following a constitutional declaration from Morsi in which he granted himself new powers, ElBaradei began meeting with other opposition politicians, including officials from Mubarak's former regime, to form a coalition of diverse political parties called the National Salvation Front.

In late June and early July 2013, following several months of growing unrest, millions of demonstrators once again took to the streets, calling for Morsi's resignation. The movement was backed by a coalition consisting of several groups, including the National Salvation Front, and led by Egyptian military leader General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. ElBaradei was chosen to represent the National Salvation Front in the coalition. The military gave Morsi until July 3 to resign; when he did not, he was arrested by members of Egypt's Republican Guard, and el-Sisi announced that new presidential elections would be held.

In the meantime, Supreme Constitutional Court justice Adly Mansour was appointed interim president, and ElBaradei was made interim vice president shortly thereafter. However, he resigned just one month later following violent security crackdowns on groups of Morsi supporters that left hundreds dead. In his resignation letter, he wrote, "I saw that there were peaceful ways to end this clash in society. . . . It has become difficult for me to continue bearing responsibility for decisions that I do not agree with and whose consequences I fear."

He remained largely out of public life in the following years. In 2024, he wrote a commentary in which he decried the multiple conflicts in the world, noting the Russian invasion in Ukraine, fighting in Yemen and Sudan, and more. He also addressed the Israel-Palestine war, which began in October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. He was critical of and shocked by the deaths of civilians and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Personal Life

ElBaradei is married to kindergarten teacher Aida Elkachef. They have two children and two grandchildren.

Bibliography

Afify, Heba. "Update: ElBaradei Returns to Egyptian Politics with New Revolutionary Party." Egypt Independent. Al-Masry Al-Youm, 28 Apr. 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.

ElBaradei, Mohamed. "Ensuring Nuclear Safety & Security." Presidents & Prime Ministers May–June 2001: 32+. Print.

ElBaradei, Mohamed. "Saving Ourselves from Self-Destruction." New York Times. New York Times, 12 Feb. 2004. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.

ElBaradei, Mohamed. "The International Order Is Dying in Gaza." Project Syndicate, 15 Jan. 2024, www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/end-gaza-war-last-chance-for-peace-palestine-by-mohamed-elbaradei-2024-01. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

Fleishman, Jeffrey. "Egypt's VP Mohamed ElBaradei Resigns in Protest against Crackdown." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 14 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.

Kirkpatrick, David D. "Nobel Laureate Drops Bid for Presidency of Egypt." New York Times. New York Times, 14 Jan. 2012. Web. 16 Jan. 2015.

Land, Thomas. "Converting a Crisis into an Opportunity." Middle East Jan. 2006: 22–23. Print.

Linzer, Dafna. "IAEA Leader's Phone Tapped." Washington Post 12 Dec. 2004: A1. Print.

Linzer, Dafna. "US Drops Opposition to IAEA Chief." Washington Post 8 June 2005: A13. Print.