American Jewish leader criticizes Egyptian opposition figure for handling Iran file

31 January 2011

Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice-president of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has accused Egyptian opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei of covering up Iran's true nuclear ambitions when he directed the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, in Vienna. "He is a stooge of Iran, and I don't use the term lightly," Hoenlein said in an interview with ‘Yeshiva World News’ on the Egyptian crisis. "He fronted for them, he distorted the reports."

ElBaradei, who directed the IAEA from 1997 to 2009, returned to Egypt after his third term ended. He has since been touted as a possible challenger to the country’s embattled President Hosni Mubarak. ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace Prize together with the IAEA, has become the consensus candidate of various opposition groups for transitional leader.

During his term as IAEA chief, ElBaradei said Iran was further away from a nuclear weapon than many in the West claimed and castigated Western powers for suggesting that a military option against Iran was increasingly possible. ElBaradei made it clear that his posture stemmed from the US failure to heed warnings from him and other weapons experts that Iraq did not have a weapons capacity, and to invade the country nonetheless. He criticized Iran for not cooperating with IAEA inspectors but also argued that the best means of overcoming the crisis was to engage with Iran.