I"A GENERAL CONFERENCE APPROVES APPOINTMENT OF MOHAMED ELBARADEI AS DIRECTOR GENERAL
Press Release
IAEA/1315
IAEA GENERAL CONFERENCE APPROVES APPOINTMENT OF MOHAMED ELBARADEI AS DIRECTOR GENERAL
19970929 Vienna, 29 September, (IAEA) -- The Director General -- designate of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei of Egypt, today outlined challenging tasks shaping the Agency's future and called for a broad consensus on the three pillars of sustainable development, nuclear safety and nuclear verification. The appointment of Mr. ElBaradei as the IAEA's next Director General was approved today by the Agency's General Conference, which is meeting in Vienna this week. He will succeed Hans Blix of Sweden, who is retiring after 16 years in office and on whom the General Conference today conferred the title of Director General Emeritus. The change of leadership takes effect on 1 December."For international organizations to enjoy the confidence and support of their members, they have to be responsive to their needs, show concrete achievements, conduct their activities in a cost-effective manner and respect a process of equitable representation, transparency and open dialogue", Mr. ElBaradei said in his statement to the General Conference. "The IAEA is an organization for the promotion of peace and sustainable development through international cooperation to utilize nuclear energy safely, while curbing nuclear weapons proliferation and hopefully, one day, verifying their elimination. The Agency can be justly proud of its record, to which Dr. Blix, to whom I pay special tribute, has contributed in such an outstanding manner during his tenure. He steered the Agency through turbulent times with deftness and vision."
Mr. ElBaradei outlined three sets of challenging and complex tasks ahead for the Agency and its Member States. The first concerns assistance to countries interested in using peaceful applications of nuclear technology in safe and productive ways to satisfy requirements for energy, food, health and water, among other basic needs, in line with their priorities for economic and social development. The second concerns building on progress over the past decade by consolidating the global regime for nuclear and radiation safety as a comprehensive and coherent set of well-accepted standards. The transformation of many of the safety norms into conventions and "hard law" is a welcome development that should continue with emphasis on adherence, he said. The third set of tasks concerns the verification of States' undertakings not to develop nuclear weapons. He called such undertakings "vital to international security". Under the strengthened safeguards system
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that States have adopted, he said, "the Agency must be able to provide additional assurances about an inspected State's nuclear activities, as this will undoubtedly become of critical importance as we move towards nuclear disarmament". He said it is now of pivotal importance that the Protocol incorporating the new safeguards measures gain universal support among States.
Mr. ElBaradei holds the rank of Ambassador in the Egyptian Foreign Service. He has been a senior member of the IAEA secretariat since 1984 and currently serves as Assistant Director General for External Relations. Born in 1942, he studied at the University of Cairo and at the New York University School of Law, where he was awarded his Master's degree and Doctorate in international law. He was appointed as IAEA Director General in June 1997 by the Agency's Board of Governors, which recommended the appointment to the IAEA General Conference for approval today.
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