One of the world’s most critical jobs, especially now as Iran continues to forge ahead with its nuclear programme despite widespread criticism from the west, is heading the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA,) and the race to succeed the outgoing director, Mohamed ElBaradei, now includes three European Union candidates, one of whom could square off against a leading candidate, Yukiya Amano of Japan, who was deadlocked with Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa in a first round of voting.
There is a short list of five candidates, Deutsche-Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported, which said the leading candidate is Amano. Three new candidates reportedly were nuclear industry executive Jean-Pol Poncelet from Belgium, Slovenian constitutional judge Ernest Petric, and Luis Echavarri of Spain, who heads the nuclear branch of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Consultations are set to get under way in the next weeks to see who is to tackle the nuclear standoff with Iran, the mystery of a possible Syrian nuclear programme and the emergence of atomic energy in the coming years. Diplomats in Vienna told dpa that the chances of Amano, the ambassador to the international organisations there, were intact, even though he narrowly missed the necessary twothirds majority among the 35 countries on the IAEA’s governing board in March.
He has been supported by the United States, as well as by European and Asian governments. In the end, a run-off between Amano and one of the three European candidates was likely, a European Union diplomat said. “I can’t imagine two Europeans remaining in the race until the end,” said the diplomat, who did not want to be identified. In the first round of voting, countries had to make a decision between the technical-minded Amano and the more political Minty, a senior diplomat who also represents his country at the IAEA.

Minty shored up 15 votes in March, and diplomats did not foresee that his support base will increase to succeed ElBaradei, who retires in November after 12 years in office. In the next round of voting that is expected for June, the choice will be between candidates with diplomatic backgrounds, such as Amano, Minty and Petric, a former envoy in Vienna, and those with technical backgrounds. Former Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Poncelet started his career as a plutonium fuel engineer and currently serves as a senior vice president at the French nuclear group Areva.

Poncelet, 57, started his career as a plutonium fuel engineer. Between 1995 and 1999, he served as deputy prime minister, minister of defense and minister of energy of his country. Likewise, Echavarri has experience in the nuclear industry, both from his earlier career as an engineer in Spain, and as the head of the OECD’s Nuclear Energy Agency in Paris. Poncelet’s position at one of the world’s top nuclear firms could turn out to be a problem, as some countries might see him to be too close to the industry, another European diplomat said.