The plain truth is that if America wishes to carry the rest of the world with it, it has to demonstrate consistency in its foreign policy. Time and again, double standards undermine confidence in Washington’s proclaimed desire to combat terrorism, to crack down on torture and the abuse of human rights and to bring an end to the menace of nuclear weapons. This last issue is currently back in the spotlight with the reappointment of Mohamed El-Baradei for a third four-year term as chief of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) despite initial strong objections from the Americans. It was also highlighted Monday here in Saudi Arabia when the Council of Ministers insisted that Israel should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and open up its nuclear facilities to international inspection. Washington’s concern about another term for the 62-year-old El-Baradei undoubtedly stems from the fact that he is likely to want to retire in 2009. He may therefore be tempted to make good use of his experience in the job and try to conclude his work by going out of his way to confront issues, such as Israel’s N-weapons program which the Americans would prefer he left alone. Yet he has opened his new term in office by pursuing one of the proliferation issues of greatest concern to the Americans — that of Iran. The Iranians want a rapid close to the two-year IAEA investigation into their program but yesterday El-Baradei made it clear that Tehran still has a number of questions to be answered satisfactorily. Iranian talks with the EU have been focusing on their guaranteeing they have no weapons program, in return for trade, security and technology benefits.
However, while the EU effort has undoubtedly been useful and has certainly headed off another bare-knuckle confrontational approach from the Americans, a deal simply with the Europeans cannot absolve the Iranians from their responsibilities to the IAEA of which Iran became a member in 1958. As with North Korea, there is a strong political impetus from both the Americans and the Iranians over the disputed N-program. Most Iranians do not trust a word Washington says and the Americans have never forgotten the humiliation of the long outrage of the US Embassy hostage crisis. Yet though he has accepted American proposals that tougher IAEA scrutiny be put in place, El-Baradei is clearly no US puppet, but rather the unbiased and honorable representative of the international community which has come together in the UN. As such, it would not be surprising if he did not choose to add Israel’s refusal to sign the NPT and be inspected to his current agenda. While in law, the IAEA may have limited jurisdiction over a non-treaty state, the moral case for Israel to put its nuclear cards on the table is overwhelming. If El-Baradei launched such an initiative, it might help convince the Iranians that they were not being singled out because of US pressure. However there is no way that Israel will abandon its obdurate silence on its N-program without serious pressure from Washington and — given that part of its nuclear technology was stolen from the US — even that pressure may not be enough. It might, however, be sufficient for Washington to demonstrate that there is not one law for America and its friends and another for everyone else.
