Eurasia Press & News
Slovenia is set to propose a senior former diplomat as a candidate to head the International Atomic Energy Agency following an inconclusive election last month, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
Ernest Petric, currently a constitutional court judge and a former Slovenian ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, was the second person to enter the reopened race to succeed IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei.
“Petric is a candidate for director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” the ministry said.
It said the government was expected to formally endorse Petric soon. Its next session was planned for Thursday.
The IAEA directorship is a crucial U.N. appointment because the agency is responsible for preventing the illicit spread of nuclear arms to unstable states. The IAEA is now investigating Iran and Syria over allegations of secret nuclear activity.
Malaysia endorsed Noramly Muslim, the country’s atomic energy board chief, for the politically sensitive IAEA helm last week shortly after the agency’s 35-nation board of governors relaunched the campaign, asking for fresh nominations.
The next round of voting for a successor to ElBaradei, who retires in November after 12 years spanning three terms in office, is expected to be held in the first half of May.
Neither of the two original candidates — South Africa’s Abdul Samad Minty and Japan’s Yukiya Amano — garnered the minimum 2/3 majority in the IAEA board required for victory.
They were not seen as sufficiently broad-based, able to bridge an ideological divide in the governing body highlighted anew when industrialized nations overwhelmingly backed Amano while developing nations swung behind Minty.
Petric, 72, is a former ambassador to the United States and Austria and served as chairman of the Vienna-based IAEA governors in 2006-07. He has a degree in international law.
Another half-dozen possible compromise candidates have been mooted including three Latin Americans, a Spaniard and a Hungarian.
Amano, who outpolled Minty in several rounds of voting on March 26-27, is expected to be re-nominated by Japan. Minty’s status is unclear. The deadline for nominations is April 27.
