El Baradei Does Iran's Bidding

The Egyptian IAEA chief has been thoroughly intimidated or bought. Either way, the attempt of the Nobel committee to stiffen his spine failed miserably. He has permitted Iran to influence his staff decisions. The result?

U.N. nuclear chief, Chris Charlier, is to be relegated to a desk job. The indispensible Eli Lake reports:

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency effectively fired his lead Iran investigator this spring at the request of the Iranians, according to a new report in the German newspaper Die Welt am Sonntag.

The lead inspector of the 15-man IAEA team in Iran, Chris Charlier, told the newspaper that the IAEA chief, Mohammad ElBaradei, agreed to a request the Iranian government made, and relegated Mr. Charlier, a 64-year-old Belgian, to office work at the organization's Vienna-based headquarters. The Iranian request was reportedly made when Mr. ElBaradei visited Iran in April.

To be honest, given the spineless behavior of the UNSC he is not alone. So emblodened is Iran that it is threatening the G-8:

Yesterday the Associated Press reported that Iran is threatening the Group of Eight Industrialized Nations not to draft a resolution on Iran's nuclear program.

"Any [G?8] summit decision on Iran ? if premature and incomplete ? could harm the current positive trend of negotiations," the wire quoted the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, as saying.

I cannot quarrel with their logic given their recent experience.