Hans Blix: Encyclopedia II - Hans Blix - Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency 1981-1997

Hans Blix - Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency 1981-1997

Blix was the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency between 1981 and 1997.

He personally made repeated inspection visits to the Iraqi nuclear reactor Osiraq before its attempted destruction by the Iranians, in 1980, and its eventual destruction by the Israeli Air Force in 1981.

Although most agreed that Iraq was years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon, the Iranians and the Israelis felt any raid must occur well before nuclear fuel was loaded to prevent nuclear fallout. The attack was regarded as being in breach with the United Nations Charter (S/RES/487) and international law and was widely condemned.

Blix and the IAEA never discovered the clandestine nuclear program that was "initiated" by Iraq in the 1970s [1] on the site where Osiraq was harbored. In 1982, the Reagan Administration removed Iraq from the State Department's list of countries that allegedly supported terrorism. The collaboration with Hussein during and after the Iran-Iraq War by several industrialised countries has lead many to believe that there was no strong political will to fully utilise the IAEA.[2]

Iraq was alternately praised and admonished by the IAEA for its cooperation and lack thereof. It was only after the first Gulf War that the full extent of Iraq's nuclear programs, which had switched from a plutonium based weapon design to a highly enriched uranium design after the destruction of Osiraq, became known.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency 1981-1997", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki