UN Nuclear Watchdog Aims to Name Permanent Chief by October
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aims to appoint a new Director-General in October to assume office by January, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said on Thursday.
Romanian diplomat Cornel Feruta will head the agency until member states agree on a permanent successor to deceased Director General Yukiya Amano, the agency said last week.
The closing date for applications will be Sept. 5, the 35-nation Board of Governors decided in its meeting on Thursday.
The IAEA announced last week that Yukiya Amano had died, leaving the agency with a leadership vacuum at a time of tensions between Iran and the West following Washington’s decision last year to quit a 2015 international deal.
The Japanese diplomat held the position of IAEA director general since 2009 when he took over from Mohamed ElBaradei and began steering the international body through a period of intense diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program.
Amano, on several occasions, reaffirmed Iran's compliance with its nuclear-related commitments under the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). US President Donald Trump, however, pulled his country out of the JCPOA in May 2018 and re-imposed sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticisms.
