VIENNA, April 5: The governing body of the UN nuclear watchdog will meet later this month to decide whether Mohamed ElBaradei will remain for a third term at the agency’s helm despite fierce opposition by the United States. An internal document circulated among the 35 members of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) board of governors, obtained by Reuters, said the closed-door meeting would take place on April 27.

ElBaradei, an Egyptian lawyer with decades of experience as a UN diplomat, has been the director general of the IAEA since 1997, when he took over from Sweden’s Hans Blix, who later became the head of the UN arms inspection body UNMOVIC.

“The US is still opposed to the appointment of ElBaradei and will do its best to see that someone else runs the agency,” a diplomat said.—Reuters