Mohamed ElBaradei: The Iraq conflict was for regime change, not weapons of mass destruction

Mohamed ElBaradei served as director common of the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company (IAEA) from 1997 till 2009, and in an interview with, he spoke this week concerning the US-led invasion of Iraq 20 years in the past, which he opposed.

“When you look now in hindsight, it wasn’t actually about weapons of mass destruction. It was about regime change,” he mentioned.

ElBaradei added, “They (america) thought the very best excuse was to say that Saddam Hussein was linked to al-Qaeda and had weapons of mass destruction.

They really had no proof. It was all about religion. They began a lot of deception and data deceptive.”

“Once we went to Iraq, we could not see something. There was completely no whiff of a revival of nuclear weapons. We went right into a conflict that ought to not have been (waged).

Now we notice it is a conflict that has a horrible human toll,” ElBaradei informed France 24. On the stage of Iraqis, horrific repercussions for the area, by way of terrorism and extremism.

He added, “Saddam Hussein was a dictator, there is no doubt about that. However do you go to a rustic, utterly destroy a rustic, simply to do away with a dictator? That is a query we see in lots of nations and we’d like that.

Perceive that is not the way in which to vary the regime, if An occasion, it has to return from inside. You’ll be able to’t impose a political system; you’ll be able to’t impose democracy.”

ElBaradei additionally expressed remorse that nobody was held accountable for the conflict. “There was no accountability in any respect.

Extra importantly, did we do something to verify we would not repeat such a catastrophe, such a catastrophe? I do not assume we did.”