ElBaradei Critiques the U.S., Yet Nurtures Ties

By STEVE STECKLOW, DAVID CRAWFORD And MATT BRADLEY

CAIRO—Hitting the streets of Cairo with bullhorn in hand, the former head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency has been demanding the immediate resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, denouncing the diplomacy of the Obama administration and defending the Muslim Brotherhood, a controversial Islamic group.
But despite Mohamed ElBaradei's seemingly anti-West rhetoric, the views he has expressed in the past are much more nuanced.
Former U.N. colleagues say the Nobel laureate gets along well with President Barack Obama and had numerous conversations with him in 2009 over pressuring Iran to halt its uranium enrichment activities. Mr. ElBaradei's personal Facebook page features a photograph of him shaking hands with Mr. Obama and smiling. Another shows him with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, center, prepared to address crowds in Cairo on Jan. 30.

And while as head of the IAEA Mr. ElBaradei was privately irked over Israeli policy—especially after its 2007 bombing of an alleged Syrian nuclear site—ex-colleagues say he shared warm relations with some Israeli leaders, including former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. More significantly, as a young diplomat with Egypt's Foreign Ministry, Mr. ElBaradei was part of the team that negotiated the peace settlement between Israel and Egypt at Camp David in 1978.
As a career diplomat, he's lived in a world vastly apart from the one that has produced the disenchanted youth fighting on Cairo's seething streets.
Mr. ElBaradei, 68 years old, was born in Cairo, the son of the late Mostafa ElBaradei, a lawyer who served as president of the Egyptian Bar Association.
After earning a bachelor's degree in law at the University of Cairo in 1962, Mr. ElBaradei joined Egypt's diplomatic service, and worked in U.N. missions in Geneva and New York. He earned a master's and doctorate in law at New York University in the early 1970s. Andreas Lowenfeld, an emeritus professor at NYU, recalls Mr. ElBaradei as "a strong student and a serious person."
As a law student, Mr. ElBaradei hung out in Greenwich Village amid growing protests over the Vietnam War. "That really in my view, and I think he would agree, shaped his view about the value of an open society," says Laban Coblentz, Mr. ElBaradei's longtime speechwriter.
He later joined the U.N. overseeing an international law program before working for the IAEA. He also taught law as an adjunct professor at NYU.
Mr. Coblentz says Mr. ElBaradei fondly recalls his years living in New York, including attending the opera and New York Knicks games. He also developed a fondness for cheeseburgers.
In 1997, Mr. ElBaradei became the head of the IAEA—but initially without the support of his own country. Mr. Mubarak's government favored Mohamed Ibrahim Shaker, a career diplomat and former Egyptian ambassador to the IAEA. But after Mr. Shaker and other candidates failed to win enough votes, the U.S. successfully lobbied for Mr. ElBaradei as a compromise candidate, according to people familiar with the matter.
Even as he disavowed interest in becoming Egypt's next president, Mr. ElBaradei said in an interview Wednesday that the country's foreign policy was "a failure" and that it "needs to be completely realigned."
As for his role going forward, he said, "all I want to do is share and deliver this country to catch up with the rest of the world."

Write to Steve Stecklow at steve.stecklow@wsj.com and David Crawford at david.crawford@wsj.com
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