The United States on Thursday dropped its objections to a third term for the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, and said it would vote for him in an upcoming election. The decision ended a solitary U.S. campaign against ElBaradei, who is running unopposed for re-election and has widespread international support despite the belief of Bush administration hard-liners that he has been too soft on Iran. Here are five facts about ElBaradei reported by Reuters: -- The outspoken Egyptian-born diplomat studied international law at New York University. -- ElBaradei has run the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1997. -- He has been at the IAEA for 20 years. -- Since taking over from Swedish diplomat Hans Blix in 1997, ElBaradei has led the agency through nuclear crises in Iraq, North Korea and Iran. Blix ran the IAEA for 16 years. -- ElBaradei refused to back U.S. assertions that Saddam Hussein had revived his nuclear weapons program. Even Washington now admits the IAEA was right in Iraq and U.S. intelligence wrong. --SP 2301 Local Time 2001 GMT
