In an interview with the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, ElBaradei did not absolve the Islamic Republic, saying it was also engaged in “trickery.” But he put most of the blame on the United States for failing to understand what the Iranians really wanted.
Here is the full extract about Iran from the interview as published by Der Spiegel:
Spiegel: When you were still the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, you even felt confident that you could solve the nuclear conflict between Iran and the international community. But that didn’t work out.
ElBaradei: We were in fact on the verge of a solution on several occasions. The Iranians were willing in 2003, but the administration of then US President George W. Bush was not. Then, in 2010, when President Barack Obama extended his hand, the Iranians couldn’t take it, because of domestic political power struggles.
Spiegel: In your soon-to-be-published memoirs, you describe how you were deceived in your attempts to investigate.
ElBaradei: I adhere strictly to the facts, and part of that is that the Americans and the Europeans withheld important documents and information from us. They weren’t interested in a compromise with the government in Tehran, but regime change—by any means necessary.
Spiegel: And the poor Iranians were completely innocent?
ElBaradei: No, they too engaged in trickery. But the West never tried to understand that the most important thing for Iran was getting recognition and being treated as an equal.
Many officials in the Bush Administration felt that ElBaradei was a very naïve man who never understood the real goals of the Islamic Republic, while ElBaradei felt it was the Americans who were naïve and didn’t understand the Middle East.