The IAEA Board of Governors Gives Kabuki Theater a Bad Name

Sept. 16, 2022 (EIRNS)—Twenty-six of the thirty-five countries on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors actually voted yesterday for a resolution calling upon Russia to “immediately cease all actions against, and at, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and any other nuclear facility in Ukraine.” Note, the resolution might have covered their sophistry by writing, “cease all actions against and/or at the plant.” At least, that is sort of like “cease beating one’s wife and/or living in your house.” The latter is going on, while the former is suggested of having a more or less equal chance of going on.

But, while one might quarrel with the tortured English, it appears that the IAEA’s Board has adopted Kiev’s bizarre position that Russia is both policing the plant and is acting against the plant that they are at. That is quite a finding, especially considering that the IAEA team that Kiev finally allowed to get to the Zaporizhzhia plant was there when the Ukrainians fired American-made ammunition at the plant. Nor were the IAEA allowed to examine and/or comment upon the evidence of previous artillery casings and the like from previous attacks. That team presented a silly report, that there’s artillery damage to the plant, which should stop—but, gee, we couldn’t say where the damage is coming from. The IAEA Board has gone beyond both silliness and ignoring the evidence, and seems to have simply embraced a bizarre world, where up is down and down is up.

Otherwise, it decries presence of Russian forces and Rosatom personnel at the ZNPP “which continue to pose serious and direct threat to the safety and security of these facilities and other civilian personnel, thereby significantly raising the risk of a nuclear accident or incident, which endangers the population of Ukraine.” Don’t blink. The Russian personnel secure an important facility in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast that they control, providing electricity for the last six months to both Ukrainian- and Russian-controlled areas. The “serious and direct threat” is none other than, by their presence there, that they are drawing artillery fire from Kiev’s forces. But, evidently, it is not permitted to mention the 800-pound gorilla in the room.

Finally, the Board “deplores the Russian Federation’s persistent violent actions against nuclear facilities in Ukraine.” So, evidently, Russia not only beats his wife, but beats other wives in the neighborhood—that is, a serial wife-beater.

It might be the last time that office-holders, administrators, functionaries and the like are compelled to perform a ritualistic “kabuki” theater, but the IAEA Board’s performance will be hard to beat.