Hans Martin Blix (born 28 June 1928) is a Swedish diplomat and politician for the Liberal People's Party. He was Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs (1978-1979) and later became the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. +more
Life and career
Blix was born in Uppsala, Sweden. He is the son of professor Gunnar Blix and Hertha Wiberg, and grandson of professor Magnus Blix. +more
Between 1962 and 1978 Blix was a member of the Swedish delegation at the Disarmament Conference in Geneva. He held several other positions in the Swedish administration between 1963 and 1976, and from 1961 to 1981, he served on the Swedish delegation to the United Nations. +more
Blix chaired the Swedish Liberal Party's campaign during the 1980 referendum on nuclear power, campaigning in favour of retention of the Swedish nuclear energy program.
Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (1981-1997)
Blix became Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency between 1981 and 1997 after Sigvard Eklund.
Blix personally made repeated inspection visits to the Iraqi nuclear reactor Osiraq before its attempted destruction by the Iranians, in 1980, and its eventual destruction by the Israeli Air Force in 1981 during Operation Opera. Although most agreed that Iraq was years away from being able to build a nuclear weapon, the Iranians and the Israelis felt any raid must occur well before nuclear fuel was loaded to prevent nuclear fallout. +more
Another significant event during his time as head of the IAEA was the Chernobyl disaster on 26 April 1986, a nuclear accident rated at the highest level 7 on the IAEA's International Nuclear Event Scale.
Important
Iraq disarmament crisis (2002-2003)
During the Iraq disarmament crisis before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Blix was called back from retirement by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to lead the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in charge of monitoring Iraq. Kofi Annan originally recommended Rolf Ekéus, who worked with UNSCOM in the past, but Russia and France vetoed his appointment.
Blix personally admonished Saddam for "cat and mouse" games and warned Iraq of "serious consequences" if it attempted to hinder or delay his mission.
In his report to the UN Security Council on 14 February 2003, Blix claimed that "so far, UNMOVIC has not found any such weapons [of mass destruction], only a small number of empty chemical munitions."
In 2004 Blix gave a statement that "there were about 700 inspections, and in no case did we find weapons of mass destruction."
Blix's statements about the Iraq WMD program came to contradict the claims of the George W. +more
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Blix said, "I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media. +more
In 2004, Blix published a book, Disarming Iraq, where he gives his account of the events and inspections before the coalition began its invasion.
CIA investigation
Senior U. S. +more
Blix said he suspected his home and office were bugged by the United States, while he led teams searching for Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction. Although these suspicions were never directly substantiated, evidence of a request for bugging of UN security council representatives around the time the US was seeking approval from the council came to light after a British government translator leaked a document "allegedly from an American National Security Agency" requesting that British intelligence put wiretaps on delegates to the UN security council.
Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission
Since 2003 Blix has been chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC), an independent body funded by the Swedish government and based in Stockholm.
In December 2006, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission said in a report that Pakistan's nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan could not have acted alone when passing on nuclear data and designs "without the awareness of the Pakistan government."
President of WFUNA
In 2006 Hans Blix was elected president of the World Federation of United Nations Associations at its 38th Plenary Assembly.
Humanitarian initiatives
In 2009 Blix joined the project Soldiers of Peace, an anti-war film.
Head of Advisory Board for United Arab Emirates Nuclear Program
Blix chairs a panel of advisors who oversee the establishment of the UAE's Dh150 billion atomic energy programme. He leads the nine-person board, which meets twice a year. +more
Honours
Doctorate Honoris causa of the University of Moscow in 1987. * Recipient of the Henry DeWolf Smyth Nuclear Statesman Award in 1988. +more
In media
Blix appeared in the documentaries The World According to Bush, and Europe & USA: Behind the Scenes of a Political Rupture. *A marionette version of Blix was eaten by a nurse shark in the film Team America: World Police.
Bibliography
Disarming Iraq: The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction. Hans Blix, Pantheon (9 March 2004). . * Why Nuclear Disarmament Matters. Hans Blix, The MIT Press (30 April 2008). .
Living people
Liberals (Sweden) politicians
Swedish diplomats
Swedish Ministers for Foreign Affairs
Directors General of the International Atomic Energy Agency
Sommar (radio program) hosts
Olof Palme Prize laureates
Uppsala University alumni
Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Columbia University alumni
Swedish expatriates in the United Kingdom
Swedish expatriates in Austria
People from Uppsala
World Federation of United Nations Associations
Recipients of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 3rd class
Recipients of the Illis quorum
Latest activity
