Mr. Heinonen can't say as we sit in his office at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where he has been a senior fellow since retiring as IAEA deputy director-general in 2010.

WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Olli Heinonen: How Iran Went Nuclear

Mohamed ElBaradei's tenure as the IAEA's director-general from 1997-2009 wasn't distinguished by its vigilance regarding Iran.

WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Olli Heinonen: How Iran Went Nuclear

IAEA's director-general, Mohamed ElBaradei, had seemed initially to back the idea, if only to prevent Iran moving from working a handful of centrifuges to working hundreds, as it is threatening to do.

ECONOMIST: Nuclear diplomacy and Iran

The spontaneity of the street turmoil was confirmed by the absence of leaders, either from among the demonstrators, or from Egyptian intellectuals, existing opposition political figures, or media moths like Mohammed el-Baradei, former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who rushed back to Egypt from Vienna to speak English to the Western press and unsuccessfully claim leadership of the rising tide of protest.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: How to make Egypt safe for democracy