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The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has appointed senior official Cornel Feruta as its acting director-general pending the naming of a permanent successor to the late Yukiya Amano, AP reported.

Feruta, a Romanian diplomat, is currently the chief coordinator of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA said its board of governors designated him as the agency’s interim leader on Thursday to ensure its “orderly and smooth functioning” until a long-term replacement is in place.

The board earlier Thursday held a minute of silence for Amano, the Japanese diplomat who led the IAEA for a decade until his death last week at age 72. Amano was extensively involved in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the cleanup of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.