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Mohamed ElBaradei emerged as a key player in international politics after nuclear proliferation in Iraq and Iran became front-page stories during the administration of US president George W. Bush. As director of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for twelve years, he was at the forefront of efforts to determine whether Iraq and Iran were developing nuclear bombs in defiance of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). After retiring from the IAEA at the end of 2009, ElBaradei returned to Egypt with a view toward challenging incumbent president Hosni Mubarak in elections scheduled for September 2011. After popular demonstrations against Mubarak in January 2011, ElBaradei supported, and emerged as a possible leader of, demonstrators demanding Mubarak's immediate resignation. For one month in 2013, following the ouster of both Mubarak and his first elected successor, Mohammed Morsi, ElBaradei served as acting vice president of Egypt under acting president Adly Mansour.