ElBaradei Wins Nobel Peace
Prize
Yahoo News/AP
October 7, 2005
OSLO, Norway - Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency
won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their drive to curb the spread of
atomic weapons by using diplomacy to resolve standoffs with Iran and North
Korea over their nuclear programs.
The Nobel Committee's decision lent support to negotiations and inspections,
not military action, as the best way to handle volatile nations. It also was
seen as a message to the Bush administration, which invaded Iraq after claiming
U.N. efforts to eradicate Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions had failed and
which opposed ElBaradei's appointment to another term.
U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, once the U.S. point man on nuclear
nonproliferation and a key opponent of ElBaradei's reappointment, refused to
comment when asked if the prize was a rebuff to U.S. strategy.
"I'll stick with the secretary's statement," he said Friday as he entered
the United Nations, referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's
congratulations.
The Nobel committee said ElBaradei and the IAEA should be recognized for
addressing one of the greatest dangers facing the world.
"At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the
Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met
through the broadest possible international cooperation. This principle finds
its clearest expression today in the work of the IAEA and its director
general," the committee said.
ElBaradei said in Vienna, Austria, that the prize "sends a strong message"
about the agency's disarmament efforts and will strengthen his resolve to
prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
"The award basically sends a very strong message, which is: Keep doing what
you are doing," the 63-year-old Egyptian said. "It's a responsibility but it's
also a shot in the arm. They want to give the agency and me a shot in the arm
to move forward."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he hoped the world would now have a
greater appreciation of the IAEA's work — and take it more seriously.
"I hope that this award wakes us all up," he said.
ElBaradei, who was reappointed last month to a third term, has contended
with U.S. opposition to his tenure, much of it stemming from Washington's
perception he was too soft on Iran for not declaring it in violation of the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
That stance blocked a U.S. bid to haul Tehran before the U.N. Security
Council, where it could face possible sanctions, for more than two years. The
IAEA passed a resolution last month warning Tehran of such referral unless it
allayed fears about its nuclear program.
ElBaradei also refused to endorse Washington's contention that Iran was
working to make nuclear weapons and disputed U.S. assertions that Saddam
Hussein's regime in Iraq had an active atomic weapons program — both
claims that remain unproven, despite growing suspicions about Tehran's nuclear
agenda.
He later told the British Broadcasting Corp. he was unfazed by the U.S.
opposition.
"You cannot satisfy everybody," he said. "It's a thankless job. You will not
be able to get everybody to applaud."
ElBaradei and the agency had been among the names mentioned as speculation
mounted in recent days the Nobel committee would seek to honor the victims of
nuclear weapons and those who try to contain their use.
The committee has repeatedly awarded its prize to anti-nuclear weapons
campaigners on the major anniversaries of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, Japan.
"This is a message to all the people of the world: Do what you can to get
rid of nuclear weapons," Nobel committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said. "The
people's power is formidable."
On the 50th anniversary, in 1995, the prize went to anti-nuclear campaigner
Joseph Rotblat and his Pugwash group. In 1985, it went to International
Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and in 1975 to Soviet nuclear
scientist-turned-anti-nuclear campaigner Andrei Sakharov.
"We will never give up and we must never give in," Mjoes said.
A record 199 nominations were received for the prize, which includes $1.3
million, a gold medal and a diploma. ElBaradei and the IAEA will share the
award when they receive it Dec. 10 in the Norwegian capital.
The Nobel committee called ElBaradei "an unafraid advocate" of new measures
to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
"At a time when disarmament efforts appear deadlocked, when there is a
danger that nuclear arms will spread both to states and to terrorist groups,
and when nuclear power again appears to be playing an increasingly significant
role, IAEA's work is of incalculable importance," the committee said.
Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, a friend and colleague of
ElBaradei, told The Associated Press the award was "very encouraging and
fortunate."
"I see it as an endorsement of the professional and independent role of the
IAEA and of international verification in the field of nuclear power and
nonproliferation," Blix said.
Under ElBaradei, the IAEA has risen from a nondescript bureaucracy
monitoring nuclear sites worldwide to a pivotal institution at the vortex of
efforts to disarm Iran and North Korea.
Austere and methodical, ElBaradei took a strident line as he guided the
agency through the most serious troubles it faced since the end of the Cold
War.
He accused North Korea, for example, of "nuclear brinkmanship" in December
2002 after it expelled two inspectors monitoring a mothballed nuclear complex.
Pyongyang said the plant needed to go back on line because of an electricity
shortage.
On the Net:
http://www.nobelprize.org
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