- Title: VARIOUS: Mohamed El-Baradei wins Nobel Peace Prize
- Date: 7th October 2005
- Summary: (FLASH) UNITED NATIONS (FILE - MARCH 7, 2003) (REUTERS) WIDE VIEW OF UNITED NATIONS BUILDING WITH TRAFFIC IN STREET
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations,People
- Reuters ID: LVA4R4Z41BALQ9TMPSBILMLKMHDZ
- Story Text: The U.N. nuclear watchdog and its head Mohamed ElBaradei, who clashed with Washington over Iraq, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday (October 7) for fighting the spread of nuclear weapons.
The Nobel Committee praised the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and ElBaradei, a 63-year-old Egyptian, for their battle to stop states and terrorists acquiring the atom bomb, and to ensure safe civilian use of nuclear energy.
"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way," said Nobel Committee Chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes. The Vienna-based IAEA had been a favourite from a list of 199 Nobel candidates in a year marking 60 years since the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Nobel Committee expressed hope that the award would spur work to outlaw atomic 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," said Danbolt Mjoes.
In Vienna, ElBaradei said the 1.3 million U.S. dollar Nobel award, widely viewed as the world's top accolade, would give him and his agency a much needed "shot in the arm" as they tackle nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea. "Well, I think the award basically sends a very strong message: 'Keep doing what you are doing -- be impartial, act with integrity, speak truth to power ', and that is what I continue to do. The advantage of having this recognition today, that it will strengthen my resolve, it will strengthen the integrity of the agency. The fact that there is overwhelming public support for our work definitely will hopefully help me to resolve some of the major outstanding issues we are facing today, including North Korea, including Iran, dissemination of fuel cycle, nuclear disarmament. It is a responsibility but it is also a shot in the arm as the president of the Nobel Committee told me over the phone that they want to give the agency and me a shot in the arm to move forward and we will do that," said ElBaradei.
ElBaradei said he had been sure he would not win because he had not received a traditional advance telephone call from the Committee, worried by media leaks. He learnt of his win at home while watching television with his wife, Aida. " And, then I heard in Norwegian the International Atomic Energy Agency and my name still in Norwegian the same and I was just on my feet with my wife, hugging and kissing, full of joy and full of pride," said an emotional ElBaradei. The Vienna-based IAEA had been a favourite from a list of 199 Nobel candidates in a year marking 60 years since the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Despite past differences, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned to congratulate ElBaradei and plaudits came from world leaders like Britain's Tony Blair and France's Jacques Chirac, who said he was "delighted". U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the 2001 peace laureate, said the prize sent a very strong message regarding non-proliferation and disarmament. "Let me say that I am delighted that the prize was given to the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director-general Mr Mohammed ElBaradei. I think it's a message for all of us, that we should take the issue of non-proliferation and disarmament very, very seriously." He also added that the prize should be a wake-up call to the perils of nuclear war, referring to last month's UN summit as a 'disgrace' because no agreement could be reached on non-proliferation and disarmament. The IAEA has had little success in standoffs with Iran quarters, most recently from both the United States and Iran in his efforts to investigate Tehran's nuclear programme. ElBaradei came to prominence before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 by challenging Washington's argument that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found after the overthrow of Saddam and a programme discovered in the early 1990s appeared to have been abandoned as Iraq had said. The United States had opposed his reappointment for a third term in a post he has held since 1997. North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors on Dec. 31, 2002 and pulled out of the global benchmark arms-control pact, the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) before announcing it had nuclear weapons. And the IAEA has been probing Iran's nuclear programme for 2-1/2 years to determine whether its aims are peaceful as Tehran says or aimed at producing atomic weapons as Washington charges. The prize, named after Sweden's Alfred Nobel, a philanthropist and inventor of dynamite, was first awarded in 1901 and is due to be handed out in Oslo on December 10. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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