- Title: U.S. Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz, among contenders for Nobel Peace Prize
- Date: 1st October 2016
- Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (FILE - FEBRUARY 23, 2015) (REUTERS) **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAHY **** ARMED SECURITY OUTSIDE HOTEL LAKE GENEVA VIENNA, AUSTRIA (FILE - JULY 14, 2015) (REUTERS) MINISTERS ARRIVING FOR GROUP PHOTO FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY, FEDERICA MOGHERINI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF, THE HEAD OF THE IRANIAN ATOMIC ENERGY ORGANISATION, ALI AKBAR SALEHI, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, SERGEI LAVROV AND FORMER BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY, PHILIP HAMMOND, STANDING TOGETHER FOR PHOTO SHOOT ZARIF LAUGHING WITH MOGHERINI KERRY JOKING WITH HAMMOND, LAVROV AND SALEHI MINISTERS POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS ZARIF POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER WANG YI, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER LAURENT FABIUS, GERMAN MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, FRANK-WALTER STEINMEIER AND HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY, FEDERICA MOGHERINI, POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS MINISTERS LEAVING ROOM
- Embargoed: 16th October 2016 15:56
- Keywords: Nobel Peace Prize Ernest Moniz Iran Nuclear deal Geneva John Kerry Secretary of Energy
- Location: WASHINGTON D.C. AND TEXAS, D.C., UNITED STATES/ VIENNA, AUSTRIA/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ BUSHEHR, IRAN
- City: WASHINGTON D.C. AND TEXAS, D.C., UNITED STATES/ VIENNA, AUSTRIA/ GENEVA, SWITZERLAND/ BUSHEHR, IRAN
- Country: Various
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA004526VF47
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: United States Secretary of Energy and nuclear physicist, Ernest Moniz, is a contender for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in securing the Iran nuclear deal.
U.S. President Barack Obama named Moniz as the United States Secretary of Energy on March 4, 2013, replacing Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu.
Moniz was undersecretary at the Energy Department during the Clinton administration and is a familiar figure on Capitol Hill.
Secretary Moniz played a crucial role in negotiations toward a comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, directly negotiating technical details with the Iranian Atomic Energy Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.
The agreement between Iran and the so-called "P5+1" (which includes the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany and a representative from the European Union) was finalised on July 14, 2015.
Both Moniz and Salehi have received much of the credit for the deal's success to date. The pair used their shared scientific backgrounds from MIT to reach agreements in spite of the hostility between Tehran and Washington that has shaped the Middle East since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Under that deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy for decades.
The measures Iran must put in place include slashing its number of centrifuges, sensitive machines that purify uranium to levels at which it can be used as reactor fuel or, if enriched further, in atom bombs.
It also agreed to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium and remove the core of a reactor at Arak before filling it with concrete so as to ensure it cannot produce plutonium, which can also be used to make weapons.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday October 7, at 1100 a.m (0900GMT).
The prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns (1.1 million U.S. dollars), will be handed over on December 10, 2016. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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