Nobel Peace Prize Award Seen A Rebuke To U.S.

by Thalif Deen

(IPS) UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations, which has taken a severe beating in recent months over charges of fraud, corruption and cronyism, received a morale booster Oct. 8 with news of a Nobel Peace Prize to one of its sister agencies.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters he was "delighted" that the 2005 peace award was given to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, a national of Egypt.

"I think it's a message for all of us that we should take the issue of (nuclear) non-proliferation and (nuclear) disarmament very, very seriously," Annan said, "particularly at a time when weapons of mass destruction continue to pose a grave danger to us all."

Refuting the argument that the IAEA had failed to halt the spread of weapons of mass destruction, Annan said: "If you refer to failures of the agency, I'm not sure it's the agency that has failed or it's a lack of will on the part of member states that has made it difficult for the agency to come up with successes."

Jim Paul, executive director of the New York-based Global Policy Forum, said there is obviously a hidden message being transmitted by the Norwegian Nobel committee.

"The way I read it is that there is in existence a nuclear regime that is being monitored and enforced by the IAEA. And that should be the way to go-- not unilateral action by big powers," Paul told IPS.

But unfortunately, he said, there are lots of efforts to undermine the IAEA. "Iraq was a notorious example" where the United States virtually appropriated the functions of the IAEA in pursuing weapons of mass destruction -- and ultimately invading the country.

Iran is going to be another example, Paul said, where the United States and the 25-member European Union are trying to take over the job assigned to the IAEA or are exerting political pressure on the work of the agency.

In effect, the Nobel peace committee says "there is an existing regime which we should support, and it is wrong to go outside that regime," Paul added.

Early this year, the United States tried to block ElBaradei's efforts to run for a third four-year term as IAEA head because of disagreement over whether or not Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. State Department also implicitly accused ElBaradei of "going soft" on Iran, Washington's political nemesis.

Washington eventually relented primarily because it could not find an alternative candidate to go against the IAEA chief.

Meanwhile, Annan expressed disappointment last month over the failure of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference to make any tangible progress on both non-proliferation and disarmament.

At the recently-concluded summit meeting of world leaders, he said, "we could not even agree on a paragraph on non-proliferation and disarmament, and I had occasion to say that it was a disgrace and a real failure."

Annan said he hopes that his Nobel peace award will "wake us all up, and indicate that it is important, and here is an agency and it's doing all that they can, to work with member states on non-proliferation and disarmament issues."

Currently, the primary focus is on the world's five declared nuclear powers -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- who have been dragging their feet over nuclear disarmament, opting to hold onto all their weapons of mass destruction.

The three undeclared nuclear powers are India, Pakistan and Israel -- all three achieving nuclear capabilities in secrecy and without much protest.

On the other hand, the two potential nuclear powers -- Iran and North Korea -- have come under heavy pressure, mostly from the United States and the EU, to give up their nuclear ambitions.

"If we don't start containing this problem (of nuclear proliferation), who (is) next?" Annan asked.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack gave a political twist to the IAEA award when he told reporters Friday that the Nobel Prize was a "warning to Iran and other countries seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the guise of civilian nuclear programs."

"I think it is a message that the world is watching closely and that the world stands united in working together to stop the spread of nuclear weapons," he added.

The speculation at the United Nations was that the Norwegian Nobel committee was sending its own message to the U.S. administration for its refusal to take meaningful steps on nuclear disarmament and for its continued militaristic policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We also see it as a message to all of the world's nuclear powers," one Asian diplomat told IPS. "The IAEA should now have the courage of its convictions to stand up to the big nuclear powers."

Since 1957, Annan said, the IAEA has "worked tirelessly and expertly to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and to promote the safe and peaceful uses of nuclear technology."

He pointed out that ElBaradei had guided "this vital mission with great skill since 1997," when he was first elected director-general.

This is the sixth time the world body or its sister agencies have won the Nobel Peace Prize. The United Nations and Annan won the prize in 2001. Other winners included the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations (1988), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (both in 1981 and 1954), the International Labor Organization (1969) and the UN children's agency UNICEF (1965).

Additionally, former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold posthumously won the award in 1961, and Ralph Bunche, director of the UN Division of Trusteeship and Acting Mediator in Palestine won in 1950.