Nobel Peace Prize 2005, To the IAEA and its director Mohammed ElBaradei

Le Mouvement de la Paix welcomes the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 to the IAEA and its director Mr. Mohammed ElBaradei. We deem this prize to pay a special tribute to the IAEA's and its director's firmness when they affirmed the truth they had established that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the United-States intervened.

We approved this firm stance which helped international authorities to establish the illegality of the US-UK military intervention. We also keenly appreciated the clear positions of Mr. ElBaradei who proposes to attain peace through alternative solutions based among other things on debt cancellation, economic development and democracy.

By honoring the IAEA, the Nobel Committee also highlights the key role international authorities and the UN's Charter play in dealing with global issues. Faced with the US unilateralism, we wish to see in this Prize a sign of support to strenghten the United-Nations and its bodies.

The role played by the IAEA in nuclear non-proliferation remains essential and we must remain very demanding regarding the full enforcement of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), included its article VI that requires the current nuclear countries to commit themselves on disarmament and dismantlement of their nuclear arsenals. These actions are necessary to be credible in requiring non-nuclear countries to remain so while they seek to proliferate .

In 2005 while we commemorate the 60 th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, this Nobel Prize underlines the need to expand the debate and our action to free our world from nuclear weapons.

The National Bureau of the Mouvement de la Paix
Saint-Ouen, October 10, 2005