won the Nobel prize, while continuing to court controversy. Dena Rashed reports Although has been the director- general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1997, 2005 was an especially challenging year for both the IAEA and its boss. For one, the US strongly opposed his re-election as the agency's head for a third term. El-Baradei's reports declaring Iraq free of nuclear weapons, prior to the war's launch, had never been well received in Washington. Unable to find a candidate willing to oppose the Egyptian diplomat, Washington tried to lobby other IAEA member states in a bid to unseat him. Despite these endeavours, El-Baradei found strong support from European countries, China, Russia and the group of 77, securing him the unanimous approval of the agency's 35 members. Still, El-Baradei continued to be hounded by the US for what was referred to as his indecisive views on the Iranian nuclear programme. Washington threatened to bring the case of Iran and its nuclear facilities before the United Nations Security Council, but the director-general's negotiations with Tehran were ultimately able to control -- and calm down -- the potentially explosive situation. The report El-Baradei issued argued that with Iran's uranium plant back in operation, there was, in fact, no breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Even after 30 years of implementing the NPT, El-Baradei repeatedly said there were still 27,000 nuclear warheads ready for usage all over the world. For that reason, disarmament will remain one of his greatest challenges, and stricter implementation of the NPT his primary struggle. On 7 October, El-Baradei was awarded the Nobel Prize in recognition of his continued efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons. The Nobel committee decided that the IAEA and El-Baradei should share the prize in recognition of "their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and [ensuring] that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way." In an interview following the award ceremony, El-Baradei declared that the prize has encouraged him to continue speaking his mind, pursuing his goals, and speaking without fear. The world, he said, has to realise that countries will continue to be eager to acquire nuclear weapons, as long as the present owners of the nuclear weapons are not willing to give them up. El-Baradei's views and statements have not always been welcomed by nuclear powers -- the United States in particular. While efforts to change longstanding nuclear powers' uncompromising positions may seem futile, El-Baradei has still kept his goals in sight. One of the most important calls made by El-Baradei, outlined in his acceptance speech at the Nobel prize ceremony, was to "keep nuclear and radiological material out of the hands of extremist groups", and to halt the building of new nuclear stations for uranium enrichment and the production of plutonium for five years. The repercussion of continuous nuclear weapons production, he said, was that it encouraged new countries to join the nuclear race. It was imperative, then, to reduce the number of states able to transfer their nuclear technology into nuclear weapons. Not surprisingly, the proposal was met with resistance from Iran, the US and France, as well as Australia, Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands and Japan.
