Iran Questions Nobel Peace Prize Credibility Following Trump Nomination

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has questioned the credibility and authenticity of the Nobel Peace Prize, saying the world’s most prestigious peace award has increasingly become a political tool rather than a universal symbol of peace.

During his weekly press briefing on Monday, Baqaei reacted to a question about the nomination of U.S. President Donald Trump for the prize this year, calling it “Poor Nobel and Poor Peace.”

Peace awards like the Nobel cannot be given much “credibility,” especially when it falls victim to politicization, discrimination, and distortion of the truth, he stressed.

“In a just and ideal world, one of the most deserving candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize is undoubtedly Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the spokesperson said, adding that she is the one who, despite pressures and threats, keeps defending the rights of the oppressed Palestinians.

Today, we live in a world that not only lacks justice, but has undergone a kind of value inversion, he further said.

This is a world where, “the Nobel Peace Prize shines with names like Nelson Mandela – for his fight against apartheid – but we are now at a point where symbols of apartheid and racial discrimination, and those who are committing genocide and aggression, put themselves in a position to nominate others for this award,” Baqaei said.

He was referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who nominated Trump for a Nobel Prize in return for his support to the regime, as he visited Washington earlier this month.

The world should not forget that the prize was previously awarded to people like Shimon Peres, a person known for his warmongering and the occupation of Palestinian land, Baqaei said.

The Nobel committee’s decision is not only regrettable, but “speaks the depth of the deviation of moral standards” in the contemporary world, he added.