ABU DHABI, Oct. 10th, 2009: The choice of Barack Obama on Friday as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 has drawn mixed reaction and editorial comments by UAE English language newspapers, as it did elsewhere around the world, about the validity of the Nobel Committee's decision to honor a work in progress just nine months into his term as president of the United States, and for that matter, as a world leader who two years ago the world hardly knew.The decision to award the Nobel Prize for Peace to Obama has shocked many, even the recipient himself who said he was "most surprised and deeply humbled", by the award, which the Norwegian committee said he had won for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".Nearly 205 names were considered before the Nobel Committee chose to reward him for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" for 2009. It acknowledged his vision of a nuclear free world, concern for the environment, and the climate he has created for multilateral diplomacy. "Only very rarely has a person, to the same extent as Obama, captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future", said Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel Committee.
Obama is the third sitting US president to have won the prize, following Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Jimmy Carter won in 2002 and the former vice president Al Gore received the prize in 2007 for his work towards promoting climate change.
Khaleej Times defended the Nobel Committee's pick of Obama.
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