UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei sees his Nobel Peace laureate as a mandate to use diplomacy to resolve problems such as Iran's nuclear confrontation with the West, but the way forward will not be easy.
Diplomats and analysts warned that the glitter of ElBaradei and his International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) becoming Nobel laureates on Friday could still run into the brick wall of realpolitik.
The West and Iran are facing off over an Iranian nuclear program which Tehran says is peaceful but which the United States charges is a cover for secret atomic weapons development.
ElBaradei has been pleading for diplomacy to prevail and for the matter to rest with the IAEA in Vienna, despite the agency's 35-nation board of governors having last month found Iran in non-compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and so liable for referral to the UN Security Council.
The United States has criticised ElBaradei for being too soft on Iran and wants the issue to go to the Security Council, which could impose trade sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
In Cairo, the state-owned Al-Ahran newspaper said Sunday that the Nobel award to ElBaradei "is an implicit message, notably to the United States and Israel."
Still, the United States welcomed the honour conferred on the IAEA, without mentioning past disagreements over Iraq's suspected arsenal or initial US resistance to a third term for ElBaradei as IAEA chief.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called ElBaradei to congratulate him and later issued a statement calling the award a "well-deserved honor."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan hailed the Nobel committee's "recognition of the importance of stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
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