Eyes on Iran nuclear deal team ahead of Nobel Peace Prize

Names of nominees not released but some say Syria's White Helmets are top contenders, along with architects of Iran nuclear deal

By AP 6 October 2017, 10:02 am
Secretary of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, Thomas Perlmann (R), announces the winners of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine during a press conference at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on October 2, 2017. (AFP PHOTO/Jonathan NACKSTRAND)

OSLO, Norway — The Norwegian committee that chooses the Nobel Peace Prize winner sorted through more than 300 nominations for this year’s award, which recognizes both accomplishments and intentions.

The prize announcement comes Friday in the Norwegian capital Oslo, the culmination of a week in which Nobel laureates have been named in medicine, physics, chemistry and literature.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee does not release names of those it considers for the prize but said 215 individuals and 103 organizations were nominated.

In this Sept. 16, 2015, file photo, comrades carry Ilias Mahmoud al-Taweel, a member of Syrian Civil Defense, popularly known as the White Helmets, during his funeral in Douma, Syria. (Feras Domy via AP, File)

Observers see the Syrian volunteer humanitarian organization White Helmets as a top contender, along with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini for shepherding the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

Previous winners include Columbian President Juan Manuel Santos in 2016, female education activists Malala Yousafzai in 2014 and the trio of Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994.

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