The Nobel Foundation, which awards the prestigious prizes, announced Friday that the Iranian ambassador to Sweden, Masoumi Far, has been excluded from the award ceremony, joining his Russian and Belarusian counterparts and the leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats party, Jimmie Akesson.
The organization justified the non-invitation to Iran by «the seriousness and escalation of the situation» in the country, which has been experiencing for more than a month now a series of citizen demonstrations, harshly repressed by the authorities, in protest against the death of the young Masha Amini, who died in police custody.
«For several decades, the Nobel Foundation’s starting point has been to invite all countries with diplomatic representation in Sweden to the Nobel Prize ceremony (…) This year, however, the Nobel Foundation has decided to follow the Swedish and European diplomatic policy of not inviting Russia and Belarus due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,» the body said in a statement.
However, in relation to the exclusion of Ambassador Far, the Nobel Foundation has recognized that, although Sweden and other European countries do not yet have «a concrete diplomatic policy», the Iranian representative should not be invited in view of the seriousness of the situation.
«The Nobel Prize is based on respect for science, culture, humanism and internationalism. This respect is also the basis for the achievements that are celebrated and highlighted when Nobel laureates and guests from around the world are invited to the Nobel Prize ceremony and banquet on December 10,» the Foundation said in a statement earlier this week.
The exclusion of the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors comes in a year when the Nobel Peace Prize has gone to Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, Russian NGO Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties.
With these winners, the Norwegian Committee wished to applaud the work of civil society in defense of human rights in the three countries, especially in a context marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
