Word: oslo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ceremony had been planned as a duet, but it came off as more of a solo. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat felt there was no point in going to Oslo to collect his half of this year's $173,700 Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, he sent an aide and confidant, Sayed Marei, a former Speaker of Egypt's parliament. The cause of Sadat's disenchantment: the Middle East peace treaty negotiations begun at Camp David were still stalled over two issues. One was Israel's insistence that the pact should take precedence, in time of conflict, over...
Meanwhile, members of his own Likud coalition begged Begin not to go to Oslo. As Israeli Newspaper Columnist Amos Keinan put it, Begin's attendance at a peace celebration without a peace was "like celebrating the brith mila [Jewish circumcision ritual] while the baby is not yet born...
Begin's speech was delivered under the most extraordinary security precautions Norway had seen in recent memory. An estimated 2,000 policemen were deployed around Oslo; Begin was ferried to the Akershus by helicopter and bulletproof limousine. Even the location of the ceremony was a concession to police precautions. Heretofore, the Nobel award has always been bestowed at Oslo University's marble-clad Festival Hall. Security experts feared the hall offered too many opportunities to terrorists. In changing the venue, Begin's guardians unconsciously added an element of historical irony to this year's ceremony...
Sadat had declined to go to Oslo to receive the prize personally. The official explanation was that he was busy with the peace negotiations. But Egyptian officials said privately Sadat felt he could not meet with Begin while the talks are deadlocked because of what Cairo calls Israeli "stubbornness...
Sadat, who announced that he will not show up in Oslo this month to receive his Nobel Peace Prize, had particularly good reasons to be concerned about the stalemate. The relationship between Egypt and its chief bankroller Saudi Arabia, which lies at the heart of Washington's hopes for Middle East stability, has reached its lowest ebb since the mid-1960s, when Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser and Saudi Arabia's King Faisal backed opposing sides in the Yemeni civil war. TIME Cairo Bureau Chief Wilton Wynn, who knows both countries well, offers some insights into...