The Norwegian Royal Family was present as veteran mediator Martti Ahtisaari received the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. King Harald, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit were in the Oslo City Hall audience along with politicians, dignitaries and celebrities. 
The former Finnish President has mediated on such conflicts in Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Indonesia, and Namibia.
Upon accepting the Prize, Ahtisaari called on U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to work on the Middle East peace process.
“If we want to achieve lasting results, we must look at the whole region,” he said, stressing that “we cannot go on year after year simply pretending to do something to help the situation in the Middle East. We must also get results.”
“All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal,” he said.
Ahtisaari won a diploma, a medal and the prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (1.2 million dollars, 950,000 euros).
The Nobel Prize winner had a chance to speak with the Norwegian King and Queen before accepting his prize.
Later on, he celebrated his win with them at a banquet.
In the late 19th century, Alfred Nobel chose Norway as the location of the
Peace Prize committee due to the country’s Norwegian Storting (legislative assembly) had become closely involved in the Inter-Parliamentary Union and its efforts to resolve conflicts through mediation and arbitration.
Sweden was chosen for the other prizes – economics, literature, medicine, physics and chemistry – because of that country’s more developed sectors in those fields.
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