Obama did nothing to deserve 2009 Nobel Peace Prize: Donald Rumsfeld

Former US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has criticised President Barack Obama’s foreign policy saying that he should stop apologising for America, and added that he had received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for "hope" and not for "accomplishments".

On being asked whether Obama had gained back international favour towards the United States after eight years of the George W Bush administration, Rumsfeld said: "No, and I don't think there's data that supports that. I think he has made a practice of trying to apologise for America. I personally am proud of America," The Telegraph reports.

Talking about Obama's Nobel Prize, Rumsfeld said: "Well, he had not accomplished a thing when he got the Nobel Prize. It was given to him on hope. Had to have been because there wasn't anything that he'd done. He'd been in office 15 minutes."

Obama himself had claimed that he did not feel he deserved the honour only months after becoming the president of America.

"I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations," he had said.

Rumsfeld made his comments while promoting his autobiography "Known and Unknown," which defends many of his controversial actions as defence secretary from 2001-2006 under Bush, including his role in deciding to invade Iraq and establish the "war on terror" prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the paper said.