TEHRAN, Iran – Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi urged Iran and the United States on Thursday to find a peaceful resolution to the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program, warning that military action would harm both countries' people.

Ebadi, who won the peace prize in 2003 for her work advocating greater rights for women and children in Iran, spoke at the launching of a new anti-war group that she helped create in hope of averting an Iranian-U.S. conflict.

There have been growing worries that the conflict between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear program could broaden into a more violent crisis. Speculation also has mounted in recent days that Israel may be considering a unilateral military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Ebadi warned against any military action and further economic sanctions against Iran, saying both would just hurt ordinary people and accelerate the flight of Iran's most educated and skilled professionals.

“We expect Iran and U.S. to settle their disputes through negotiation. This is in the interests of both the Iranian and American people,” she said.

Ebadi, who because one of Iran's first female judges before the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, also stressed that the issue should not be left to only politicians.

“Decision-making about peace and war is not a restricted right of governments anymore. People also have the right to discuss it,” Ebadi said at the meeting of activists in northern Tehran.

Ebadi, who is now an attorney, helped form the National Council of Peace in response to the possibility of a strike on Iran over its nuclear program. Iran says that program is for peaceful purposes, but Western powers claim they suspect its true aim is to develop nuclear weapons.

Last month, the U.S. and its partners offered a package to Iran that included assistance for its civil nuclear program and development aid in exchange for an agreement by Tehran to end nuclear enrichment. Iran says it is still reviewing the package, but it has repeatedly refused to stop enrichment.

Though the U.S. says it favors a diplomatic solution, both Washington and Israel have refused to rule out the use of force.

In 1981, an Israeli air attack destroyed an unfinished nuclear reactor in Iraq, while a strike on a suspected nuclear facility in Syria in September added to the concern that Israel is planning action against Iran.

Iran's top diplomat Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki predicted Wednesday that the United States and Israel would not risk the “craziness” of attacking his country and possibly provoking a wider Middle East war.