Kofi Annan Quotes

I am against preventive war because it means measures by the UN against us.

Resolution 1441 does not give anyone the right to an automatic use of force. Russia believes that the Iraqi problem should be regulated by the Security Council, which carries the main responsibility for ensuring international security.

When states decide to use force to deal with broader threats to international peace and security, they need the unique legitimacy provided by the United Nations.

If it must come to war, I argue that the world should respond through the United Nations. This is the best way to give legitimacy to the use of force in these circumstances.

I think there has to be greater heed paid by the Security Council members to military advice.

The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced - the just demands of peace and security will be met - or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.

War is not, in itself, a condition so much as the symptom of a condition - that of international anarchy.

The international community unfortunately did take sides in Libya, and we would never allow the Security Council to authorise anything similar to what happened in Libya.

Let us face it, the U.N. has failed. It has failed in its mission to promote world peace.

In a case like Iraq the UN has again shown what important role it plays as the guarantor for protecting international peace and stability in the global political structure.

We've talked to the Europeans about it. It's clear if those negotiations fail, then we are agreed with the Europeans that the next step is to take the matter to the U.N. Security Council.

The United Nations has a lot of capacity on the ground.

The failure of the United Nations - My failure is maybe, in retrospective, that I was not enough aggressive with the members of the Security Council.

Insofar as international law is observed, it provides us with stability and order and with a means of predicting the behavior of those with whom we have reciprocal legal obligations.

However difficult it may be to bring it about, some form of world government, with agreed international law and means of enforcing the law, is inevitable.

Every government is in some respects a problem for every other government.

The United Nations Security Council is there to protect the interest of the Americans and the British.

The U.S and England are not worthy of security council membership. Those who want good relations with the Iranian people should bow and surrender to its right and might.

If the American people are to say yes to U. N. peace keeping, the United Nations must know when to say no.

When the big powers are in agreement, the U. N. performs. When they aren't, the U. N. is paralyzed.

If the United Nations would not take responsibility in time of peril, by what right should it claim authority when the danger is passed.

All foreign policy is the intervention of one nation's domestic politics into another nation's domestic politics.

Americans must not be given the impression that they have a duty to go to war against every evil leader in the world and against every transgression of the international order.

American foreign policy must uphold the sanctity of international treaties. That is the cornerstone on which all relations between nations must rest.

When our vital interests are challenged, or the will and conscience of the international community is defied, we will act; with peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary.