Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annanis a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." He is the founder and the Chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as being the chairman of The Elders, a group founded by Nelson Mandela...
NationalityGhanaian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 April 1938
CityKumasi, Ghana
CountryGhana
The mediator for the Palestinian-Israeli issue is the United States, ... and I support very fully their efforts and I encourage the parties to work energetically and constructively with them in search of a durable peace.
keep working with determination on the tough issues on which progress is urgent but has not yet been achieved.
The council is beginning to look at these issues more critically and with a bit more of an open mind,
Libya has also agreed to a trial in a third country and believes that it ought to be possible to find answers to all other outstanding issues relating to this matter,
If they are not able to resolve it before the summit (in September), the issue is not going to die, ... They will have to pursue it and, I hope, resolve it before we all go away for Christmas.
The issue is not the acceptance, but the performance on the ground,
I urge all parties to focus on the issue as we get down to the wire in the spirit of give and take, and make the kind of compromises that are necessary to get compromises, so we can move on,
There was never any intention on my part to make Mr. Hansen, Mary Robinson or Larsen part of the team, ... And so I found it rather unfortunate that there has been such public objection to their participation. The issue was never posed.
The issue is not the acceptance, but the performance on the ground, ... So let the inspectors go in, and I urge the Iraqis to cooperate with them and to perform, and I think that is the real test we are waiting for.
Men can make a particular difference -- by being more caring, by taking fewer risks and by facing the issue of AIDS head-on.
And I hope this issue will be handled in a manner that will not escalate. I rely on the wisdom of the two countries to find a way out.
There were governments that were not willing to make the concessions necessary, there were spoilers also in the group, let's be quite honest about that, ... I've tried to get them to understand that in our interconnected world, we need to look at issues in much broader terms rather than narrow national interests.
In the short term, the most pressing issue is the continued existence of predatory armed groups, ... Although there is no easy military solution to this dangerous phenomenon, those guilty of the worst atrocities and human rights abuses -- and especially those guilty of genocide -- must not be allowed to escape unpunished.
It is a serious matter. And we shouldn't forget that the council as a whole got the resolution only last Monday, ... For them to take time and discuss this issue seriously is something we should be grateful for.