The Nation's UN Correspondent Ian Williams on the Legacy of Kofi Annan and the Future of the UN Under Ban Ki-Moon

* Kofi Annan: "I hope that when the next time one is dealing with a broader threat to the international community, one will wait and seek the approval of the Security Council. As I've said, a government, a country has a right to defend itself, but when it's an issue of broader threat to the international community, it's only the Security Council that has that legitimacy to authorize action on that basis."

Kofi Annan also criticized the international community"s response to the situation in Darfur.

* Kofi Annan: "Sudan has come under tremendous pressure from the international community to cooperate with that community to send in troops to help. Have we done all that we could to pressure the government of Sudan to do what it has to do? There are measures short of force that could be used, we have used them in other situations -- political pressure, economic sanctions and isolation and of course in the last resort there is the use of force. Have we brought to bare on this situation all the capacity we have to pressure the government to bend?"

Kofi Annan also warned that a U.S. attack on Iran would be "unwise and disastrous." Meanwhile at his swearing in ceremony last week, Ban Ki-moon outlined his vision of the United Nations.

* Ban Ki-Moon: "By strengthening the three pillars of our United Nations -- security, development and human rights, we can build a more peaceful, more prosperous and more just world for our succeeding generations. As we pursue our collective endeavor to reach that goal, my first priority will be to restore trust. I will seek to act as a harmonizer and bridge-builder."

For more on Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon, we have Ian Williams here -- he is the UN correspondent for The Nation magazine. His article "Annan's Principled Pragmatism" appears in the new issue of the magazine.

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