'Only a collective, multilateral approach can make the world a safer place'.

• Position: From the Secretary-General

Today, the human family faces a time of acute anxiety. There is deep unease about escalating violence in the Middle East, nuclear proliferation and the possibility of new terror attacks. And of course, there is a great anxiety, in this country and throughout the world, about the prospect of war in Iraq.

Many people are asking what the United Nations is doing to avert that prospect. Was our Organization not founded "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war"?

Yes it was. Our founders had lived through two world wars. They knew well the terrible devastation and suffering that war brings with it, and they were determined to spare the world from experiencing such agony again.

We must never lose sight of that vision. War is always a human catastrophe--a course that should only be considered when all other possibilities have been exhausted and when it's obvious that the alternative is worse. If war comes to Iraq again, it may cause terrible loss and suffering to the Iraqi people, and perhaps to their neighbours too. We all--and first and foremost the leaders of Iraq itself--have a duty to prevent it if we possibly can.

But our founders were not pacifists. They knew there would be times when force must be met with force. And therefore they wrote into the Charter of the United Nations strong enforcement provisions, to enable the world community to unite against aggression and defeat it.

Twelve years ago, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, the Security Council and the United Nations did just that. First, the Security Council gave the invader a clear alternative of peaceful withdrawal. Then, when he rejected that offer, the Council authorized the use of force.

It was a grim choice, but a necessary one. The Security Council did not shirk its responsibility. Under its authority, a broad coalition of forces was patiently assembled under United States leadership. No less than 11 of the 26 countries that sent forces to help free Kuwait were Muslim countries. There is a lesson there that remains highly relevant today.

Unfortunately, Iraq has still not complied with all the obligations it accepted in 1991 under the terms of the ceasefire. In particular, it has not yet satisfied the Security Council that it has fully disarmed itself of weapons of mass destruction.

This is an issue not for any State alone but for the international community as a whole. When States decide to use force, not in self-defence but to deal with broader threats to international...