Annan: U.S. Hasn’t Made World Safer

LONDON — The U.S.-led war in Iraq has done little to increase security across the world or halt the activities of international terrorists, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Sunday.

“I cannot say the world is safer when you consider the violence around us, when you look around you and see the terrorist attacks around the world and you see what is going on in Iraq,” Annan told Britain’s ITV network.

“We have a lot of work to do as an international community to try and make the world safer,” he said in an interview with the network’s Jonathan Dimbleby.

Annan has previously described the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as “illegal.”

He said Iraq was on track to hold elections in January and said he would speak out if he was not satisfied. “If that sort of judgment or any decision which is made which we think detracts from the credibility and viability of the elections, we will be duty bound to say so.”