, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a farewell news conference, urged the Security Council on Dec. 19 to push for a negotiated end to the Iranian nuclear crisis, saying military action would be a disaster.
“I believe that the council, which is discussing the issue, will proceed cautiously and try and do whatever it can to get a negotiated settlement for the sake of the region and for the sake of the world,” Annan said.
Addressing reporters less than two weeks before he steps down on Dec. 31, he was asked the lessons to be learned from Iraq, where the United States led an invasion in March 2003 in a fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction despite failing to gain the council
