UN Chief Warns of Global War Over Religion, Says Only UN can Solve
World's Problems*

By John-Henry Westen

NEW YORK, September 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Tuesday, Secretary
General Kofi Annan delivered his final address to the United Nations
General Assembly before he retires at the end of the year. During the
speech, which comes on the heels of the media-generated controversy
regarding Pope Benedict XVI’s quoting of a text on Islam, Annan said,
“insensitivity towards other people’s beliefs or sacred symbols –-
intentional or otherwise -- is seized upon by those who seem eager to
foment a new war of religion on a global scale.”

“Moreover, this climate of fear and suspicion is constantly refuelled by
the violence in the Middle East”, he said, adding: “We might like to
think of the Arab-Israeli conflict as just one regional conflict amongst
many. But it is not. No other conflict carries such a powerful symbolic
and emotional charge among people far removed from the battlefield.”

Annan sees the United Nations as the only solution to the world’s woes.
“Yes, I remain convinced that the only answer to this divided world must
be a truly United Nations”, he said.

Climate change, HIV/AIDS, fair trade, migration, human rights -– “all
these issues, and many more, bring us back to that point”, he said,
adding: “addressing each is indispensable for each of us in our village,
in our neighbourhood, and in our country. Yet each has acquired a global
dimension that can only be reached by global action, agreed and
coordinated through this most universal of institutions”.

“All must play their part in a true multilateral world order, with a
renewed, dynamic United Nations at its centre”, he said.

See the press release on the speech:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/ga10500.doc.htm