Editing Kofi Annan (section)

==== Iraq ====
In the years after 1998, when [[UNSCOM]] was expelled by the government of [[Saddam Hussein]], and during the [[Iraq disarmament crisis]], in which the United States blamed UNSCOM and former [[IAEA]] director [[Hans Blix]] for failing to disarm Iraq properly, former UNSCOM chief weapons inspector [[Scott Ritter]] blamed Annan for being slow and ineffective in enforcing [[Security Council resolutions on Iraq]] and being overtly submissive to the demands of the [[Clinton administration]] for regime removal and inspection of sites, often presidential palaces, that were not mandated in any resolution and were of questionable intelligence value, severely hampering UNSCOM's ability to co-operate with the Iraqi government and contributing to their expulsion from the country.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/ritter-nuke-sen.htm|title=Transcript of Scott Ritter's September 3, 1998 Senate testimony|access-date=14 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151212035901/http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/ritter-nuke-sen.htm|archive-date=12 December 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Chief U.N. Arms Inspector Disturbed by Criticism of Ex-Inspector|work=The New York Times|first=Barbara|last=Crossette|date=8 September 2009|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/09/world/chief-un-arms-inspector-disturbed-by-criticism-of-ex-inspector.html|access-date=15 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024181944/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/09/world/chief-un-arms-inspector-disturbed-by-criticism-of-ex-inspector.html|archive-date=24 October 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Ritter also claimed that Annan regularly interfered with the work of the inspectors and diluted the chain of command by trying to micromanage all of the activities of UNSCOM, which caused intelligence processing (and the resulting inspections) to be backed up and caused confusion with the Iraqis as to who was in charge and as a result, they generally refused to take orders from Ritter or [[Rolf Ekéus]] without explicit approval from Annan, which could have taken days, if not weeks. He later believed Annan was oblivious that the Iraqis took advantage of this to delay inspections. He claimed that on one occasion, Annan refused to implement a no-notice inspection of the [[Iraqi Special Security Organization]] (SSO) headquarters and instead tried to negotiate access. Still, the negotiation took nearly six weeks, giving the Iraqis more than enough time to clean the site.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/ritter.html|title=The Iraqi Threat: How Real Is It?|access-date=6 January 2011|publisher=[[North Country Public Radio]] |date=October 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511091228/http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/ritter.html|archive-date=11 May 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

During the build-up to the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]], Annan called on the United States and the United Kingdom not to invade without the support of the United Nations. In a September 2004 interview on the [[BBC]], when questioned about the legal authority for the invasion, Annan said he believed it was not in conformity with the UN charter and was illegal.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Iraq war illegal, says Annan|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3661134.stm|work=BBC News|date=16 September 2004|access-date=12 December 2006|quote="When pressed on whether he viewed the invasion of Iraq as illegal, he said: 'Yes, if you wish. I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal.'"|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912171408/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3661134.stm|archive-date=12 September 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Excerpts: Annan interview|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3661640.stm|work=BBC News|date=16 September 2004|access-date=12 December 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301061157/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3661640.stm|archive-date=1 March 2007|url-status=live}}</ref>