Abdallah Baali Quotations

On management reform, you have one side basically saying that the secretary general should be empowered and should have all flexibility as a kind of C.E.O. and the other side saying that it is not ready to give up the prerogative of the General Assembly and would like to keep a close eye on the work of the secretary general.

The views of the United States are very important ... We will take them into account.

In the past five years, Kofi Annan focused on Africa because the Africans had the impression the United Nations was not doing enough for them,

We hope to use the weekend to move toward unanimity.

We have made it clear that it is premature and it is unjustified to talk about sanctions when the investigation is still going on and we do not know what will be the final outcome,

What matters in our eyes is that he's the president's choice and that he's close to the president. That gives him certainly the authority to deal with us in New York.

I think honestly he can keep doing his job... It's important for him and for us to have a good outcome at this summit. If we have a good outcome, if we have real reforms to be implemented in the months to come, I think the secretary general will be in a more comfortable position.

You cannot give all the powers to the secretary general. The General Assembly has to keep its main prerogative, and the secretary general and all bodies should be accountable to the General Assembly.

definitely raises difficult problems for Algeria, probably other countries.

This test of the U.N. mission in Sierra Leone shows very clearly that the mandates and resources are not and never were appropriate to the situation,