UNITED NATIONS, March 20: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday expressed regret that war had again come to Iraq, and called on combatants to do everything possible to protect civilians during the fighting.

“My thoughts today are with the Iraqi people, who face yet another ordeal. I hope that all parties will scrupulously observe the requirements of international humanitarian law and will do everything in their power to shield the civilian population from the grim consequences of war,” Annan said in a statement he read for television cameras.

He observed that it was possible Iraq could have been disarmed peacefully had diplomacy gone on longer “or, if not, the world could have taken action to solve this problem by a collective decision, endowing it with greater legitimacy, and therefore commanding wider support, than is now the case.”