UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on 17 November that the organisation was not yet ready to return to the Iraqi capital, adding that it might be possible to return sooner if it were to operate from a base outside the capital. . 'I think we need to assess the security situation,' he told reporters in New York. 'There [have] been some suggestions that there are other parts of the country which [are] relatively risk-free and that one could consider operating from there.' Annan said that all options were being studied, and that security at the UN's Baghdad headquarters was still under review. 'The moment we put ourselves in fortresses, we are not going to be as effective and as efficient, and it raises a question: is it even worth being on the ground?'