Quotes By Jalal Talabani

We believe that an Iraqi founding national assembly, freely elected, must decide the future of Iraq.

My door will always be open to those who genuinely renounce violence and seek peaceful accommodation into our nascent democracy.

As president of Iraq, I shall strive to represent the diversity of a country that has too often in the past denied difference.

Every human must take responsibility for his actions.

All I wanted was to be a university teacher.

The Kurdish people have the right of self-determination like every other nation in the world.

Conciliation is not capitulation, nor is compromise to be deemed equivalent to imbalanced concession.

Wishful thinking is one thing, and reality another.

Our plan is to struggle against terrorism and have security for the country and help draft a democratic constitution as soon as possible.

A military coup needs a sacrifice and courage that you can't find in an army without morale.

Our gratitude to the American people is immense and we should never be embarrassed to express it.

Democracies, unlike dictatorships, are forgiving and generous, but they cannot survive unless they fight.

Iraq is not occupied, but there are foreign forces on its soil, which is different.

We must provide all kinds of freedom, personal and economic, to all Iraqis. I will fight for that.

The Kurdish people welcome the no-fly zone protection, contrary to the Iraqi regime that is against it.

Military confrontation is not a suitable alternative in confronting terror and current security threats.

This will be Iraq for all without discrimination among Iraqi citizens, or ethnic or sectarian discrimination.

Justice for the major perpetrators cannot be separated from the vindication of the rights of the individual victim.

Rather, it is through conciliation and compromise that we are building a fair Iraq, a just state for all its peoples.

The justice of our cause must be reflected in the manner in which we rectify the crimes of the past.

I shall stand for freedom of thought and expression in a place where it has been trampled and penalized.

Self-determination could mean independence, confederacy, federal and autonomy.