Jalal Talabani Quotes

Every human must take responsibility for his actions.

Wishful thinking is one thing, and reality another.

Trust is for lovers. In politics there are only converging interests.

There is a kind of sympathy with the Americans who are looked upon as liberators.

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

All I wanted was to be a university teacher.

Iraq is not going to starve to death because of the absence of assistance from Arab countries.

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

A greater international role is important to lift some of the burden from the shoulders of the United States.

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

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

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

It is the American air protection, which safeguards the freedom enjoyed by the Kurdish region. It guarantees the cultural, health and civilizational progress made in Iraqi Kurdistan.

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

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

To move any regime you need to have co-operation and co-ordination between Kurds, Shia Arabs, Sunni Arabs, the people and the army. Until we have this we cannot change the regime.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I believe the democratic transformation in Iraq will lead to change in Middle East.

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

We need to make a distinction between misled Iraqis, those who believe that they are carrying weapons to liberate Iraq from what they call occupation, and criminal gangs that came from outside and wants to wage a deadly war on the Iraqi people, killing women and children in mosques and churches.

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

We must acknowledge that for scores of years the Iraqis have offered martyrs and victims but have not been able to change the regime.

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

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