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.

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

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

Wishful thinking is one thing, and reality another.

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

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