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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.