Jalal Talabani quotes:

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

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

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.

I always tell the Kurds who defend independence: Let's say we declared the independent Kurdish state and Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey imposed sanctions on us, without waging a war. How would we survive under those circumstances?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The Western governments will be encouraged and persuaded to deal with the real representatives and listen to the real voice of the Kurdish people.

Wishful thinking is one thing, and reality another.

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

We are trying to persuade all the Iraqi opposition to come breathe freedom in Iraq and use liberated Kurdistan as a base for our common struggle.

All I wanted was to be a university teacher.

I voted 'yes' and I urge all Iraqis, no matter their different ethnicities and religions ... to vote 'yes' to the constitution

Every human must take responsibility for his actions.

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

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

Talabani and Al-Maliki want to keep their seats for ever. Talabani forgets that the side which brought him to power was the United States and it brought him by rigging the elections.

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

under extremely difficult circumstances (Iraq) pursues the inherently complicated task of rebuilding the country. Yet Iraq continues, courageously, to reach for the promise of a democratic, federal and pluralistic state, where generations of oppressed Iraqis will regain their dignity, freedom and the right to join the civilized and progressive nations of the world.

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.

The brutal regime of the dictator fell ... the regime that ruled Iraq for decades, the decades of darkness. The decades that were of tyranny.

I must tell you that I am committed, as the president of Iraq, to benchmarks and to do our best to achieve some progress forward for national reconciliation.

No for the return of Saddam's Baath party. This is against the constitution and those who are negotiating to bring them back are violating the constitution.

We are not denying that Turkey has a right to defend itself from extremists but some of its actions are not serving any democratic purpose in Turkey or in Iraq. This will not benefit the relations between the two countries.

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

It was an agreement between (former Iraqi president) Saddam (Hussein) and the shah of Iran (ousted in 1979) and not between Iraq and Iran.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Human rights and individual liberties, including religious freedom, will be at the heart of the new Iraq.