We pray to God almighty to give us strength so we can meet the ambitious goals of our people, who have suffered a lot. - Nouri al-Maliki

Al-Qaeda is still the biggest threat for Iraq and the region.

Do not imagine that this problem is solely an Iraqi problem because the terrorist front represents a threat to all free countries and free people of the world... Thousands of lives were tragically lost on Sept. 11 when these impostors of Islam reared their ugly head. Thousands more continue to die in Iraq today at the hands of the same terrorists who show complete disregard for human life.

I'll be frank and say that we were deluded when we signed the contract [with the U.S.]. We should have sought to buy other jet fighters like British, French and Russian to secure the air cover for our forces; if we had air cover we would have averted what had happened.