I demand a full investigation of this crime.

The weapons must be in the hands of the state. Their presence in the hands of others (militias) will be the start of problems that will trigger a civil war.

We agreed to continue the dialogue among all the blocs.

We weren’t really surprised by these attacks. They prove that the terrorism which rages in Iraq has also become a real threat to other countries, including those which have closed their eyes on what is...

We have prior agreements … that makes our work easier.

We are working for the sake of a national unity government. All the different groups that are in government must have the right to participate in making decisions.

They have stated that what they call ‘resistance’ has protected the ballot boxes in their areas. This is a confession that rigging has happened.

We, the United Iraqi Alliance, were surprised by the results. We were expecting more seats. The opponents have made it clear through their statements and warnings that they stand alongside the terrorists.

Those who are complaining have made clear by their remarks that they stand with the terrorists and abide by their demands.

We cannot ignore the facts on the ground. Democracy means accepting the opinion of the majority. They should accept the other and the outcome of the ballot boxes. The Sunnis need to take this into...

Dialogue has started between us and between the slates that won in the elections. Our goal is to form a broad-based national unity government.

Yes, the draft is ready,

He told the alliance today that it was up to it to decide. Now it will be the alliance which will decide.

The door is open for dialogue with our brothers and partners because we believe that Iraq cannot stand up without its main components.

There is no retreat or rerun of elections.

What’s left is the voting. It’s up to them (the Sunnis). They either object, vote against it or accept it.

We didn’t say a week randomly. We thought a week was enough to solve the problems.

We have a week more to choose the speaker of the parliament and his two deputies and also to discuss who is going to be the president.

We will present our objections on the distribution of the seats by the commission, which was not done according to the election law.

The great thing will be if I succeed in cementing national unity and regaining security, stability and services. We have been able to accomplish several things today, and with these accomplishments we shall complete the...

The Shiite alliance and the Kurdish coalition have reached an agreement over the draft.

I believe that in the next 15 days we can have a new government and present it to parliament.

If we can reach unity between all the components of the people, the canals of terrorism will dry up.

We do not accept to be blackmailed. For those who say to us, if you don’t give us what we want, the terrorism will not stop, we will stop the negotiations for a long time.

We reached today the final limit beyond which we can’t move any further.

The Alliance calls for a rapid restoration of (control of) security matters to the Iraqi government.

Now it will be the alliance which will decide.

Anything can be discussed at the negotiating table. We have no red lines on anything.

Talks with the Kurdish Alliance and the Accordance Front might begin tomorrow or after tomorrow.

The government needs to act quickly to take control of the security issues and keep it all under the Iraq’s control.

Arms should be in the hands of the government. There is a law that calls for the merging of militias with the armed forces.

There will be no retreat and no rerun of the election. In the end we have to accept the results and the will of the people.

We need to protect Iraq and the world against terrorists.

An agreement between the Shiites and the Kurds has been reached,

When the government is able to exercise its control and provide security, then we will be able to work out the mechanism of how we can dissolve these militias. The presence of these militias will...

We suspended today’s meetings to discuss the formation of the government because of what happened at the al-Mustafa mosque.

We are not seeking 100 percent consensus — the most important thing is that the people of Iraq accept (the constitution) in a referendum.

His eminence stressed two points: first, the importance of the Alliance, its survival and its unity, and second, the necessity of adhering to the decisions that came out of the Alliance.

I’m confident that the militias, and there are more than 11 militias, must be disarmed. There’s no difference between one militia and others.

There will no going back and no new elections. The results must be accepted and the will of the people must be respected.

Weapons should be only the hands of the government.

There are some contacts, with the focal point of discussions revolving around the identity of Iraq .

He is definitely not going to step down. He is the only candidate and will continue to the end.

There will be no re-vote of the elections.

We have achieved our first mission, to nominate the alliance candidate for prime minister. We must now move ahead with the nest step, which is the formation of the new government.

When we penned the changes, we did not give consideration to the opposition by these groups. These people are not going to succeed in bringing down the constitution.