Famous quotes by Lakhdar Brahimi:

"This incident, which follows similar incidents, adds to a sense of insecurity and fear in the country,"

"You who are taking this responsibility must show unprecedented courage and leadership. You must place the interests of your people first above all other concerns only then will this process, this attempt to break cycle of misery and destitution conflict and violence stand a chance of success,"

"Bremer is the dictator of Iraq. He had the money. He has the signature. Nothing happens without his agreement in this country."

"A political solution is required."

"cannot be solved through military means alone."

"The days and weeks ahead will severely test this new government, and the solution to Iraq's current challenges will take years, not months, to overcome."

"[U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the Northern Alliance] to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and treat these questions with as much humanity as possible, ... elsewhere, everywhere."

"You have a weak government or no government or several factions claiming to be government. You have a vacuum which is very favorable ground on which drugs and terrorism will grow,"

"I am certain that the people of Afghanistan are very happy tonight and see in this constitution a new source of hope. ... The time for jihad is finished."

"have every reason to be proud of what you have achieved."

"I think a failed state is the responsibility of the people who have made that state fail, and those are generally the people of that country."

"Iraq is a country that has been invaded. It's not a failing state that you want to help. It's a country that was functioning good or bad, with a horrible dictator, but you have invaded."

"If you are talking about terrorism, you need to sit down and understand what is making these people put dynamite around their waists and blow themselves up."

"There is also a natural and very, very strong empathy with the underdog, with people who have suffered, people who have been pushed around by foreigners in particular, but also by their own people."

"In the globalized world that is ours, maybe we are moving towards a global village, but that global village brings in a lot of different people, a lot of different ideas, lots of different backgrounds, lots of different aspirations."

"To leave Afghanistan as a playground for terrorists and adventurers was simply not possible anymore."

"What again I tell my people is that no matter how much you know, it's never enough. You will always discover, after the fact, that you've missed something."

"There is an element of luck, there is an element of trial and error, sometimes you fail, sometimes you succeed. It's not as beautifully simple as it may seem when we are talking about it."

"But you are absolutely right that when the international community decides to help in a meaningful manner a country like Afghanistan, then coordination between the various actors that are involved in these processes is very, very difficult indeed."

"Somebody was asking me the other day - President Bush is now talking about freedom for the Arab world. I say, well, that's great. I was talking about that fifty years ago."