58 Quotes by Lakhdar Brahimi

But you've got to understand what the other guy is about, even if at the end of the process you decide that there is no ground with this man or woman except to fight them.

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.

You are dealing with people who have taken the responsibility of killing their own because they think that they are right, they think that they are serving the interests of their people. They not going to give that up easily, just because you've shown up.

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.

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.

Several million people inside and outside Afghanistan are destitute and desperately in need of help.

There is no question of that. No one has asked and we are not looking for a job.

There again, that is a fundamental principle: no two situations are alike.