President Fuad Masum's speech at the First Baghdad Dialog Conference

In the name of God the Merciful

Ladies and gentlemen, the audience.. Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings

It is a source of pride and appreciation to be here at this conference with its title and hope. Our happiness will be greater if we all truly speak with more than one voice and idea and provide the necessary free space for difference and diversity in thinking and views, provided that we meet at one lofty goal, which is committed dialog.

One of the great things that man began his life as a human being is language, and language is a means of communication, and it will not be so unless there is dialog. Dialog is the first principle and the first step towards urbanization, civilization and humanity. The times when dialog between people has been interrupted, the losses have been terrible, so we must talk, and perhaps it is good that we are meeting here to present our views on the stage of post-ISIS Iraq, is that we as Iraqis had already started dialog and to practically express our unity and our meeting, and this was in the stage of ISIS and not beyond.

ISIS and those who were with it executed and occupied a dear city in a black moment in which dialog had broken off between us, but we regained most of these cities, and here we are close to liberating Mosul completely, and this happened when we united in the face of danger, when we realized the value of understanding, listening to each other and talking. Thus, our armed forces advanced with honor and heroism, and thus the citizens of the liberated cities received their forces with happiness, love and joy, and this was an important reason for the reasons for the whole free world to stand with us and the reasons for the view of the elders and appreciation that was strengthened by friends and enemies towards the strength of the will of Iraqis and towards the heroics they presented and towards the great human image that our heroes showed during the battles and after the liberation of any city or village from the desecration of criminals.

Our victories were made by the unity of our position and visions, and this unity will be the main guarantor to preserve victory and to defeat terrorism once and for all from the land and life. Therefore, here in every inch of the land of Iraq, we will be happy with these victories.. Dialog, our acceptance of each other, our differences and our diversity are what guarantee the sustainability of our unity and are what make it a unity that advances us and our country towards stability, peace, construction and progress.

I do not think that we will disagree on general rules for dialog and unity, at the forefront of these rules is no retreat from democracy and freedom, no return to dictatorship, whatever its names and forms, no weapon except in the hands of the state, expressed in its governmental institutions, no rule for all except the constitution and laws.. These are general rules that I expect we will not disagree about, but our most important responsibility is to deal well with the details. If the problems lie in the details, we can only adhere to the values that the general principles mentioned above provide. Emphasizing love, tolerance, and acceptance of difference will be among these values, which are procedural means that must help us greatly in overcoming many obstacles in detail.

 One cannot be democratic and free without actual and practical belief in such values and means.  It helps us a lot in overcoming difficulties. But above all, what is important is that we all be faithful to the lofty goal we seek, the goal of our unity and the attainment of stability, peace of life, progress, welfare, security and freedom for our people.  The reference here will be important, in our estimation, to the need to free this noble endeavor from political use among the political forces, away from conflict and away from charging the public with treason and intimidation. If we succeed in making the defense of national unity and tolerance among us a means for the political forces to compete and win elections, we will have already started an important start in reaching what we want.

The people are waiting to be reassured of a political, security and economic future befitting them and their long patience. Fortunately, the growing position against terrorism is what helps us in our mission, but all of this is up to us and to be one voice that starts believing in a free, democratic, federal and independent Iraq.

May God help us all to overcome the whims of ourselves. May God help us to serve Iraq and the Iraqis.. May God be with us for Iraq.

And peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings