Good Fences

Talabani said that Assad had invited him to visit Damascus, but Talabani replied that he would not come until Assad "prepared the ground for a successful meeting." Then he said,

"I'm sorry to tell you that all Arab media, without exception, is supporting terrorism, morally, by making propaganda for them, describing them as the heroes of the struggle against imperialism and Zionism, and encouraging them to come fight in Iraq.

I'm sorry to tell you that a Palestinian organization, when responding to the crimes in London, said 'I'm sorry to see these people go to London, why they not going to Iraq to fight there?'

At the end of his answer, Talabani used a saying that he could not himself translate into English, so he asked a minister of his to do it for the crowd:

"A man who digs a well for his brother to fall in, but instead it is he who falls in."