Arabic → English transcript

Thank you, Mr. President.

For giving us this opportunity.

Thank you to the American people for your compassion for the

plight of the Iraqi people,

and for your help in getting rid of the dictatorship and establishing

democracy in Iraq.

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.

I extend my deep thanks to Mr. President for his concern,

and I extend my deep thanks to the American people for what you have

sacrificed,

and for what you have undertaken and accomplished. Once again, through you, I offer

greetings, respect,

and deep thanks for how you have helped

us and for what you have accomplished and taken part in accomplishing in Iraq.

Can we see an Israeli political normalization in Iraq? Politically?

Like signing a peace treaty, an Israeli embassy? It might happen, it might not,

in politics there are alliances, you never really know. If American forces

remain in Iraq,

what will your position on them be?

Yes, I do not have a position, it is simply not my concern,

whether they stay or leave. But this goes back to the fatwa of the

legitimate religious authority, and I am not the legitimate religious authority.

Is there no fatwa from the legitimate authority regarding the American forces?

There is a fatwa forbidding jihad, of course that exists,

and when it is not possible and so on,

jihad is dropped and even becomes forbidden.

So now, the position of the legitimate religious

authority on the presence of the American forces,

which you issue as a fatwa for the people, what exactly is it? How should they

deal with them? Any great enemy that cannot be resisted, I stand aside from it,

whether it is the coalition or someone else. His conviction was that we

could not resist

with armed resistance, that we could not resist the Americans.

He used to say, if you want to resist them,

if you buy matches from the shop, tell him,“ When are you leaving?”

Meaning, put pressure on them

and ask them when they are leaving. The toppling of Saddam was not done by the

military machine, nor by the Iraqi struggle or jihad machine.

It was done by the American military machine.

And when the Americans entered Iraq with their brutal machine,

they found that there was a partner

ready. Who was this partner? Iran.

So in my estimation and interpretation, the Iranians and the Americans

agreed on managing the rule

in Iraq.