Top 100 Iran's Quotes
#1. For me, Iran was paradise, and I believe it's a paradise still, but only if you don't have political problems. If you have a political problem, paradise turns into hell.
Golshifteh Farahani
#2. Seen from the United States or Europe, Iran's nuclear program often causes most concern, but from the perspective of countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the North Korean program is equally worrying.
Yukiya Amano
#3. If Iran becomes a nuclear weapon state it is the end of non-proliferation as we know it. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon you are likely to see Saudi, Egypt and other countries follow suit and we will bequeath to the next generation a nuclear arms race in the world's most unstable region.
Liam Fox
#4. Even if you look at Iran, those campaigners for human rights there, they don't want to have anything to do with America, because they are afraid that having American support will be the kiss of death for their movement. And that's really tragic.
Yaroslav Trofimov
#5. Iran's arms exports to the murderous Assad regime in Syria are of particular concern. As the Panel of Experts has concluded, Syria is now the central party to illicit Iranian arms transfers.
Susan Rice
#6. Iran's strong logic and firm diplomacy is the guideline for all government officials in negotiations on country's peaceful nuclear program with foreigners, quite resolutely.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
#7. President Obama hosted lawmakers Thursday saying he wanted bipartisan input on health care reform. Nobody's mind was changed. At the summit's end he threatened to go with the nuclear option, showing he's tougher on Republicans than he is on Iran.
Argus Hamilton
#8. Iran's most formidable modern leader, Reza Shah Pahlavi, was obsessed with the idea of building a steel mill, but in 1941, soon after he assembled all the components, Allied armies invaded Iran, and the project had to be abandoned.
Stephen Kinzer
#9. The more Israel sinks into the West Bank, the more it is delegitimized and isolated, the more the world focuses on Israel's colonialism rather than Iran's nuclear enrichment, the more people call for a single democratic state in all of historic Palestine.
Thomas Friedman
#10. Iran should not be denied the human right to knowledge ... the fear of America is Iran's attitude to Israel, and the cornerstone of America's foreign policy is the protection of Israel ... If Iran believes in Allah, and if Iran believes in the power of Allah, Iran can't be frightened by America.
Louis Farrakhan
#11. People should have freedom in their pilgrimages and tours. They should come and visit historical monuments and sites - let's say the sites around Iran - where they can easily engage in wide- scale contacts with others.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
#12. There are two clocks ticking in Iran. One is the democracy movement clock which is ticking now faster than it was but it's got a lot of catching up to do. And then there's the clock that's ticking towards a nuclear weaponry.
Christopher Hitchens
#13. Russia's actions in Syria are not the only reasons to distrust Mr. Putin. Moscow has opposed attempts by the U.N. in November 2011 to increase sanctions against Iran for its illicit nuclear program.
John Barrasso
#14. I call Iran home because no matter how long I live in France, and despite the fact that I feel also French after all these years, to me the word 'home' has only one meaning: Iran. I suppose it's that way for everyone: Home is the place where one is born and raised.
Marjane Satrapi
#15. From the Israeli perspective, the fear is that if pressure is off of Iran, Israel would be left having to accept the balance of power in the region significantly shifting toward Iran. It's not an existential threat, but it would definitely be a problem for Israel.
Trita Parsi
#16. Hundreds of social networks and websites such as Facebook and Twitter are trying to weaken people's morale and decrease their participation in the elections.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
#17. Iran's nuclearization is the greatest single national security threat America faces.
Mitt Romney
#18. Whoever we were - and it was not really important what religion we belonged to, whether we wished to wear the veil or not, whether we observed certain religious norms or not - we had become the figment of someone else's dreams.
Azar Nafisi
#19. The Obama administration rarely demonstrated the ability to shift gears and change policy in its first year. Even in the face of historic events such as the continuing demonstrations against Iran's regime, it stuck devotedly to prior plans.
Elliott Abrams
#20. Iran's nuclear program ... there was going to be a time limit ...
Barack Obama
#21. I hate Iran. I hate the Iranian government. It's a cruel and evil government.
Doris Lessing
#22. The most successful cultural diplomacy strategy integrates people-to-people or arts/culture/media-to-people interactions into the basic business of diplomacy. The programs in Afghanistan, Egypt, and Iran all contribute to core goals of U.S. policy in those countries.
Cynthia P. Schneider
#23. Iranian filmmakers are not passive. They fight whenever they can, as creative expression means a lot to them. The restrictions and censorship in Iran are a bit like the British weather: one day it's sunny, the next day it's raining. You just have to hope you walk out into the sunshine.
Asghar Farhadi
#24. Iran won't pursue nuclear weapons because 'it's contrary to their faith.'
Barack Obama
#25. The $52.6 billion U.S. intelligence arsenal is aimed mainly at unambiguous adversaries, including al-Qaida, North Korea and Iran. But top-secret budget documents reveal an equally intense focus on one purported ally: Pakistan.
Barton Gellman
#26. For more than 30 years the Islamic regime and its apologists have tried to dismiss women's struggle in Iran as part of a western ploy.
Azar Nafisi
#27. At Kayenta we were told that the entire Navajo Indian reservation was dry; you couldn't get a drop of alcohol anywhere. Not with dinner,but also not at the supermarket. "It's like Iran," Caroline said, taking a sip of her Coke. "But right in the middle of America.
Herman Koch
#28. There's no embassy for the United States in Iran. So, Iranians process those in other countries.
Judy Woodruff
#29. Washington sees the various local and national conflicts in the Middle East as part of a battle for regional hegemony between the U.S. and Iran.
Stephen Kinzer
#30. A lot of Iran's empowerment is a result of the war in Iraq.
Richard Engel
#31. As you know, we don't have relationships with Iran. I mean, that's - ever since the late '70s, we have no contacts with them, and we've totally sanctioned them. In other words, there's no sanctions - you can't - we're out of sanctions.
George W. Bush
#32. in March 2000, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright offered an apology for the U.S. role in the August events. She offered carefully worded regrets for the fact that the United States had "played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular Prime Minister" in 1953.
Abbas Milani
#33. In Iran's future Islamic system everyone can express their opinion, and the Islamic government will respond to logic with logic.
Ruhollah Khomeini
#34. After the Shah's departure from Iran, I will not become a president nor accept any other leadership role. Just like before, I limit my activities only to guiding and directing the people.
Ruhollah Khomeini
#35. Now that Iran's actions have been verified, it can begin to receive relief from certain nuclear sanctions and gain access to its own money that had been frozen.
Barack Obama
#36. I think we've already voted at the U.N., in the Security Council, to get rid of nuclear weapons. Let's get rid of them. Let's get rid of ours and then Iran will stop, I believe. And so everybody else will, because if everybody doesn't have them, then we're safe, at least safe from a nuclear attack.
Ted Turner
#37. I think there is a general interest in films that deal with contemporary issues. Constructions of Iran, Islam, the Middle East as well as the U.S. itself are also of interest, it seems.
Mohammad Marandi
#38. He showed me how ... See, he says he's going up through Laos, then into Burma, and then some other country, I forget, and then India and Iran and Turkey, and then Greece, and the rest is easy. That's what he said. The rest is easy, he said.
Tim O'Brien
#39. Iran's President openly talks about wiping Israel off the map. The Iranian nuclear program is a threat, not just to my country, but to the entire region. And it's incumbent upon us all to do what needs to be done to keep from proliferating.
Mark Regev
#40. Putin has a lot at stake here and restoring the relationship with the United States, and there are already signs as Sandy mentioned that he's moving in the right direction to begin to ascertain that their trade with Iran is not used for the production of nuclear weapons.
Frank Carlucci
#41. One of the things the United States does well is building coalitions. What the U.S. knows is that if you don't have a coalition with you, you will have a coalition against you. I don't want to see China and Russia on the side of Iran more strongly than they are.
Shimon Peres
#42. I can tell you one thing, Iran is closer to developing nuclear weapons today than it was a week ago, or a month ago or a year ago. It's just moving on with its efforts.
Benjamin Netanyahu
#44. We believe US threats of an approaching World War III and their use of Iran's nuclear issue as an excuse is another form of American insanity.
Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah
#45. For the first time since 1979, we are talking to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Obama says talking to him is probably pointless, but it's a hell of a relief from Mitch McConnell.
Bill Maher
#46. In Egypt, on the eve of Tahrir Square, there was a major poll which found that overwhelmingly - 80-90%, numbers like that - Egyptians regarded the main threats they face as the U.S. and Israel. They don't like Iran - Arabs generally don't like Iran - but they didn't consider it a threat.
Noam Chomsky
#47. Our bottom line, if you want to call it a red line, president's bottom line has been that Iran will not acquire a nuclear weapon and we will take no option off the table to ensure that it does not acquire a nuclear weapon, including the military option.
Susan Rice
#48. And who but Allah could have used a fool like President Bush to remove Saddam, the man who had been the greatest obstacle to the rightful domination of the Persian Gulf by the Persian people? Indeed, who but Allah could have drawn Iran's greatest enemy into the perfect trap?
Phillip Oliver Otts
#49. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran ... in one shot on his website he appears to be dressed only in flowers. Oh - here's the page, you'll see what I mean.
Eddie Mair
#50. If Islamic countries can't come up with their own principles for women's competition," she said in one widely reported speech, "then the way dictated by Western oppressing countries will be imposed on us." Iran
Geraldine Brooks
#51. But so far, you know who's been violating the nuclear nonproliferation pact day and night? Those who signed it. Iran, Iraq, Libya and Iran violates it while calling for Israel's destruction and racing to develop atomic weapons to that end.
Benjamin Netanyahu
#52. Secretary of State Clinton dared Iran on Monday to let her hold a town hall meeting in Tehran. That's telling 'em. If the ayatollahs had a sense of humor, they'd call her bluff.
Mark Steyn
#53. In terms of Iran and in terms of Saudi Arabia, of course they hate each other. That's no great secret. But John Kerry, who is I think doing a very good job, has tried to at least get these people in the room together because both of them are being threatened by ISIS.
Bernie Sanders
#54. In the past 30 years, officials of the Iranian regime and its apologists have labeled criticism, especially with regard to women's rights, as anti-Islamic and pro-Western, justifying its brutalities by ascribing them to Islam and Iran's culture.
Azar Nafisi
#55. Time is running out for Iran to address the international community's growing concerns about its nuclear program.
Barack Obama
#56. Iran is celebrating the nuclear deal. The Iranians are going crazy. They're drinking non-alcoholic champagne and thinking about dancing. That's how excited they are.
Conan O'Brien
#57. The United States must also continue to push the United Nations Security Council for strong action to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions. In the meantime, it is our job to take meaningful steps to eliminate the threats posed by Iran.
Allyson Schwartz
#58. Some Iranian doctors from Europe and America go to Iran and operate for free or teach medical students there. The other day, I met a gentlemen who is helping to protect wildlife in Iran. It's good that many of them don't forget about their country. It's important.
Farah Diba
#59. Massoumeh Ebtekar is the highest-ranking woman in Iran's government, a symbol of President Mohammed Khatami's promise to promote women into high-profile positions.
Elaine Sciolino
#60. Bear in mind North Korea has been the leading source, a leading source of nuclear technology and of missile delivery systems to some of the world's great rogues in Iran and Syria.
Robert McFarlane
#61. I don't understand the United Nations. They have selected Iran to sit on the U.N.'s women's rights panel. Iran! Also on the panel - Ben Roethlisberger, Chris Brown, Phil Spector, Robert Blake and committee chairman O.J. Simpson.
Jay Leno
#62. Venezuela is a free country, and we will not be blackmailed by anyone. We will not accept being told what to do over Iran; we will not accept being anyone's colony.
Hugo Chavez
#63. Iran and Iraq have been at war for five years now. The traditional present for a fifth anniversary is wood. Here's a gift suggestion: a big stick to beat some goddamned sense into their
heads.
P. J. O'Rourke
#64. In the end, for all of Obama's grand rhetoric on ridding the world of nuclear weapons, history has doomed him to preside over the emergence of two rogue nuclear regimes (North Korea and Iran).
Thomas P.M. Barnett
#65. What we have said and - and - and with which I concur is that we should use every diplomatic and political vehicle that's available to us to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear capability state.
Mitt Romney
#66. Everything should be done to prevent Iran, the world's most dangerous regime, from developing the world's most dangerous weapons.
Benjamin Netanyahu
#67. Every year, millions of people from Iran and Iraq travel to each other's countries, and we also have marriages between Iraqis and Iranians. Many Iranians were born in Iraq, and many Iraqis were born in Iran. This is a kind of special, cordial amicable ties.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
#68. Overwhelmingly, Israel's political and military establishment want the rest of the world to act diplomatically or otherwise to stop Iran. But if that doesn't happen, then the impulse toward the use of force will become quite strong.
Dennis Ross
#69. British diplomats who worked in Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis are deeply upset by Ben Affleck's Oscar-winning film 'Argo,' which suggests they refused shelter to the group who managed to get out of the U.S. embassy.
Simon Hoggart
#70. As the many male victims of rape in the regime's disgusting jails can testify, this state-run pathology of sexual repression and sexual sadism is not content to degrade women only.
Christopher Hitchens
#71. Reporting Iran's dossier to the UN Security Council will be unconstructive and the end of diplomacy.
Ali Larijani
#72. There's a lack of knowledge about Iran and the Iranian people.
Hooman Majd
#73. I know that my cell phone in Iran ... is bugged, and they listen in, and my emails, I'm sure, are monitored inside Iran. They have my email address; it's not like they can't snoop on it.
Hooman Majd
#74. From Olsen's Nation: "Through the power of our diplomacy, a world that was once divided about how to deal with Iran's nuclear program now stands as one. Standing as one, the world now sincerely regrets Iran's nuclear program." - President Bodvar Olsen, fifth State of the Union address
Randy Quarles
#75. And we support Senator Joseph Lieberman, that it's time for our country to consider a military preemptive strike against Iran if they will not yield to diplomacy
John Hagee
#76. If there's another 9/11 or a major war in the Middle-East involving a U.S. attack on Iran, I have no doubt that there will be, the day after or within days an equivalent of a Reichstag fire decree that will involve massive detentions in this country.
Daniel Ellsberg
#77. While Terrorism is a war that starts developing within the mind,
Religion is a war that antagonizes our conscience, but
Love is alway a war within the heart.....
Lori F.5/2002 Share The Peace!
Lori Foroozandeh
#78. With Iran's long history of lies and non-cooperation, why are we talking to them? Why are we giving them legitimacy?
Neil Cavuto
#79. Iran may have attacked ISIS. Do you know how long it's been since I have been able to wear my "Go Iran" T-shirt?
Conan O'Brien
#80. If I do continue to have the opportunity to work in Iran, that's very much what I'd prefer to do.
Abbas Kiarostami
#81. The Patriots deflated balls are but an allegory for America's deflated balls in dealings with Putin, the Mullahs in Iran, and Islamic terrorists.
Dennis Miller
#82. One morning, just like 9/11, there's going to be a disaster. I have yet to see the United Nations do anything effective with either Iran or North Korea.
Newt Gingrich
#83. Whether for good or for bad, the Iran that ultimately rises out of the ashes of last summer's uprising will be unlike the Iran we know today, and for that we can thank the Green Movement, not another round of useless sanctions.
Reza Aslan
#84. Iraq may have been a preview of that, but it's still redeemable if we get out fast. In a war with Iran, we'll get dragged down for 20 or 30 years. The world will condemn us. We will lose our position in the world.
Zbigniew Brzezinski
#85. More of 'The Bourne Identity's script was taken from the events of the Iran Contra, which my father investigated for the Senate, than what was taken from Robert Ludlum's novel.
Doug Liman
#86. As long as Iran's aggressive policies continue, it's going to be bad for the region. Iran has to decide whether it wants a revolution or a nation-state.
Adel Al-Jubeir
#87. Iran's continued pursuit of nuclear weapons, support for international terrorist organizations, and abhorrent human rights practices pose one of the greatest threats to global security.
Allyson Schwartz
#88. Why do tax havens exist? Because rich countries allow them to. If the U.S. came down on tax havens in the same way they come down on countries that trade with Iran and Cuba, we'd have no tax havens in the world.
Ha-Joon Chang
#89. Few Westerners know Iran as well as Robin Wright: her first trip there as a journalist was in 1973, and she has covered every important milestone since, from the Islamic revolution and the hostage crisis to the more recent staring contest with the West over Tehran's nuclear program.
Nancy Gibbs
#90. Already, China has undermined U.S. foreign policy in efforts to gain access to oil resources in Iran and Sudan. We simply cannot separate the political and economic values of oil.
Jo Ann Emerson
#91. We have developed this capability. The heavy-water project today is a reality. This knowledge belongs to Iran. Nobody can take it from us. As they (Europeans) see Iran's determination, they will be forced to show flexibility and accept it.
Gholam Reza Aghazadeh
#92. In any case, it is better to have some deal than no deal, but it's interesting that Obama picked the day of implementing of Iran deal to impose new sanctions on North Korea.
Noam Chomsky
#93. You feel sometimes when you hear analysts and knowledgeable people talking about Iran that they fear so much about the survival of the regime, because deep down it's not a legitimate regime, it doesn't represent the will of the people, it's kind of morphed into kind of a military theocracy.
Hillary Clinton
#94. Iran's economy is now shrinking by 1 percent a year. Its oil production is down 40 percent.
Susan Rice
#95. The intention of the United States government in supporting Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war was to curb the spread of Iran's revolution, but it had the more disastrous effect of curbing its evolution.
Reza Aslan
#96. Iran - the world's leading sponsor of terrorism - is close to having nuclear weapons.
Newt Gingrich
#97. Sixty-three percent of our university students are female. But you still see violations of women's rights in Iran. A Muslim man can have up to four wives. He can divorce his wife without offering any reason, while it is quite difficult for a woman to get a divorce.
Shirin Ebadi
#98. But Iran has gone far beyond what is necessary for a purely civilian programme. It has concealed several nuclear facilities from the International Atomic Energy Agency, played hide-and-seek with the international community, and rejected all offers of co-operation from the U.S., the EU, and others.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
#99. We still have sanctions on Iran for its violations of human rights, for its support of terrorism and for its ballistic missile program. And we will continue to enforce these sanctions vigorously. Iran's recent missile test, for example, was a violation of its international obligations.
Barack Obama
#100. Saudi Arabia is a frightened monarchy. It's beset by Sunni extremists from the Islamic State and Shiite extremists backed by Iran.
David Ignatius
