Top 100 Quotes About Iran
#1. President George W. Bush, in his now-rare public appearances and interviews, still refuses to acknowledge he did anything to help Iran. But it doesn't really matter what he thinks.
Richard Engel
#2. The fact that the American government has formally set aside an enormous yearly budget of nearly $75 million to increase cultural exchanges in order to bring about what it calls "regime change" has muddied the waters and complicated American Studies in Iran more than anything else.
Mohammad Marandi
#4. Suppose I criticise Iran. What impact does that have? The only impact it has is in fortifying those who want to carry out policies I don't agree with, like bombing.
Noam Chomsky
#5. 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
#6. Mr. Speaker, in the years since we enacted our attack against Iraq, the threat from Iran has only grown more difficult, and our capacity to meet that threat actually has diminished. It is one of the reasons many of us opposed that action against Iraq.
Earl Blumenauer
#7. 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
#8. We did not treat the Americans badly. They left Iran in a relaxed mood. The embassy was active here after the revolution. We didn't have any problem with them. They started it.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
#9. Saddam Hussein could have provided irreplaceable help to future historians of the Iran/Iraq war, of the invasion of Kuwait, and of the subsequent era of sanctions culminating in the current invasion.
Richard Dawkins
#10. I like Dancing of Indian girls more than my parents' prayers . Because they dance with love and passion . But my parents just say their prayers because they got used to it .
Ali Shariati
#11. 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
#12. Iran has, by virtue of its growth and by virtue of the United States' mistakes in Iraq, tilted the balance of power in the Middle East. That is the case, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is a threat.
Trita Parsi
#13. 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
#14. Remember how he handled the Iran-contra Never Ending Scandal from Hell? He went on national television, the President of the United States, and said it wasn't his fault, because he was not aware, at the time, of what his foreign policy was.
Dave Barry
#16. The Middle East is now filled with death and destruction and that was the aim of Neo-Conservatives who planned this destruction of seven Muslim nations in five years and they are on schedule and the final nation in their sights to destroy is the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Louis Farrakhan
#17. Disruption to the flow of oil through the Straits of Hormuz would threaten regional and global economic growth. Any attempt by Iran to close the Straits would be illegal and unsuccessful.
Philip Hammond
#18. Apparently Iran thinks that it can continue to deceive the world in order to reach its goals.
Moshe Katsav
#19. 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
#20. The viral power of online media has proven how fast creative ideas can be spread and adopted, using tools like cellphones, digital cameras, micro-credit, mobile banking, Facebook, and Twitter. A perfect example? The way the Green Movement in Iran caught fire thanks to social media.
Tina Brown
#21. 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
#22. 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
#24. The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognizing Israel is really akin to saying that we won't sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms. And that is, I think, a fundamental misjudgment.
Barack Obama
#26. In those years,'80 was the, at the turn of '79/'80 you had the invasion of Afghanistan. It was the period in which the Americans attempt to liberate, to, to liberate the hostages in Iran and all these, all these things, the atmosphere was freezing - boycott of the Olympic Games and all that.
Helmut Schmidt
#27. I like the incongruity of how in Iran, these people we think of as being revolutionaries or fanatics or whatever are just as aware of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader as our people are back home.
Ben Affleck
#28. Let me be clear: America and the world are measurably less safe and less respected because of the Iran deal Hillary [Clinton] helped cut.
Chris Christie
#29. Iran has to live up to its international obligations ... The president has said that our patience is not unlimited.
Barack Obama
#30. Certainly would never have made that horrible, disgusting, absolutely incompetent deal with Iran where they get $150 billion. They're a terrorist nation.
Donald Trump
#31. 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
#33. 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
#34. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has denounced negotiation with Iran as a 'historic mistake' that is making the world 'a more dangerous place.' His partners in Washington vigorously echo that view.
Stephen Kinzer
#35. I think we should take Iraq and Iran and combine them into one country and call it Irate. All the pissed off people live in one place and get it over with.
Denis Leary
#36. 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
#37. The fact that we did not give the demonstrators in Iran our moral support when a young woman named Neda bled to death in the streets of Iran will go down as one of the great mistakes of the 21st Century.
John McCain
#38. 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
#39. Iran can recruit hundreds of suicide bombers a day. Suicide is an invincible weapon. Suicide bombers in this land showed us the way, and they enlighten our future.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
#40. I was the first person in my family born in the United States. My mom is from Croatia, and my dad is from Iran. They met at music school in Belgium. I grew up as a pianist.
Ottessa Moshfegh
#42. I wouldn't even know - and I spent three years in the CIA - I wouldn't even know how you'd start a covert action program in a place like Iran. It would be extraordinarily difficult.
Frank Carlucci
#43. The Americans invaded a country without understanding what eight years of a war with Iran had meant, how that traumatized Iraq. They didn't appreciate what they support for a decade of sanctions in Iraq had done to Iraq and the bitterness that it created and that it wiped out the middle class.
Anthony Shadid
#44. At a time when we are facing threats from nations such as North Korea and Iran, and attempting to convince others such as India and Pakistan to become responsible nuclear powers, it is vital that America reclaims the leadership we once had on arms control.
Ellen Tauscher
#45. 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
#46. The reason the United States is not so likely to invade Iran is precisely because of the lessons learned from Iraq. And conversely, the Iranian push towards nuclear capability is calculated to deter invasions like the kind deposing Saddam Husain.
Steven Pinker
#47. I don't think you can rely on Iran. I don't think you can rely on other radicals like the Taliban. They dispatched Al Qaida to bomb New York and Washington. What were they thinking? Were they that stupid? They weren't stupid. There is an irrationality there, and there is madness in this method.
Benjamin Netanyahu
#48. Iran has interest in seeing that the Shia population of Iraq basically adhere to a line that comes from Iran.
Richard Armitage
#49. Instead of fighting ISIS, (the Saudis) have focused more on a campaign to oust Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Bernie Sanders
#50. 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
#51. To honor the people that died, we need to stop the Iran agreement, for sure, because the Iranian mullahs have their blood on their hands, and we need to take out ISIS with every tool at our disposal.
Jeb Bush
#52. 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
#53. 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
#55. There are many people inside Iran who say, "We don't have enough to eat. Why do we need a nuclear bomb?"
Farah Diba
#56. The problem is, you have to look at Afghanistan also in a global context where we've canceled basically our missile defense system undercutting the Czech Republic in Poland. We've I think not dealt with Iran with the kind of resolve that would show that we understand the nature of that threat.
Rahm Emanuel
#57. Iran is the only country around the negotiating table that has not been attacked by either al-Qaida or Daesh.
Adel Al-Jubeir
#58. The long-term strategic goals of Iran and the long-term strategic goals of Turkey are close to the long-term strategic goals of the United States.
Stephen Kinzer
#59. We've never declared war on anybody. We [Iran] defended ourselves against wars that were imposed on us. We have no desire to engage in confrontation with anybody.
Mohammad Javad Zarif
#60. 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
#61. Don't be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn't turn Iran into a friend of America.
Benjamin Netanyahu
#62. Iran's nuclearization is the greatest single national security threat America faces.
Mitt Romney
#63. 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
#64. I would love to go to Iran. The island of Madagascar, everyone says is pretty exotic, or the wonderful Namibian desert.
Michael Palin
#65. 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
#66. We are categorically against any new military nuclear power, be it Iran, be it North Korea, be it anyone.
Sergei Lavrov
#67. Iran's nuclear program ... there was going to be a time limit ...
Barack Obama
#68. I hate Iran. I hate the Iranian government. It's a cruel and evil government.
Doris Lessing
#69. Now that Iran has entered into production of nuclear fuel on an industrial, there will be no limit on the production of nuclear fuel in Iran.
Gholam Reza Aghazadeh
#70. If we are really anxious not to have nuclear weapons in Iran, the first thing is to call an international conference on abolishing all nuclear weapons, including Israeli nuclear weapons.
Bruce Kent
#71. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, its influence and that of Hamas and Hezbollah are strengthened.
Elliott Abrams
#72. Iran is a complete Windows country when it comes to the Office automation side.
Satya Nadella
#73. There are signs that the Arab states are beginning to realize that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to the entire region, and not just to Israel.
Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
#74. 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
#75. Iran also has an extensive missile development programme. Iranian officials declare that the range of their modified Shahab-3 missiles is 2,000km, putting allied countries such as Turkey, Greece, Romania, and Bulgaria within reach.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
#76. 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
#77. Iran said it will give up trying to make a nuclear weapon. But it got awkward when Iran said, 'But just for Lent. We'll start again on Monday.'
Jimmy Fallon
#78. Part of the problem that we have currently in the Middle East is that[Bashar] Assad has hung on to power with the very strong support of Russia and Iran and with the proxy of Hezbollah being there basically fighting his battles.
Hillary Clinton
#79. Think about it: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela. These countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.
Barack Obama
#80. Iran will be the most checked and inspected country if the principles agreed in Lausanne are transferred into the language of practical agreements.
Sergei Lavrov
#81. Iran has the technology to produce the highly enriched uranium, which is not automatically meaning nuclear weapon.
Mohamed ElBaradei
#82. We must continue to pursue peace through diplomacy, but we must also not shrink from our responsibility through the option of strength. We must take advantage of internal resistance and change from within Iran to avert this path of mutual destruction.
Michael McCaul
#83. Iran won't pursue nuclear weapons because 'it's contrary to their faith.'
Barack Obama
#84. In emerging democracies like Russia, in authoritarian states like Iran or even Yugoslavia, journalists play a vital role in civil society. In fact, they form the very basis of those new democracies and civil societies.
Christiane Amanpour
#85. Bottom line is President Obama has said that it is a top priority of the United States of America to ensure that Iran never achieves a nuclear.
Mitt Romney
#86. 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
#87. If Iran was a stock, you folks should go out and buy it right now.
Donald Trump
#88. We have irreconcilable visions of the kind of country we want this to be: some of us would just like to live in Canada with better weather; others want something more like Iran with Jesus.
Tim Kreider
#89. How have relations with Iran and Belarus benefited Venezuela? We are interested in countries that have democracies, that respect human rights, that we have an affinity with. What affinity do we have with Iran?
Henrique Capriles Radonski
#90. We have to figure out how to deal with Iran as the principal state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
Hillary Clinton
#91. Whether we report Iran to the council or not, I believe the only way forward is through diplomacy.
Mohamed ElBaradei
#92. 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
#93. At the time when talk of war, intimidation, and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country, Iran, is spoken here through her glorious culture, a rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics.
Asghar Farhadi
#94. No step the United States could take anywhere in the world would bring strategic benefits as great as detente with Iran.
Stephen Kinzer
#95. What country is stabler than Iran? Where else in the world would an assassinated prime minister be so quickly replaced?
Ruhollah Khomeini
#96. 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
#97. We're going to take out seven countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran
Wesley Clark
#98. Without action, we are going to continue to allow Iran to be a safe harbor for terrorists, see its economy further deteriorate, and see the Middle East further destabilize.
Russ Carnahan
#99. We must make every effort to neutralize this threat peacefully, but be ever mindful of the growing danger Iran poses not just to a safe and free America, but to our allies abroad.
Dave Reichert
