Top 100 Quotes About Syria
#1. Any Human Rights Council reform that allows countries that sponsor terrorism to remain as members, such as Cuba, is not real reform. And in the past, countries such as Libya, Iran and Syria have participated on this council.
Michael McCaul
#2. I make no apologies for us wanting to do this [bombing Iraq and Syria] appropriately and in a way that is consistent with American values.
Barack Obama
#3. Somehow a U.N. resolution about Syria puts us where we need to be? I think it is a reflection of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's beliefs that our foreign policy gets set by others.
Carly Fiorina
#4. The more we ignore Assad and negotiate an appeasement with Iran, the more Sunni and Shia extremists will multiply and flood Syria.
Ziad K. Abdelnour
#5. Every other country where there's absolute chaos now, what is it? They're pluralistic without consensus. Look at almost every single country, from Syria, to Iraq, to Iran, Ukraine, no matter where it is. I just think it is totally counter to our tradition.
Joe Biden
#6. I can only say it is not for us to decide who should lead Syria. It is for the Syrians to decide.
Sergei Lavrov
#7. Hezbollah is not fighting for Syria. Hezbollah is not fighting for Iran. Hezbollah is fighting for Lebanon.
Hassan Nasrallah
#8. We must do everything we can to be more aggressive in confronting Syria about what they are doing in Iraq.
Sam Brownback
#9. A good friend of mine works at Oxfam and has been closely involved in the charity's aid efforts in Syria.
Michelle Dockery
#10. Nobody thinks identically on Syria. But we share the same view with Russia that the future of the personalities in Syria will be determined by the people of Syria and not by people outside Syria.
Mohammad Javad Zarif
#11. One of the CNN guys was literally yelling. How can you say that? It's too dangerous for us? We still have people in Syria!
Jack McDevitt
#12. We have a war against Daesh (the Islamic State, or IS) in Syria. A coalition that was led by the United States, with Saudi Arabia being one of the first members of that coalition.
Adel Al-Jubeir
#13. Australia will take more refugees from Syria in response to the growing international crisis but it will not increase the total number of asylum seekers it accepts.
Tony Abbott
#14. We have passed some of the dirtiest chapters of mankind. Perhaps we are heading towards further inhuman treatments in many places such as Syria and Palestine.
Nilantha Ilangamuwa
#15. There are reports that leaders from ISIS and al-Qaida met at a farm house in Syria last week, and agreed to work together against their common enemies. That story again: Two radical terrorist groups managed to do what two American political parties cannot.
Jimmy Fallon
#17. Vice President Joe Biden said today that 'Syria must be held accountable.' Unfortunately, the Obama administration has never employed an accountant, so they have no idea how to do that.
Jay Leno
#18. At the Vatican, Mr. Putin and Francis were expected to focus on the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, particularly in Syria, an issue of mutual concern.
Anonymous
#19. A change of strategy suggests there is a strategy. I don't see a strategy that deals with - that concerns with dealing wit with ISIL overall. There is some sort of strategy for dealing with it in Iraq. I'm not sure there is one in Syria. And Libya is another problem altogether.
David Ignatius
#20. If you put two brigades on the ground right now with U.S. forces, they would push ISIS back into Syria in a heartbeat.
Anthony Zinni
#21. In Iraq and Syria, American leadership - including our military power - is stopping ISIL's advance, instead of getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East, we are leading a broad coalition, including Arab nations, to degrade and ultimately destroy this terrorist group.
Barack Obama
#22. We are not wedded to anyone in Syria. We are not concerned with any personality. We are concerned with keeping Syria in one piece, territorially integral, sovereign, independent and secular, where the rights of all groups, ethnic and others, are fully respected.
Sergei Lavrov
#23. Once you start bombing in Syria, when you start looking for targets, there will be a lot.
Richard Engel
#24. So my judgment is that Syria will move; Syria will change, as it embraces a legitimate relationship with the United States and the West and economic opportunity that comes with it and the participation that comes with it.
John F. Kerry
#25. At Jaffa in Syria and among the Nomads in Arabia , are lakes of enormous size that yield very large masses of asphalt, which are carried off by the inhabitants thereabouts.
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
#26. There is very little hope that the United States or anyone else can do much to stabilize Iraq, Libya, Syria or Egypt. Stabilizing Iran, and bringing it back into the family of nations, is much more possible. That would be a 'win' for both sides.
Stephen Kinzer
#27. There is very good evidence indeed that one of the major reasons for this horror in Syria was a drought that lasted for about five or six years, which meant that huge numbers of people in the end had to leave the land.
Prince Charles
#28. I'm so thankful a significant majority of Americans are saying no to military intervention. We've got to find a solution that will in the end be one that makes Syria a better country, a better people. We can be human only together.
Desmond Tutu
#29. We need to increase our military spending. We need to deal with a no- fly zone in Syria, a safe zone.
Jeb Bush
#30. I told my daughter that terrorists would love to attack Washington, but we, unlike the French, are an ocean away from Syria, that lots of smart people are working very hard to stop the terrorists, and that the terrorists are not very sophisticated.
Dana Milbank
#32. Sudan replaced the U.S. on the U.N. Human Rights Commission joining Syria, and Cuba. So now, the commission members have no interest in upholding the stated mission of the panel. It's just like the Senate Ethics Committee.
Argus Hamilton
#33. Israel is the number one rogue state threat to Middle Eastern peace with its nuclear arms and acts of outright aggression towards its peaceful neighbours Syria and Lebanon - and genocidal actions against the marginalised Palestinians of the West Bank - and Gaza in particular.
Mohamed ElBaradei
#34. Syria is a terrorist state by any definition and is so classified by the State Department. I happen to think Iran is too. Iraq, Iran, Syria, they're all involved.
Alexander Haig
#35. ISIL is not the JV team. I cannot stress enough that there's a terrorist army in Syria and Iraq that wants to attack the homeland and we're not doing anything about it. So how do you defeat the ideology? Build up others? You reject Rand Paul.
Rand Paul
#36. In October 2008, American commandos launched a cross-border raid into Syria to capture an Islamic militant known as Abu Ghadiya. He was accused of being one of al Qaeda in Iraq's main smugglers of fighters and money between Iraq and Syria.
Richard Engel
#37. Getting the support of Syria is the moral equivalent of winning the Klan's endorsement - it might be useful but it doesn't necessarily speak well of you.
Jonah Goldberg
#38. I know Vladimir Putin. He respects strength. He lied to our president's [Barack Obama] face; didn't both to tell him about warplanes and troops going into Syria. We need to speak to him from a position of strength.
Carly Fiorina
#39. Syria is geographically and politically in the middle of the Middle East.
Bashar Al-Assad
#40. It is better for the Arab countries themselves to interfere out of their national, humanitarian, political and military duties and to do what is necessary to stop the bloodshed in Syria.
Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani
#41. The other thing I said is the great irony is you will be back fighting against your own weapons. Had [Bashar] Assad been bombed when he used chemical weapons two years ago, ISIS would be in charge of all of Syria now.
Rand Paul
#42. Non-fiction about personal subjects is going to attract more user comments than a foreign correspondent writing from Syria - unfortunately.
Meghan Daum
#43. I think we can all agree [Bashar] Assad is a bad and evil actor, but I'm not so sure that we want the Islamic rebels to be in charge of Syria either.
Rand Paul
#44. Syria and Iran have always had a pretty tight relationship, and it looks to me like they just cooked up a press release to put out to sort of restate the obvious. They're both problem countries; we know that. And this doesn't change anything.
Mitch McConnell
#45. We've got a very difficult situation created by this embrace of the so-called Arab Spring. And that's not getting better. It's getting worse. The carnage for the people of Syria is horrific, and it's quite frankly too little, too late to reverse a lot of that.
Oliver North
#46. The fate of Syria hangs in the balance, but it is entirely possible that the fall of the Assad regime will result in anarchy and cause Syria to turn into a second Afghanistan, a base for anti-Israel terrorism.
Martin Van Creveld
#47. Assad's failure to meet deadline on destroying chemical weapons is just the latest example of Obama's failed Syria policy.
Ziad K. Abdelnour
#48. [Vladimir] Putin wants to keep [Bashar] Assad in power and expand his own military base in Syria, whatever the cost. I even believe he has an interest in more and more people fleeing the country. The flow of refugees improves his negotiating position toward the West, including the German chancellor.
Garry Kasparov
#49. I have also been saddened, though hardly surprised, by the weakness of the EU's reaction to the criminal attack on the Danish embassy in Syria, which seems to have been permitted, if not actively encouraged, by the Syrian regime.
Timothy Garton Ash
#50. Just this week, Syria broke off all relations with the United States military and the CIA.
Ed Markey
#51. My guess is that before Obama departs, he will adopt some of the more aggressive military options he has been resisting, such as 'safe zones' inside Syria and more aggressive deployment of U.S. special forces.
David Ignatius
#52. Syria is ready to cooperate and coordinate all efforts, whether regional or international, to combat terrorism
Walid Muallem
#53. I would have said get out of Syria; get out - if we didn't have the power of weaponry today. The power is so massive that we can't just leave areas that 50 years ago or 75 years ago we wouldn't care. It was hand-to-hand combat.
Donald Trump
#54. I think Barack Obama has the overall right strategy and he's been right to resist bringing in massive numbers of American troops. The Iraqis would love to have Americans die for Iraq and the Syrians would love to have Americans die for Syria.
Adam Schiff
#55. ISIS is a virulent, nasty organization that has gained a foothold in ungoverned spaces effectively in Syria and parts of western Iraq. We have to take it seriously. They've shown in Paris what they can do in an organized fashion.
Barack Obama
#56. I agree with the president [Barack Obama]. I've said myself, we will not send American combat troops back to either Syria or Iraq - that is off the table.
Hillary Clinton
#57. [Enemies of Syria] are the enemies of the people and the enemies of God. And the enemies of God will go to hell.
Bashar Al-Assad
#58. You can watch a little bit of war from your nice living room - 30 seconds of what's going on in Syria - and when you've had enough, switch over to some celebrity programme. We live our life through screens and images in this way, and we don't know what is real or fake anymore. It doesn't matter.
Alison Jackson
#59. In Syria, if [Bashar al-] Assad had just been a statesman and handed over the reigns in time, Syria would not be heading down the nightmare that it is today.
Richard Branson
#60. At the end, the Saudis have agreed to put together a coalition inside of Syria to stabilize that country.
John Kasich
#61. For example, the use of chemical weapons [in Syria]- some on the Democrat side have said well, this encourages the North Koreans to use chemical weapons against our troops.
Rand Paul
#62. The front line with ISIS isn't just in Iraq and Syria, it's in Kennedy Airport and the Rio Grande. Border security is national security.
Ted Cruz
#63. Every Arab 'republic' has been a republic of fear, but only Saddam Hussein's Iraq surpassed the Assads' Syria in number of victims.
Elliott Abrams
#64. As far as the Internet is concerned, we're not talking about closing the Internet. I'm talking about parts of Syria, parts of Iraq, where ISIS is, spotting it.
Donald Trump
#65. My heart goes out to the brave citizens of Syria, who each day risk and even sacrifice their lives to achieve freedom from a murderous regime. We in Israel welcome the historic struggle to forge democratic, peace-loving governments in our region.
Shimon Peres
#66. There are very few issues that lie specifically in one region now. Polio in Syria doesn't affect Syria alone. I don't think any issue can ever be isolated into local politics these days, because we all know too much.
Cate Blanchett
#67. If, as we decided in Munich, there will be a cessation of hostilities and humanitarian assistance can flow into Syria - then this will open the door for the beginning of the political transition process.
Adel Al-Jubeir
#68. I think there are hard-liners inside of Iran that think it is the right thing to do to oppose us, to seek to destroy Israel, to cause havoc in places like Syria or Yemen or Lebanon, if they don't change at all, we're still better off having the deal.
Barack Obama
#69. each civilized person in the world should admit that he has two home countries: the one he was born in, and Syria .
Andrea Parrot
#70. Our enemy in Syria is Daesh: it's not about containing but destroying this organisation.
Francois Hollande
#71. The U.S. relationship with Bahrain is obviously more complicated than with Syria and Iran.
Rebecca MacKinnon
#72. Is Russia worried that defeating Daesh will open the door for defeating Bashar Assad? That would be a different story. But I don't think World War III is going to happen in Syria.
Adel Al-Jubeir
#73. Syria should not belong to one family, to one coterie, or to one party. It belongs to all the people of Syria equally, in all their religious and ethnic diversity.
William Hague
#74. Regarding Syria, we already call for dialogue between Syria and all parties concerned, in order to avoid any kind of escalation in the region which may expose the whole area to chaos.
Ali Abdullah Saleh
#75. I think it's a huge mistake. I think regime change in Syria, and this is what - I've been saying this for several years now. In 2013 when we first went in, I said, you are going to give arms to the allies of al Qaida, to radical jihadists? That's crazy.
Rand Paul
#76. We need ... to say to people that this is a temporary residential status, and we expect that, once there is peace in Syria again, once IS has been defeated in Iraq, that you go back to your home country with the knowledge that you have gained.
Angela Merkel
#77. Russia isn't likely to have any more military success in Syria and Iraq than has the United States.
David Ignatius
#78. No one doubts that innocent men, women and children have been the victims of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. And there's no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in Syria: the Syrian regime.
Joe Biden
#79. Jordan is the only Arab state that has provided citizenship to Palestinian refugees and integrated them. But something has to be done about the Palestinians living in refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon.
Walter Russell Mead
#80. Al Qaeda is alive and well in Libya, Iraq, Syria and the wars are not receding.
Lindsey Graham
#81. I think it is absolutely correct to solve the problem of terrorism in Iraq and Syria and Libya.
Matteo Renzi
#82. The U.S. should never get involved where we have no clear national interest. We should not intervene militarily in a country like Syria, where we can't separate friend from foe and might end up arming the very people who hate us the most.
Rand Paul
#83. Like Syria, the government of Bahrain employs aggressive tactics to censor and monitor its people's online activity.
Rebecca MacKinnon
#84. Yemen produces coffee, Egypt cotton, Iraq dates, Palestine oranges, and Syria trouble.
John Gunther
#85. Saddam is neither friend nor brother to us, and he will never pay off debts to us. It's the question of precedent: today the United States doesn't like Iraq, tomorrow Syria, then Iran, North Korea and then what: everyone else?
Robin Cook
#86. When the Romans in the last age of the republic came into immediate contact with Iran as a consequence of the occupation of Syria, they found in existence the Persian empire regenerated by the Parthians.
Theodor Mommsen
#87. I look at what the president [Barack Obama] it doing, it adds up to me. We just have to keep - try to get more support for those people on the ground in Syria and Iraq who have to actually physically take the territory back.
Hillary Clinton
#88. We know that russians are deeply engaged in supporting Assad because they want to have a place in the Middle East. They have a naval base, they have an air base in Syria.
Hillary Clinton
#89. I explained that we would like to adjust our position on the Syrian question to theirs, as, in our view, they are the decisive factor in our relations with our neighbors, and Syria is unimportant.
Moshe Sharett
#90. As international support for Obama's decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world.
Noam Chomsky
#91. Iran, Libya and Syria are irresponsible states, which must be disarmed of weapons of mass destruction, and a successful American move in Iraq as a model will make that easier to achieve.
Ariel Sharon
#92. I am Syrian, I was made in Syria, I have to live in Syria and die in Syria.
Bashar Al-Assad
#93. Like Afghanistan before it, Iraq is only one theater in a regional war. We were attacked by a network of terrorist organizations supported by several countries, of whom the most important were Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
Michael Ledeen
#94. Still people want to topple [Bashar] Assad. And then there will be chaos, and I think ISIS will then be in charge of Syria.
Rand Paul
#95. It is important that democracy in Lebanon is protected and that Hezbollah will not be supported by outside forces like Syria and Iran.
Ehud Olmert
#96. I think the attempt to draw a comparison between Iran and Syria is false, misleading and dangerous.
Ehud Olmert
#97. There are many countries who have traditionally sponsored terrorism. Iraq is one, though it appears the majority of the terrorism committed by Saddam Hussein is on his own citizens. Iran in this regard. Syria, with their close support of Hezbollah, is noteworthy in this respect.
Richard Armitage
#98. I am sympathetic to the fact that Turkey is doing everything it can to prevent the civil war in Syria from spilling over into its own country.
Thomas De Maiziere
#99. As far as we are concerned, we Syria have not changed.
Bashar Al-Assad
#100. We worry a lot about ISIS traveling overseas from Syria to the United States, but I think one of the greatest fears are those already within the U.S. who are being radicalized and inspired by the ISIS propaganda that's out there on the Internet.
Michael McCaul
