Assad Quotes

In the eyes of the Iranians, they don't respect or fear Barack Obama. He drew a line against Assad when he used chemical weapons and did nothing about it. And our friends, the Arabs and the Israelis, don't trust President Obama. ~ Lindsey Graham

The logical thing is to implement the Arab Defense Agreement. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I'll tell you whose view on [Bashar] Assad is the same as mine. It's Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu. Prime Minister Netanyahu has said Israel doesn't have a dog in that fight because Assad is a puppet of Iran, a Shia radical Islamic terrorist, but at the same time, Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't want to see Syria governed by ISIS. ~ Ted Cruz

What holds an Arab leader in power is a mixture of violence and prestige. Both President Assad and King Hussein were felt to have defended Arab interests against the world. That, in the end, is more important than what they wear on their head. ~ James Buchan

I don't think anyone can predict what the short term will look like. In the long term, it will be a Syria without Bashar Assad. The longer it takes, the worse it will get. ~ Adel Al-Jubeir

Today, the Iraqi citizen sees that America is coming and wants to occupy his country and kill him, and he is willing to experience for himself what happened in Palestine. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Worry does not mean fear, but readiness for the confrontation. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

The most significant indicator that there is no disaster in Iraq is the fact that there is no exodus. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

But the issue has to do with land, which is our land. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

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

God isn't looking for perfection. He is seeking men and women with faith greater than fear. ~ Michele Rigby Assad

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

You cannot have democracy without the institutions. You cannot have a democracy that is built on the moods of self-interested people. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

A movie should entertain you in a way that will also open your mind. I think movies are tools to enrich your experience. ~ Hany Abu-Assad

I don't believe in war, I believe in the principle of deterrence. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Conversely, it is correct to say that bringing about peace would be the best way to fight terror. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

The first thing you have to learn is how to conduct dialogue and how to make it productive. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Strike the enemy's settlements, turn them into dust, pave the Arab roads with the skulls of Jews. ~ Hafez Al-Assad

If we have the kinds of confirmation that we need, we will once again work with the international community and the organization charged with monitoring compliance by the Syrian government, and we will reach out to patrons of Assad like Russia to put a stop to it. ~ Barack Obama

Syrians need to prepare for the aftermath if the Assad regime falls. Atrocities that could be considered war crimes have been committed in this country, and Syrians should rightly demand that the perpetrators be held accountable. ~ Richard Engel

Every country has criminals who have to be fought. They can exist anywhere, including the government or the army - or outside the government and army. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I don't understand this thing about [Bashar] Assad. He has to go. Assad is aligned with Iran and Russia. The one thing we want to prevent is we want to prevent Iran being able to extend a Shia crescent all across the Middle East. Assad has got to go. ~ John Kasich

Bashar Assad has been so brutal toward the Sunni within Syria that he created the space that led to the people of Syria themselves to stand up and try to overthrow him. That led to the chaos which allowed ISIS to come in and take advantage of that situation and grow more powerful. ~ Marco Rubio

No doubt that the U.S. is a super-power capable of conquering a relatively small country, but is it able to control it? ~ Bashar Al-Assad

None of us and none of the Arabs trust Israel. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

The principal sponsors of the terrorists are not religious fanatics. "Palestine's Yasser Arafat, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and Syria's Assad family have made themselves the icons of Islamism despite the fact that they are well-known atheists who live un-Muslim lives and have persecuted unto death the Muslim movements in their countries." ~ William F. Buckley, Jr.

Is there an equality of power between America and Iraq? Definitely not; however, the Iraqi people are standing fast and are defending their land courageously. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I am Syrian, I was made in Syria, I have to live in Syria and die in Syria. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I think that if you believe in regime change, you're mistaken. In 2013, we put 600 tons of weapons - us, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar - into the war against [Bashar] Assad. By pushing Assad back, we did create a safe space. ~ Rand Paul

Bashar al-Assad and those who still stand by him are now responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 in Syria. ~ Susan Rice

It is clear that the American people are weary of war. However, Assad gassing his own people is an issue of our national security, regional stability and global security. ~ Nancy Pelosi

When Lebanon started its resistance it was a small and divided country. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Trust that the thing in life that excites you the most comes complete with all the tools necessary to support you in the doing of that thing. It is automatic; it is built in. All you need to do is act on the opportunities that doing that situation brings to you. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

We need to learn from history. These same leaders - [Barack] Obama,[Hillary] Clinton, and far too many Republicans - want to topple [Bashar] Assad. Assad is a bad man. Gadhafi was a bad man. Mubarak had a terrible human rights record. But they were assisting us - at least [Muammar]Gadhafi and[Hosni] Mubarak - in fighting radical Islamic terrorists. ~ Ted Cruz

We have to get rid of ISIS first. After we get rid of ISIS, we'll start thinking about it. But we can't be fighting [Bashar] Assad. And when you're fighting Assad, you are fighting Russia, you're fighting - you're fighting a lot of different groups. ~ Donald Trump

History teaches us that nobody can prevent a resistance group from arming when it has the support of the people. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I am president, I don't own the country so they are not my forces. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I would only go to Syria to destroy ISIS. I would not use U.S. troops to depose Assad. But I would support the rebels there. It's okay to support those people who share your view. But for the United States to be embroiled in a civil war in Syria against [Bashr] Assad I think is a big mistake. ~ John Kasich

Reform has to be based on opening your mind and opening the mind does not come from decrees or laws. It comes from a whole set of circumstances, which if you do not have, anything you do will be not productive or will be counter-productive. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

This is the Middle East, where every week you have something new; so whatever you talk about this week will not be valuable next week. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

The transition from tyranny to democracy is very hard. The Syrian people have to handle this in a way that works in Syria. And the brutality of the Assad regime is unacceptable. ~ Jacob Lew

Terrorism is a state of mind that on the one hand has to do with ignorance and, on the other hand, can be attributed to a feeling of desperation over the political situation, which at some point takes the form of revenge. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

No government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Humanity has survived because the strong among us have, in the past, been obliged to help the weak. Without this, we would not survive. ~ Hany Abu-Assad

You in Lebanon, your power is no match to Israel. Israel, militarily, is more powerful than you and maybe it is more powerful than all the Arab countries, or most of them. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Russia is emerging as an essential diplomatic and security partner for the U.S. in Syria, despite the Obama administration's opposition to Moscow's support for President Bashar al-Assad. ~ David Ignatius

US Vice President Joe Biden gave the US government's real view of its regional and Syrian allies with undiplomatic frankness when speaking at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at Harvard University's Institute of Politics on October 2. He told his audience that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and UAE were so determined to take down Assad and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war. What did they do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world. ~ Patrick Cockburn

Unless there is meaningful change in Syria and an end to the crackdown, President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria. ~ William Hague

[Hillary] Clinton is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be. Yes, we could get rid of Assad tomorrow, but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit ISIS. ~ Bernie Sanders

I cannot afford to make mistakes. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I feel like my job is to give hope. The world is in a dark place and we are living in somewhat of a nightmare. So I want to make films to give hope. ~ Hany Abu-Assad

The U.S. and Britain are incapable of controlling all of Iraq. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Israel does not care about the international public opinion. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Was she pregnant then?' asked Assad. Judging by the number of family members in his photos, it was a feminine condition with which he was quite familiar. ~ Jussi Adler-Olsen

It's a dangerous thing when someone gets up in the morning and has nothing to eat. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Freedom and democracy are nothing but instruments, just like stability. The goal is called progress and growth. Anyone who puts freedom ahead of stability is hurting growth. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

As a human being, I will always feel that where there is oppression, I am with the underdog. ~ Hany Abu-Assad

The word 'democracy' and the name of Assad do not blend very well in much of Syria. ~ Robert Fisk

US policy of recruiting Syrian "moderates" to fight both ISIS and Assad, Biden said that in Syria the US had found "that there was no moderate middle because the moderate middle are made up of shopkeepers, not soldiers." Seldom have the real forces at work in creating ISIS and the present crisis in Iraq and Syria been so accurately described. ~ Patrick Cockburn

Russia went into Syria basically to support President Bashar al-Assad. And the Western allies have said Russia's really done very little against ISIS. For his part, Putin said Russia's open to stronger cooperation, and he supports Frances's effort to build a strong anti-terror coalition. ~ Corey Flintoff

Even a president makes mistakes. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I don't want to talk about methods of killing. But what is the difference between a bomb worn on the body and one dropped from an airplane? Both of them kill people. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

He dropped his pile of papers onto the desk and indicated the sheet on top. "Here is the common I nominate in all the fires, Carl." "You what?" "The common I nominate." "Common denominator, Assad. A compound noun. What common denominator? ~ Jussi Adler-Olsen

If you ask Americans whether they've been successful at sealing the border with Mexico, they'll tell you that it's a very difficult proposition. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

The Islamic world can be viewed as an onion-layered multiple dictatorship: the dictatorship of political dynasties like the Mubarak, Gaddafi, Hussein, Ben Ali, and Assad families forms its first layer; the dictatorship of the military, the next; after that, that the dictatorship of religion, which determines how children are raised and educated; and finally, the dictatorship of society, which impacts life within families through archaic gender roles. ~ Hamed Abdel-Samad

At least US and Iranian leaders agree on something: Assad's downfall would tremendously weaken Iran's regional influence. From the beginning of the Syrian uprising, Iran worried that "if the Assad government fell, the replacement would have much stronger ties with the US government and Israeli government," according to Professor Foad Izadi, an assistant professor at the University of Tehran's Faculty of World Studies. He told me, "that was the dilemma that Iran had."9 ~ Reese Erlich

Simply naming objectives isn't sufficient for a vision. If I say that I'm going to build a large palace, but I don't have any money to do so, then that is not a vision - it's an illusion. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

As far as we are concerned, we Syria have not changed. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

We, in Syria, our point of view stems from our experience. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

The problem is not the occupation, but how people deal with it. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

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

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

We have always said there are two ways to resolve Syria, and both will end up with the same result: a Syria without Bashar Assad. ~ Adel Al-Jubeir

If in the past, you didnt cry out when thousands of protestors were killed and injured by Turkey, Egypt and Libya, when more victims than ever were hanged by Iran, women and children in Afghanistan were bombed, whole communities were massacred in South Sudan, 1800 Palestinians were starved and murdered by Assad in Syria, hundreds in Pakistan were killed by jihadist terrorist attacks, 10,000 Iraqis were killed by terrorists, villagers were slaughtered in Nigeria, but you ONLY cry out for Gaza, then you are NOT Pro- Human Rights, you are only Anti-Israel. ~ Hillel Neuer

I hereby arm myself for today with coffee and the willingness to be wrong. ~ Audrey Assad

In the spring of 2007, Israeli intelligence brought to Washington proof that the Assad regime in Syria was building a nuclear reactor along the Euphrates - with North Korean help. This reactor was a copy of the Yongbyon reactor the North Koreans had built, and was part of a Syrian nuclear weapons program. ~ Elliott Abrams

Armies are not only for offensives. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

The captain doesn't think about death, or life, he thinks about saving his ship, ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I like movies that deal with trapped men. Men that need to make choices that are not obvious or easy choices. Then how do you visualize this? You create this character conflicted between two sides, because drama is about the conflict of two things, between your duty and your will, between what you want and what you can't have. It is all conflict between two things, and this is why you put your character in a place where you can visualize the conflict. ~ Hany Abu-Assad

My primary goal is to create prosperity. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its people; a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost. Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL, while pursuing the political solution necessary to solve Syria's crisis once and for all. ~ Barack Obama

We believe that Lebanon has been the first real experience for all the Arabs. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Politics is about realities, not logic. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Assad whistled a few notes of one of his native country's melancholic songs. It sounded as though he was whistling backwards ~ Jussi Adler-Olsen

Assad: 'I have written it just down here.'

He Pointed to a number of Arabic symbols that could just as well have meant it was going to snow in the Lofoten Islands in the morning. ~ Jussi Adler-Olsen

The place where the interests of all parties come together is the international community, along with its resolutions. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Those who arrived on America's tanks are not credible in Iraq. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Obama was the most powerful man in the world, but that didn't mean he could control the forces at play in the Middle East. There was no Nelson Mandela who could lead a country to absolution for its sins and ours. Extremist forces were exploiting the Arab Spring. Reactionary forces - with deep reservoirs of political support in the United States - were intent on clinging to power. Bashar al-Assad was going to fight to the death, backed by his Russian and Iranian sponsors. Factions were going to fight it out in the streets of Libya. The Saudis and Emiratis were going to stamp out political dissent in Egypt before it could come to their kingdoms. A Likud prime minister was going to mouth words about peace while building settlements that made peace impossible. Meanwhile, innocent people were going to suffer, some of them were going to be killed, and there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it. Obama had reached that conclusion before I had. History had opened up a doorway in 2011 that, by the middle of 2013, had been slammed shut. There would be more war, more conflict, and more suffering, until - someday - old men would make peace. ~ Ben Rhodes

It's not exactly fair to make a mistake yourself and then start blaming others for it. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Well, I think the U.S. has been careful not to go too far in attacking Iran's allies, in particular in attacking Hezbollah forces in Syria, which have been propping up the regime of Bashar al-Assad. ~ David Ignatius

In the End, a Lie Is a Lie. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

We will have to work around the world with less than ideal governments. The government in Saudi Arabia is not a democracy, but we will have to work with them. The government in Jordan is not perfect, but we will have to work with them. But anti-American dictators like [Bashar] Assad, who help Hezbollah, who helped get those IEDs into Iraq, if they go, I will not shed a tear. ~ Marco Rubio

Israel lost its war. Will Assad's enemies lose, too? ~ Robert Fisk

If we topple [Bashar] Assad, the result will be ISIS will take over Syria, and it will worsen U.S. national security interests. ~ Ted Cruz

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

Think of the war against terrorism. In my view, Washington's approach can be compared to a doctor constantly banging away at a tumor instead of removing it surgically. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

I'll tell what reckless is. What reckless is is calling [Bashar] Assad a reformer. What reckless is allowing Russia to come into Crimea and Ukraine. What reckless is is inviting Russia into Syria to team with Iran. That is reckless. And the reckless people are the folks in the White House right now. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the reckless people. ~ Chris Christie

The casting is very simple actually, but it is very important. You choose the best actor for the role, and you test them and you test them, and you bring them back, and you have to make sure the actors fit the roles. ~ Hany Abu-Assad

It is always an eerie experience to sit among Bashar al-Assad's soldiers. ~ Robert Fisk

The Israeli lobby has clout in the U.S., which means that re-arranging the region and controlling its resources one way or another, will serve Israel through its control over the American administration. ~ Bashar Al-Assad