Nicolas Sarkozy Quotes

Many Europeans are concerned that stronger sanctions are a slippery slope toward war unless the U.S. is at the table.

People talk about smart sanctions and crippling sanctions. I've never seen smart sanctions, and crippling sanctions cripple everyone, including innocent civilians, and make the government more popular.

Economic sanctions rarely achieve the desired results.

Sanctions are not really an economic weapon.

Sanctions historically are quite counterproductive in the sense that if you impose sanctions on your enemy, it tends to strengthen your enemy.

We ought to nuke North Korea right about now just to give the world a warning.

International economic and political sanctions on Iran, as crucial as they may be, are only an initial step, and must be dramatically increased.

Of other countries, to impose economic sanctions, it'd really begin to dry up the enormous amount of money coming into North Korea, a lot of it from China - from Chinese banks - whereas, if we sanction the Chinese banks, there could be friction with China. But this is something we're going to have to face.

We can pursue peaceful diplomacy with the Iranian regime while also continuing our maximum economic pressure campaign, while also defending ourselves... To say that it's a war with Iran or nothing is just a fundamental misunderstanding of how foreign policy actually works.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

Opponents of U.S. sanctions have made 'unilateral sanctions' their special target. They argue that sanctions observed by many nations would be much more effective. True enough. Far better for trade with an outlaw regime to be restricted by many nations than by just one.

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.

If Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything in recent history, it is the unpredictability of war and that these things are easier to get into than to get out of, and, frankly, the facile way in which too many people talk about, 'Well, let's just go attack them.'

The serious crimes by the Sudanese government and the government-supported militias must be met with serious consequences. We must work for tough international economic sanctions on the Sudanese government.

I've been arguing this for months. This is not our war. This is not a war we should be in. Australia's better spending its time negotiating with North Korea.

This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war.

I could have been very popular if I had launched a military attack on Iran but I chose patience.

The only way we want to give them [the Iranians] arms is dropping them from the bay of a B-1 bomber.

Embargo is not war.

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.

We want to give them more than a choice between capitulation and strangulation.

Ultimately all the options are ugly… These decisions are very, very difficult

France remembers previous invasions in this century, and no one can blame her for wanting to feel secure. There never was a time, however, when other nations were as ready to see her point of view as they are today.

Is a military solution the only way to stop nations from doing bad things?

Imposing economic sanctions is declaring economic warfare on the people of South Africa.