Hossein Shariatmadari Quotes

If Tehran insists on combining the Persian imperial tradition with contemporary Islamic fervor, then a collision with America — and, indeed, with its negotiating partners … — is unavoidable. Iran simply cannot be permitted to fulfill a dream of imperial rule in a region of such importance to the rest of the world.

Under the George W. Bush Administration…, the United States was generally seen as having the capacity and resolve, to pursue its own agenda in complete disregard of other states’ preferences.

Power alone is respected and ... in order to gain peace, the United States has no alternative but to wield it

We will definitely not allow the killing of our Iraqi Ambassador to deny us the right to have an ambassador.

In the international world, when General Electric walks into the room, the Sixth Fleet walks in behind them.

Menace not intended is an engine which Great Britain could never condescend to employ.

Iran is for negotiations…. This is the principle of Iranian Foreign Policy…. Iranians should make sure that the United States is not using pressure on Iran for negotiations.

That's the problem with Russia: The world has changed. Europe is not at war, and no one wants to negotiate with us. The world has changed, but Russia prefers to pretend it has not.

To call the American role in the world imperial was, for many who did so, a way of asserting that the United States was misusing its power beyond its borders and, in so doing, subverting its founding political principles within them.

I think that the president of Iran has the authority wherever which - where - wherever the national interests of the country are involved and, when it is necessary and expedient and required to speak and talk with others in order to promote the rights of its nation, that the president can take that initiative.

The reason that Americans have not been able to see the great strategic benefit that could accrue from a closer relationship with Iran is emotion.

The United States influences government and life everywhere else.

I don’t talk to countries that exhibit bad behavior.

America faced its first hostage crisis in the Middle East… Thomas Jefferson was President and over 100 Americans were being held hostage by Arabs from the Barbary Coast and the Arabs believed that if they were killed, they would go immediately to heaven. 220 years later America is still facing the same problem.

You can’t outsource diplomacy. You can’t do it unless you do it.

The U.S and England are not worthy of security council membership. Those who want good relations with the Iranian people should bow and surrender to its right and might.

Japan does not consider itself an ally or partner of the United States but rather a nation which for the time being is being forced by circumstances to cooperate with the United States ...

Pakistan was once called the most allied ally of the United States. We are now the most nonallied.

We do not want to tie ourselves ... to the United States, because she is unreliable ... and her statesmen do not know the mind of their own country.

Diplomacy is a frequently neglected imperative.

Diplomacy and force are two sides of the same coin.

American diplomacy is easy on the brain but hard on the feet.

America is different. It irks and domineers. But it does not conquer. It tries to call the shots and bend the rules, but it does not go to war for land and glory.

Americans, who are naive and inexperienced, are up against centuries of diplomatic skill and finesse.

An International Congress [Summit]: the greatest of all Vanity Fairs …. Each Prime Minister thinks that he alone is capable of representing his country’s policy. Each Foreign Secretary thinks that the Premier knows nothing of diplomacy. Each professional ambassador thinks the same about his Foreign Secretary …. It is an orchestra of first violins.