Boris Yeltsin Quotes

You know, I said in the U.N., I said to President Abbas, 'Look, we're in the same city, we're in the same building, for God's sake, the U.N. Let's just sit down and begin to talk peace.'

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

We have had enough of meetings for meetings’ sake in the Middle East.

A two-state solution cannot be promised without having negotiations first.

If there is willingness on the Palestinian side to reach an agreement, it is possible. We are conducting the negotiations with goodwill.

A peace talk is always difficult, always complicated.

It's necessary for Israelis and Palestinians to make the compromises that are required to get the direct talks back on track.

As they say, one thing led to another, and, ultimately, the British and Irish governments asked me to serve as chairman of the peace negotiations, which ironically began six years ago this week.

Funnily enough, Northern Ireland is a great example of where politics can win over conflict. The decision to down arms and follow a political path would have been unthinkable once. It shows just what is possible.

We believe that we should come to an agreement with the Palestinians. But we need two to tango.

If you want peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

It is the hope of the European Union that Ariel Sharon will keep the peace process alive and continue the dialogue according to the wishes of all the parties involved.

The most important thing in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without too much apparent loss of face.

I think placing preconditions before negotiations is the quickest way to undermine peace.

There is nothing that I'd love to do more than negotiate with Palestinians. This is my desire. This is my dream. This is my mission.

Once this key conflict is eased, it will have a huge impact on the world. It will take time to find a solution. It's similar to the situation between East and the West at the time of my flight.

My colleagues and I have gone in the footsteps of our predecessors since the very first day we were called by our people to care for their future. We went any place, we looked for any avenue, we made any effort to bring about negotiations between Israel and its neighbors, negotiations without which peace remains an abstract desire.

The most important thing that certainly the United States and other Asian and Pacific actors have done is to urge that whatever happens, however the dispute is resolved, that it be resolved peacefully.

There is not going to be a peace process unless there is talks involving Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas, and I think everyone knows that.

I believe that it is my responsibility as the prime minister of Israel to do whatever can be done to exploit the unique opportunities that lie ahead of us to move towards peace. Not everything can be done by one act.

How do you negotiate a two state solution with the Palestinians when they do not believe that one of the states has the right to exist?

The negotiations required here make the Paris Peace talks seem like a polite school conference.

It is not the position of the U.S. government to pressure Pakistan or to pressure India. If we can be helpful in bringing about a dialogue, then that’s a good thing

You cannot sit down at the negotiating table and still preach violence in the streets.

It is impossible for either nations or individuals, in the management of a dispute, to have the benefit of two opposite chances. They may be, from the first, moderate, pacific, magnanimous; they will thus secure certain advantages, and they will lose possible advantages. They may, on the contrary, be haughty, warlike, and selfish ; their chances and advantages will then be the reverse of the former. It is impossible to unite the two.