Reuven Rivlin Quotes

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.

Every government is in some respects a problem for every other government.

When in the course of European diplomacy it becomes necessary for one people to let another dissolve the political bands which have connected them with a third, and to assume among the powers of the earth the desperate and unequal station to which the will of an International Congress condemns them, a decent respect to the cannon of their protectors requires that they should say nothing about the causes which compel them to accept the situation.

When I was Prime Minister, it's right - we had a close relationship - but that did not prevent me, when I believed the United States position was wrong, arguing against them.

Regardless of some disagreements in the past with Dr. Kissinger, I personally had a very good relationship with the secretary when I served as ambassador to the United States and later on as premier.

I'm not going to tell the American president how to run America, but I think it is important that when friends are speaking to each other that they are able to be very frank in the views that are exchanged, and I certainly will be doing that.

The Israeli prime minister, whoever that person is, should have an open invitation to come to America to speak to Congress and the American people.

The U.S.-Israel relationship is so important.

Hamas is a political party and political parties don't recognize other countries.

I was very upset in August of 2012 when President Obama declared a red line against Syria and said if these chemical attacks continue, that's it, we're done, we're getting involved and we did nothing. When you're the commander in chief, the buck stops with you.

I don't want to sound like I'm a special type of Russia hater. There are very few heads of state in Europe that would not like to have very good relations with Russia.

It is vital that people are aware of what the Foreign Office can and can't do.

American envoys came to see me before the crisis in Iraq and asked me to say that there were nuclear weapons in Iraq. I refused. They even told me that things would go well for Belarus in terms of investments, etc. All I had to do was to support them. I told them that I couldn't do it because I knew that there were no nuclear weapons there.

I am sick and tired of an administration that treats Raul Castro and Ayatollah Khamenei better than it treats the prime minister of Israel.

He [ Vladimir Putin] would rather have a puppet as president of the United States.

We were also going to develop relations with the current administration [of Barack Obama], but somehow they did not work out well in key areas and, I believe, not through our fault. I will not list all the problems that emerged in the past few years.

Declarations of war have never been a constitutional requirement for military action abroad.

I see this piece of legislation as essentially being a declaration of virtual war. It is giving the President tremendous powers to pursue war efforts against a sovereign nation. ...I think it is another example of a flawed foreign policy that we have followed for a good many decades.

We intend to leave it without further discussion. We respect this request by the government of Uzbekistan

I think it's very sad, when Barack Obama lands in Saudi Arabia, and he lands in Cuba, and there aren't high officials to even greet him.

The bilateral relationship is unshakable, but playing politics with that relationship could blunt Secretary Kerry's enthusiasm for being Israel's primary defender.

Donald Trump can say hey, did she [Hillary Clinton] short-circuit when she reset the relationship with Vladimir Putin and now Russia is, according to "The New York Times" article today, Russia is in control in Syria?

No modern nation has ever constructed a foreign policy that was acceptable to its intellectuals

Sometimes arrogance makes us overreach. George Bush Jr. often tries to suggest the leaders of other countries, and it is just not good diplomacy.

Historically, and since, 1520, eighteen Treaties have been concluded between the Persian State and its western neighbours regarding its relations therewith including the question of borders. On all occasions, the Persian State chose the opportunity to violate the said Treaties whether by word or deed.