Quotes
We’re down to the final moments … Something’s going to happen very soon … We have a situation with Iran, and something’s going to happen very soon. Very, very soon, you’ll be talking about that pretty soon, I guess."
In the Oval Office, Trump stressed urgency Unfortunately if Khamenei remains in power and seeks an opening to the outside world, he is more likely to look to the Soviet Union than to the US. He is a graduate of Moscow’s Patrice Lumumba university."
On June 12, 1989, a week after Khamenei became supreme leader, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Smith Hempstone, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, warned in the Observer-Reporter Interestingly, many of Iran’s hardest hardliners were trained in the Soviet Union" ... Iran’s spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was himself a graduate of the USSR's training academy for third-world anti-Americans, Patrice Lumumba University."
Dr. Ilan Berman, appointed to the RFE/RL Board of Directors by Trump’s administration in February 2025, reinforced this back in 2001, stating There are reports now that Russia says it will help the United States negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran. What kind of a deal with Iran do you want to do? You’ve said they cannot have a nuclear weapon." ... There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal."
On March 7, Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo asked President Donald Trump ... Trump made his position clear I can barely cover the rent for my carpet shop or pay my workers' salaries. No one has the money to buy carpets. If this continues, I will have to lay off my staff,
Morteza, 39, said by phone from Tehran's Grand Bazaar, giving only his first name The situation worsens daily. I can't afford my rent, pay my bills, or buy clothes for my children,
said Alireza Yousefi, 42, a teacher from Isfahan There is no question whatsoever that the man who has been the Supreme Leader since 1989 and his foreign policy preferences are more guilty than anybody else for the state of affairs,
said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute think-tank in Washington Yes, there are concerns about more economic pressure, there are concerns about the nation's growing anger, but we cannot sacrifice our right to produce nuclear energy because Trump wants it,
The country is like a powder keg, and further economic strain could be the spark that sets it off,
said one of the four officials, who is close to the government The other side must be convinced that the policy of pressure is ineffective - only then can we sit at the negotiating table on equal terms,
That is why Ayatollah Khamenei seems to believe that the only thing that is more dangerous than suffering from sanctions is surrendering to them,
We need all the friends we can get, and I'm not sure that we're keeping the friends that we traditionally have,
It’s something Iran wants to avoid, and this diplomatic pressure – when combined with the economic and military pressure the US and Israel are exerting – can help bring Tehran to the table for negotiations. But it’s a wasting asset – the SnapBack mechanism expires in October of this year,
You’ve got to keep at it constantly, because the people trying to avoid sanctions are constantly finding avenues [to avoid them],
former Senator Sam Brownback, an Iran hawk who served as an ambassador-at-large in the first Trump administration, told The Independent of sanctions enforcement They fully understand, they’re very sophisticated [in terms of gathering intelligence on Iran],
I certainly am not a fan of going to war with the whole world at the same time,
Rep Brad Sherman, the lead Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, remarked on Saturday Pressure is always more effective when it has broad international support, and that begins with close U.S.-Europe cooperation, ... At a time when the U.S. and Europe have mounting disagreements, preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is a point on which they agree vehemently, and can be a point of collaboration amid acrimony.”
We’re NATO. And we're much better off organizing NATO around members who want to be a part of NATO, who want to have 5% of their GDP in defense.”
Europe has long believed that the JCPOA is dead and that efforts to revive it are somewhere between useless and counterproductive, yet [France, Germany and Italy] have not withdrawn from the agreement or moved yet to restore pre-JCPOA sanctions,
I don't think western Europe matters,
Giuliani told The Independent on Saturday
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