Quotes About Iran

Since 1979, the majority of victims of the Iranian regime have been the Iranian people themselves.

What the United States needs to do at this point is reaffirm our commitment that Assad must go and that Iran and Russia cannot be granted a sphere of influence in Syria, and that we will not sit down at the negotiating table to help broker Assad's victory in this fight.

Advancements in technology have become so commonplace that sometimes we forget to stop and think about how incredible it is that a girl on her laptop in Texas can see photos and cell phone video in real time that a young college student has posted of a rally he's at in Iran.

In Iran I think nobody loses their job because of making a statement that reflects their opinion. From this point of view, conditions in Iran are far better than in many other places in the world.

I could see that between the two regimes, the Pahlavis must now seem infinitely preferable to the reality of the Islamic Republic. If oppression is a dish that must be served with a side order, then let it be glamour and excess rather than religion and hypocrisy.

My mother, she was twenty in 1979, she supported Khomeini, she wanted to throw out the Shah. But now she cries all the time. Ten times a day she says to me, what did I do? What did I do? It wasn't meant to be like this. But there is nothing we can do.

Khomeini and Khamenei were everywhere; on giant billboards at the roadside, as vast lurid murals on concrete apartment blocks and, less impressively, on sagging vinyl banners outside schools and mosques. With their almost identical appearance and surnames they reminded me of an Islamic Thomson and Thompson, the hapless detectives of the Tintin books. But that, I feared, was where the similarity ended.

I came to the conclusion that it was impossible to classify anyone in Iran, and herein lay its fascination.

I realised then, sitting silent and alone in the wilderness, that it wasn't just the traffic, noise and pollution of the cities and highways that I'd found wearing, it was also the sensation of being constantly on display, even if the attention I attracted was almost always well-meaning. Iran is a country of, and for, extroverts,

His indomitable spirit was uplifting, and unexpected. He wasn't going to let a despotic regime and a bunch of international sanctions get in the way of life, no way! Ironically, it reminded me of all the best elements of the United States, that go-get-'em, can-do positivity that is such a heartening aspect of American culture. It wasn't a comparison I was expecting to make in Iran, but I was already becoming used to being confounded and surprised at every turn.

I was ashamed to find myself contemplating that for the traveller, Iran's charms lay in its isolation. This was not a mindset I liked, or approved of; I didn't want to be like the smug backpackers in The Beach, trying to keep their special place a secret. I wanted the Iranian people to reap all the benefits from engaging with the world and for the rest of us to wake up to the reality that Iran is not a nation of desert-dwelling terrorists.

I'd noticed that in Britain and America the word Persian is generally used for the 'nice' things: Persian carpets, Persian food and restaurants, poetry and art, that kind of thing. But when it comes to talking about politics, and say, the nuclear programme or human rights, anything that the western media considers intimidating or distasteful, then it's 'Iran' and 'Iranian'.

Thirty-five years of intimidating and dreary Islamic rule had created a rose-tinted view of the pre-revolutionary era. The arrests, the intimidation, the decadence of the elite, the horrors of SAVAK; it had all been forgotten, replaced by a revised, romantic version of the good old days. Among Iranians of a certain age and class, the swinging sixties and seventies are recalled with a poetic yearning nostalgia; an era of mini-skirts, freedom and hedonism.

And in recent years Tony Blair had hardly helped, with his constant Iran fear-mongering. I see the impact and influence of Iran everywhere, I remembered him saying, his glassy, maniacal eyes staring out from behind a lectern at some international summit. Really, it was no wonder it was hard to get a visa.

This is the reality if you take a stand against the government in Iran.' He looked me in the eye. 'Would you take that risk?' It was a difficult question. I liked to think I was the kind of person who would make a stand, but it was easy for me to say, coming from a democratic country with its unarmed policemen and the reassuring notion of habeas corpus enshrined in law. Taking a stand in Iran was a life or death decision.

Many of the passengers were a generation or two older than me, men and women who would remember the pre-revolution era; they had probably supported the overthrow of the Shah at the time. Considering that over ninety-eight per cent of the population had voted for the creation of an Islamic Republic back in 1979, it was highly likely that most of these quiet, tea-drinking folk around me had ticked the YES box in that fateful referendum. I wondered if they regretted that decision now.

In Iran, people are free to express their views. Every day, some people criticize the policies of the government.

Why should Iran have a deterrent strategy? Well, it's surrounded by hostile enemies. Both of its borders have been under occupation by a hostile superpower, the United States, which is constantly violating the U.N. charter by leaving open what they call the saying, 'all options are open' - meaning the threat of war.

The viral power of online media has proven how fast creative ideas can be spread and adopted, using tools like cellphones, digital cameras, micro-credit, mobile banking, Facebook, and Twitter. A perfect example? The way the Green Movement in Iran caught fire thanks to social media.

We did more to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions with a computer virus than we ever could have with bombs (and we did still more with diplomacy - the abandonment of which is also bad for our military, because militaries can only stop a problem, not fix a problem).

If you are a businessman or a politician in Iran, you can get a visa as quickly as you ask for it.

Those who insist on having hostilities with us, kill and destroy the option of friendship with us in the future, which is unfortunate because it is clear the future belongs to Iran and that enmities will be fruitless.

For this reason, the expansion of relations with all countries is on the agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I mean balanced relationships, based on mutual respect and observation of each other's rights.

Those who insist on having hostilities with us, kill and destroy the option of friendship with us in the future, which is unfortunate because it is clear the future belongs to Iran and that enmities will be fruitless.