“Some of these agendas wanted me to quit, very simply, so they said “we have all the guarantees if you want to leave, and all the money and everything you want.” Of course, you just ignore that.”

Syria is in a state of war since its land was occupied for more than four decades, and the nature of the frontier in Syria implies that most of the army is in inhabited areas, most of the centers are in inhabited areas.

For the West, they wanted to undermine the Syrian positions. For the petrodollar countries like Saudi Arabia, they’re thinking undermining Syria will undermine Iran on sectarian basis.

The Russians always base their policies on values, and these values are the sovereignty of other countries, the international law, respecting other people, other cultures, so they don’t interfere in whatever is related to the future of Syria or the Syrian people.

There is no good war.

Any American strike will not destroy as much as the terrorists have already destroyed in Syria ; sometimes the repercussions could be many doubles the strike itself.

That’s all before the crisis. We always have this kind of cooperation with Iran [Supplies, weaponry].

It’s our right to defend our country against any kind of invasion.

The part in Aleppo, what [people] call it the eastern part, is occupied by the terrorists for the last three years, and they have been using the civilians as human shields.

It’s not exactly fair to make a mistake yourself and then start blaming others for it.

Without the public support, we cannot withstand two years and a half. Look at the other countries, look what happened in Libya, in Tunisia and in Egypt.

This is reality. If [the American officials] want to believe, that’s good, that will help them understand the region and be more successful in their policies.

Syria is geographically and politically in the middle of the Middle East. That is why we are in contact with most of the problems forever, let us say, whether directly or indirectly.

We can say, you can win the war only when you restore stability in Syria.

We learned that lesson very well, especially in the eighties, that terrorists cannot be used as a political card, you cannot put it in your pocket, because it’s like a scorpion; it will bite you someday.

A bomb is a bomb, what’s the difference between different kinds of bombs? All bombs are to kill, but it’s about how to use it.

Hezbollah fighters are on the borders with Lebanon where the terrorists attacked them. On the borders with Lebanon, this is where Hezbollah retaliated, and this is where we have cooperation, and that’s good.

The pen is an instrument of discovery rather than just a recording implement. If you write a letter of resignation or something with an agenda, you’re simply using a pen to record what you have thought out.

I have no agenda, nothing to control.

[On her writing agenda:] Make the familiar exotic; the exotic familiar.

If you’re black and you oppose a progressive agenda, and you’re pro life, and you’re pro family, then they do not even know what to call you. You end up on some watch list for extremists.

Whatever my aims and agendas were, I never asked for power.

Using terrorism or jihadists or extremists for any political agenda is immoral.

Jesus existed, and those vocal persons who deny it do so not because they have considered the evidence with the dispassionate eye of the historian, but because they have some other agenda that this denial serves.