Foreign Ministers

"In these elections, Ahmadinejad, Khatami’s successor and president since 2005, had been headed for a loss and a moderate candidate, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was expected to win. But Iran was consolidating its gains in the region in the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, and Ahmadinejad was serving the cause well. In the eyes of the Supreme Leader and people like Suleimani, this was not the time to change course with a softer image. The official results were announced soon after the polls closed: Ahmadinejad had won. Three days after the election, two million people took to the streets in support of Mousavi, asking, “Where is my vote?” The spirited soul of the Iranian nation was alive and well—but again it was no match for the ruthlessness of a system ready to deploy all its weapons to stay in power. The Green Movement protests went on for three months; at least sixty-nine people were killed and hundreds imprisoned. Mousavi was put under house arrest and would remain so, with his wife, for years."

"That means temporary borrowings. People have to understand that because there's going to be the usual political shit storm, sorry, political storm."

"My name is Kevin, I'm from Queensland, and I'm here to help."

"The major challenges of climate change, the major challenge of the economy and manufacturing, the major challenges in education, and how do we turbo-charge our national education system to create the knowledge base for the future of the Australian economy. These are the sorts of areas that you're going to see detailed policy plans from us in the weeks and months ahead..."

"When it comes to labour market reform, here's the difference between us and John Howard: John Howard regards labour as just like any other economic commodity. We actually see labour as made up of human beings. These are human beings with an intrinsic dignity. When they go to the workplace, they're not just like a lump of wood or a piece of coal, these are human beings, and they should be treated properly as people with intrinsic rights."

"Compassion is not a dirty word. Compassion is not a sign of weakness. In my view, compassion in politics and in public policy is in fact a hallmark of great strength. It is a hallmark of a society which has about it a decency which speaks for itself."

"I say to those opposite: we intend to prevail in this battle of ideas, on the ground, right through to the next election. We intend to prevail."

"Labor’s message then is this: we believe in a strong economy; we believe also in a fair go for all, not just for some."

"When you analyse it carefully, it is about a family’s ability to stay together and have time together. We all know, with our fractured lives in this place, how difficult it becomes when we as human beings cannot spend time with one another. However, the problem is that these industrial relations laws now set that disease in place right across the nation in every workplace, in every part of the country. What I fear most of all is the ultimate impact of this on the fabric of Australian family life."

"This goes to demonstrate the fact that John Howard established this inquiry in order to bring about his own absolution, not to bring about any form of accountability."

"If he has any self-respect he would resign over this matter, the negligence is so gross."

"[But] we should not be kowtowing to anybody when it comes to freedom in this country."

"Everyone's entitled to their point of view but that's seriously a weird one."

"John Howard's credibility on the entire Iraq war has been torpedoed by John Howard's own intelligence agency."

"... no diplomatic intervention will ever be made by any government that I lead in support of any individual terrorist's life. We have only indicated in the past, and will maintain a policy in the future, of intervening diplomatically in support of Australian nationals who face capital sentences abroad."

"Labor has a universal position of opposition to the death penalty both at home and abroad... It is not possible in our view to be selective in the application of this policy."

"We have seen this complete right wing takeover of modern liberalism, and it is an ugly spectacle to behold."

"I actually believe in a big Australia - I make no apology for that. I actually think it's good news that our population is growing."

"There's nothing like having a bit of somebody else in you."

"Since ideology matters for Xi Jinping, Rudd’s book [On Xi Jinping] matters for those who want to understand him. The alternative is reading daily Xi’s quite boring prose."

"It is unlikely that you'll have anything emerge from MEF (Major Economies Forum) by way of detailed programmatic specificity."

"That day may come. But I’m not seeing it coming soon. We are still strong enough; we’re still popular; I think we are doing the right things."

"Roads are the blood vessels of the economy."

"We cannot continue to mourn about our country being poor while our minerals are lying untapped and with harvesting at Lake Natron, we will not be the first to do so, because our neighbours, Kenya, are doing the same on the other side of the lake."

"There are no demands - undue demands... There are many questions we get? why China? why now and the answer is why not?... There is no any hidden agenda in our cooperation with China, it is a relationship based on mutual understanding and equality; they understand our situation."

"Justice has to be done, justice must be seen to be done, what the AU is simply saying is that what is critical, what is the priority, is peace. That is priority number one now."

"I gazed at that small boat and said to myself, mhh, I am a Mkwere without swimming skills. Better for Membe because he has married in Mbamba Bay. He can swim."

"This is our kind of politics-to involve the people in staging protest marches, but not in matters that concern their very lives."

"This is senseless cruelty. It must stop forthwith... I am told that people kill albinos and chop their body parts, including fingers, believing they can get rich when mining or fishing."

"You’re negotiating all these problems for several years, they will talk about that, about a newspaper, they will talk about an underage boy in prison (for example). He’s 17 and he raped a nine-year-old, and they ask: “Why do you lock him up?” And so I say, what do you do, this is a rape case, and they want to discuss, I spend so many hours discussing whatever it is this boy... So what do they want us to do? Release him? So that he can go and rape another one?"

"They discuss no strings. There, the people, they don’t discuss anything. You can’t beat the British, you’ve got to sit with them for hours. They talk about this, they talk about that."

"I don’t think they (the Chinese) have better friends in Africa than us. But when we compare to how much money we get, if we succeed, if the MCA is funded by the US Congress for Tanzania, it’s going to be $700 Million. It’s going to be huge, it may be a total of all the Chinese have been giving us all these years."

"Why China suddenly is a question? Of course, there has been the concern that they may not be giving loans that are concessional, and the danger is that these countries might go back into the debt, some of the countries that they have been forgiven their debts. This I found to be a valid point, maybe not with Tanzania, because we don’t have much in terms of this huge Chinese development assistance."

"I would have been surprised if you had not asked that question, because everywhere I am, I am asked how about the Chinese. There’s a lot of sudden interest on the Chinese and Africa. You know, what is it that we are trying to do in Africa? Africa as a continent in pursuit of development."

"Tanzania is standing by the people of Zimbabwe including President Mugabe... Mugabe is there, he is president, he has been elected. If Tanzania had simply said, stupid, you’re hopeless, a murderer, a violator of basic human rights; does that remove Mugabe from office? It doesn’t."

"I don’t know how to get the money but if [the radar] is overpriced, definitely we deserve to be paid … They cannot take money from a poor country."

"I’m not sure. I’m not sure if you talk to the opposition, they would consider that to be an insult. They think they are doing a tremendous job."

"The presidency is not an office job. If I only sit in the office in Dar es Salaam I’m not running the country. I visit the country to inspect development programmes, to inspect activities, to see how things are going, how the government agenda is being implemented, what are the teething issues. And some of these problems simply need my simple word. My simple word of do it, then it is done."

"What became a problem is there was a clause that allowed investors to cover losses. As long as you made losses one year, you could carry them over to the next and to the next. And because of that they would pay no taxes. So this fellow takes all the gold away and he says he makes losses and so he does not pay us anything. So he is the only one that is being protected. Those of us who are losing our resources are not protected. This is the thing that created the kind of debate that we had and we had to renegotiate."

"This year alone, total world cereal production was estimated to be 2,114 million tonnes, while total cereal demand was projected at around 1007 million tonnes, less than half of the cereal production. Ideally, no one should starve or die of hunger in the world we live. Strangely and sadly enough, they do. This is not fair. This is not right."

"I told them (TFF) that I will pay the salary of a foreign coach but to date nobody has come to me with any plans concerning the hiring of a coach. I have only heard them saying that Tanzania has been drawn in a tough group. They are just complaining instead of starting preparations. They are waiting to make excuses when the team fails to qualify."

"Normally, foreign media organizations and others from the developed countries do not see anything good on the African continent. Those of us, who are well-traveled, know better. In their countries, the only news you get or hear about Africa is negative news... However, due to the good work done by our electoral bodies, the exemplary conduct of our defence and security organs, and your calmness and patience, we denied them the bad things they wanted to write about."

"Those who expect radical changes in policy and direction are mistaken and lost. The government of the fourth republic will build on what was undertaken by previous governments and will continue with all good things."

"It's very sad that Tanzania is a poor football country. If elected, I promise to put this country on the world football map. I will make sure we produce our own Okochas, El Hadji Dioufs and Zinedine Zidanes here."

"I didn't believe that Giorgia Meloni could recompose a political community that had also been human: I was wrong, she has built a small authentic masterpiece, if today the right wing is the governing right wing, it is due to that political intuition to restore political dignity to the right wing."

"Nobody can ask us to abjure our fascist roots."

"The accession of Turkey [in the European Union] would be a sign of the full compatibility of Islam with democracy."

"[On Mussolini as the greatest political leader of the century] The answer is in the things I've done in the last years. I don't think the same anymore, I would be schyzophrenic."

"Resistants were on the right side, Salò Republic's combatants on the wrong one. (...) One cannot equate who was fighting for a right cause of equality and freedom, and who, apart of goodfaith, was on the wrong side. (...) The judgement of the Right [on Fascism] have to be negative, due to freedom limitation. (...) We cannot deny ourselves history, and Fascism was a dictatorship that denied some fundamental freedoms."

"I don't think that the United States are ready for a presidency as the one of Obama, at least because he would be the first black president."