Mustafa Akyol Quotes

I think we have to pay attention to the Arab masses not just in the Gulf States, but also in the hinterlands.

If Egypt is unstable, then the entire region is unstable.

It was, however, in the interest of Osama bin Laden for us to destroy a secular Arab leader; it was very much in the interest of the Iranians because they wanted revenge against Saddam Hussein for Iraq's invasion in 1980.

A lot of Iran's empowerment is a result of the war in Iraq.

Egypt is the next domino to fall and, as they say, so goes Egypt so goes the Middle East.

Doesn't it seem awfully strange that the Iraqi government we support is an ally of the Iranians who are our declared enemies? Are we not now supporting the Iranians by propping up their allies in Iraq?

It is the growing periphery of the Arab world - the masses at its margins, not its feeble and decaying center - that is shaping the future of the region.

The Middle East does not follow Las Vegas rules. Whatever happens in the Middle East affects the rest of the world.

There is nothing in common between the United States and Saudi Arabia except Israel.

The reason there IS a Turkey and there ISN'T a Kurdistan is in all of history no Kurd could ever stand by any other Kurd long enough to hold off all the hungry Arabs, Persians, Turks, Brits and other sand carnivores swimming around the Fertile Crescent.

One of the rules of the Middle East is: The enemy of your enemy can still be your enemy.

What starts in the Middle East never stays in the Middle East..

Western history shows that the current legitimacy crises in the Middle East is neither unprecedented in its gravity nor likely to resolve itself in any straightforward manner.

Lebanon cannot resolve a question like Hezbollah which is in Syria, Iraq, everywhere because of Iran. It is a regional political solution that needs to be done.

Hezbollah will support Assad to the end because his continuing hold on power is critical to its own survival.

Russia, their number one client in the Middle East is Syria; that is their foothold in the Middle East. They want to have influence there.

Bin Laden's role in the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s had made him a hero around the Middle East.

Although it is true that Hizballah is organized, inspired, financed, and armed by Iran, its main bases in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley are under Syrian military control.

Hezbollah is in Syria and Iraq and Yemen, so people should not focus on Hezbollah that it's a Lebanese entity only, but it's something regional.

Russians in top positions always told me, 'We don't want to deal with our allies the way that the Americans dealt with Mubarak,' which is a very live example in the minds of many.

America's decline would set in motion tectonic shifts undermining the political stability of the entire Middle East.

The issue with Syria, I think for many of us, has always been about Iran. This is an anchor point for them in terms of regional domination. It means a lot to them. They are all in here.

The only person Henry Kissinger flattered more than President Richard Nixon was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran. In the early 1970s, the shah, sitting atop an enormous reserve of increasingly expensive oil and a key figure in Nixon and Kissinger's move into the Middle East, wanted to be dealt with as a serious person.

Egypt is a large, complex, very important country.

Iran must stop meddling in the affairs of Arab countries, and we refuse to be taken by Iran to an axis against Arab countries.