Sergei Lavrov Quotes

I think this is really a defining moment for the Arab world. The problem is, it is all going to be about blood, sweat and tears. In certain countries it may be just sweat, and in some countries sweat and tears, and in some countries, as you can see, a lot of blood. I think initial instability is something that we are all extremely nervous of.

The Arab Awakening or Arab Spring has transformed the geopolitical landscape.

One man’s democratization is another man’s destabilization.

Had you asked an expert on the Middle East what changes would be likely to tke place in 2011, almost none would have predicted the Arab Spring and none would have chosen Tunisia as the flashpoint.

Failed states have become breeding grounds for conflict.

The Arab world is erupting, which is extraordinary, and to see it happen is like watching rings spreading on a pool - it goes out; it varies so much. The spontaneity is wonderful, but very often, if it's not well organized, it breaks up, and it peters out.

Revolutions are never peaceful.

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

None of us is certain about the outcome of the Arab Spring.

The Arab Spring I think we will look back whether it's two years, five years, ten or fifteen. And say it's a good thing.

No one will remember that President Obama supported the Arab Spring if it eventually fails and the region collapses back into the political Dark Ages. If we actively engage these movements with advice, with money, and, when necessary, with military force, then we get a vote in how it all turns out.

As you know with the Arab Spring, there were no dividends.

Panamanians live in a chronic state of insurrection and violence.

Unrest has its reasons.

There's a battle outside raging It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls for the times they are a-changing.

I have always wondered why the Muslim world is in the eye of virtually every storm, in my lifetime at least?

Revolutions rarely end up as positively as they begin.

In a democracy, when you have 20 million people in the street, you resign. Unfortunately, we don’t have a process of recall or impeachment as you have. It was a popular uprising rejecting Mr. Morsi’s continuing in power. Unfortunately, people had to call on the army to intervene. The army had to intervene because short of that, we would have ended up in a civil war.

Politically, [Latin] America is the same as it is physically: the land of the earthquakes.

Rebellions broke out, from the full-scale political revolution of Dorr’s rebellion in Rhode Island to urban violence and protest, often by out of work whites taking out their anger on African Americans or Irish Americans. In response, leaders had to come to terms with the role of force in a democracy.

In crises, the old is dying and the new has not been born. Hence, the revolts we are witnessing in Egypt and Tunisia, which may yet extend to other countries in the region, are full of uncertainties.

Sometimes democracy must be bathed in blood.

Jerusalem is a time bomb that I fear is just waiting to go off.

Anyone who follows the Middle East and Islamic world in general can't deny it is often a very violent place, that a band of instability now stretches from Algeria to Pakistan.

The Arab Spring is over. The days of the protesters with laptops and BlackBerrys in Tahrir Square are long gone.