Jose Maria Aznar

“The alliance should agree... to an effective NATO role against the new threats presented by international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.”

“There are the countries of the north of Europe taking decisions and the countries of the south of Europe that are living under intervention. This division exists.”

“My conviction is that the best strategy to defend the West is to defend Israel.”

“There is no possible negotiation with these killers. Our aim is to win over terrorism. Only by being firm we can stop terrorism. We must be firm fighting the terrorists and opposing the final aims they want to achieve.”

“Every day, every week without taking decisions is a problem for us, is a very wrong message for the markets and increases the lack of credibility of our economies.”

“Appeasement was never a very clever policy, and it should not be our option today.”

“The harm done to Israel is damage done to the West. And delegitimizing Israel is a delegitimization of the West.”

“March 11, 2004, now occupies a place in the history of infamy.”

“We in the West should stand by our core principles.”

“It is our grave mistake that for many years we neglected pro-Western groups in order to avoid any friction with the existing rulers.”

“There are countries that prefer to think that they're buying comfort at the cost of others, but I don't think that's the way you can act in this world. There are no neutral groups.”

“Disarming Iraq is legal under a series of U.N. resolutions. Iraq is in flagrant violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.”

“The only message that terrorists need to get is that they're going to be beaten.”

“I'm not going to give President Bush any advice. He knows. He knows what I think.”

“Without economic development, any potential for political openness and freedom will be questionable.”

“It's about living in a world with rules, or a world without rules.”

“I am a quiet man who grows through adversity.”

“I want to highlight once again that when we talk about the fight against terrorism and the circles around it and when we talk about ensuring the safety and the peace of all, we are not talking about fantasies.”

“Speak less but act more.”

“Because the task of a political leader is to do what he believes is better for his country. Sometimes the public opinion is in favor; sometimes the public opinion needs a little bit more time to understand things.”