We have made the argument, unsuccessfully to date, to both Russia and China that they are not helping themselves, if they are concerned ... about the recovery of money they have lent or invested, a bankrupt Venezuelan economy will never be able to repay those amounts, only a Venezuela in recovery will be able to do so.

Elliott Abrams

Categorized in : Politics

The ransoming of captives has been practiced by Jews for many centuries and has been regarded as a greater obligation than charity for the poor.

Elliott Abrams

charity century poor

Elections matter, but how much they matter depends entirely on how free, open and fair they are.

Elliott Abrams

depends election matter

At the United Nations, a lynch mob for Israel is always just a moment away.

Elliott Abrams

united-nations moments israel

While Argentina, Brazil, and Chile - what in textbooks used to be called the ABC countries - seem settled into democratic politics and free market economics, the Andean countries are in disarray.

Elliott Abrams

argentina textbooks country

Obamas foreign policy is strangely self-centered, focused on himself and the United States rather than on the conduct and needs of the nations the United States allies with, engages with, or must confront.

Elliott Abrams

allies self needs

The Saudis and Emiratis blame all of this on Iran. I think they’d have to grant, that as has been said, that the Houthis are an internally generated movement in Yemen and the Saudis were supposed to be dealing with the Houthis, who started out in essence along their border. So one of the things that we’re seeing is a complete failure of Saudi policy toward Yemen over the past 10 years, but the Saudis totally believe that the reason the Houthis are able to succeed militarily is the amount of money, advice, and guns they are receiving from Iran.

Elliott Abrams

gun believe thinking

In Iran, there is no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no independent judiciary, no free elections. There is no freedom of religion - not even for Shiites, who are forced by Irans theocracy to adhere to one narrow set of official rules.

Elliott Abrams

freedom-of-speech iran independent

On taking office in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama put Israeli settlements at the center of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Elliott Abrams

middle-east office president

The intersection of religion and world politics has often been a bloody crossroads.

Elliott Abrams

crossroads bloody world

After 9/11, we did see Palestinian terrorism in the context of all terrorism.

Elliott Abrams

palestinian terrorism

I want to be the first guy to reverse a communist revolution.

Elliott Abrams

revolution guy firsts

First impressions matter. Experts say we size up new people in somewhere between 30 seconds and two minutes.

Elliott Abrams

first-impression two people

A great nation like the United States has many and varied interests, and we need both to do business with tyrants and to engage constantly in multilateral diplomacy.

Elliott Abrams

tyrants united-states needs

Oil policy, policy toward the United States, policy toward Iran, Bahrain, Yemen, very unlikely, I think, to see significant change. These policies were the policies that had a wide family consensus. The question I think would be if the king becomes sick, whether you have weak Saudi leadership in the Arab world and the Middle East rather than strong Saudi leadership, but I think the fundamental policies will continue, the ones we’re familiar with under King Abdullah.

Elliott Abrams

strong kings thinking

It’s unlikely to change – there’s nothing in King Salman’s past as governor of Riyadh for about forty years that suggests that he was particularly a reformer, not on the role of women, not on democratic development. There’s been a rumor in the last couple of days that he said to someone in an e-mail that he’s in favor of a constitutional monarchy, but I would be surprised if the level of repression started to go down … I think the kind of thing that we would view as significant reforms is unlikely.

Elliott Abrams

couple kings thinking

When you work in the White House you talk to the White House staff all day, so you're talking to the guy who handles the congressional liaison and the guy who's handling domestic politics and the guy who's handling the American economy and so forth.

Elliott Abrams

white house talking

Two presidents pursued human rights policies that were serious and effective, Reagan and George W. Bush. They understood that American support for human rights activists is a moral imperative for us and also makes the world safer for us.

Elliott Abrams

support rights two

I never said I had no idea about most of the things you said I said I had no idea about.

Elliott Abrams

no-idea said ideas

America was not founded to improve health care or housing; it was founded for freedom.

Elliott Abrams

health-care care america

The question was never whether the United States, E.U., NATO, Arab League, U.N. Security Council, and African Union could together using economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, and military attacks to bring Qaddafi down. The question was always how much time, how much blood, and what damage to NATO.

Elliott Abrams

economic-sanctions military blood