2013 Roundup: Defining Quotes On The Middle East

“We renew our promise to astonish the world in 2020.”

– UAE prime minster and vice president and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, after Dubai secured the World Expo 2020 hosting rights on November 27.

“The Dubai World Expo will show the world that the region is full of vision and human potential.”

– William Hague, UK Foreign Secretary

“Banks have learnt, the central bank has learnt, the government has learnt, people have learnt [from the crisis]. Some people forget the lessons, some people don’t – that’s nature, we can’t change that.”

– Mohamed Al Alabbar, chairman of Emaar, in an exclusive interview with Gulf Business at Cityscape 2013.

“I wanted to launch 15 routes this year, now I can only launch 10. I am very unhappy.”

– Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar Al Baker, blamed Boeing’s glitch-ridden 787 Dreamliner aircraft for his airline’s muted expansion plans.

“This shift is as momentous as the American economy’s surpassing of the British economy in the late 19th century.”

– Robin Mills, Manaar Energy head of consulting, on the news that China had overtaken the US as the world’s largest net oil importer.

“It was a blatant mistake.”

– FIFA executive committee member, Theo Zwanziger, in an interview with Sportbild magazine on FIFA’s decision to award the 2022 bid to Qatar.

“We have time and again said that under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever.”

– Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, in an interview with NBC news in September.

“Practically speaking, it will take nine months to one year to start, I would say hopefully within the first half of next year for sure.”

– Nakheel chairman, Ali Rashid Lootah, in October on restarting work on the World Islands project.

“It was a very personal thing. I didn’t do it to cause a movement, did not do it because of anything, but if I can change people’s opinion or the world’s opinion on Saudi women and if I can change Saudi women’s opinion about themselves I would be really happy.”

– Raha Mobarak, the first Saudi woman to scale Mount Everest, speaking to reporters after returning from the trip in May.