>> our american story is written everyday. it's not always pretty, but it's real... and we show you like no-one else can. this is our american story. this is america tonight. "on target" tonight. assad family are drama. a cousin and opponent of syria's dictator, talks to me. plus rum wars on the streets of havana. you'll meet a cuban rum runner with a thirst for black market booze. the war in syria is approaching the five-year mark. and the international community

is ramping up efforts to end it. over the weekend the united nations security council approved a resolution outlining a road map for peace in syria. the goal is to restart talks in january through the syrian government and its opponents. the resolution calls for a ceasefire, naicial wide nationwide ceasefire, formation within six months of a quote incremental, inclusive and nonsectarian government in damascus, and if all goes well, free and fair elections to be held withinnen 1 within 18 mont. what to do with the resolution, what to do with bashar al-assad. now a rai now arate raid arrayed against him, five years of fighting have only

created a stalemate. power vacuum one that is so big that i.s.i.l. has exploited it to seize territory. that's why the u.n. resolution allows the united states, russia and others to continue bombing i.s.i.l. targets in syria from the air. well, after almost five years of violence and a quarter of a million lives lost it is hard for some to remember that syria's conflict started off with relatively peaceful protests. tens of thousands of syrians fled into the streets, calling for bashar al-assad to step down from power. the catalyst at the time was the arab spring, sweeping motion, movement led by young people, eager to rid their country of corrupt dictators standing in their way of prosperity. it was a cause everyone in syria felt they could get behind, all

it did was resurrect deep division. david ariosto reports. >> reporter: the year was 1963. syria's baath party, seized control, and it's held on ever since. struggle between two opposing sides. on one, left wing secular activates, like the baath. baath. on the other, right wing religious fundamentalist like the muslim brotherhood. seeking muslim majority. >> the muslim brotherhood became the main backbone of the opposition. it became very difficult to oppose the increasingly dictatorial secular order that was upheld by the military in syria. >> that struggle at times has turned violent, going back to the dawn of the baath party rule. in 1964 when the brotherhood

rose up in the city of hamaa, the government put it down. rose up quickly throughout the ranks to become syrian president in 1971. at first he was hailed for bringing stability to a country that long suffered from coups and political infighting. >> syria had the reputation for being the banana republic of thest middle east . tremendous instability. the way haffas al assad did it was insurrection. >> other outlawed islamic parties began to kilt others. all out revolt broke out in hama. >> it fell to the brother to destroy the muslim brotherhood which had taken over hama. >> this time, the syrian

president turned to his younger brother to lay spheej to the city. siege to the city. the syrian army had flattened half of the city of hama, and killed 10,000 people mostly civilians. some regime opponents say the actual number was much higher, as much as 40,00 40,000 people. yet soon after, he fell out with his brother, and attempted his own coup in 1984. since then he has lived in exile in europe. smooth transition to his son the current syrian president, bashar al-assad. for nearly half a century the assad family has dominated the syrian state and then as now, that same family is up against many of those same opposition forces.

david ariosto, al jazeera. >> earlier i spoke with ribal al assad, he heads the association for democracy and freedom. as his name suggests he's the first cousin to syrian president bashar al-assad. whom he opposes. he's the son of ribal al-assad . to get a sense of internal family politics i asked ribal if he were to land in syria today. here's when he told me. >> i haven't been back there since 1999. last time i was in syria, 1999, they bombed our house in atacia. that was the last time i was able to go there. >> what would you do? >> to give you background we set

it up before the arab spring in 2009, there was nothing we could do about, each of even though it was a british company we were requesting to get shuttle down. we were going to keep campaigning for the ideas, since i was exiled from a country, that's the only way we would be able to live with the beautiful mosaic of syrian people is having a genuine democracy. >> it is interesting in coverage of syria it is hard to realize the mosaic that syrians of different people of different religions, living together quiet well. well. >> the media has portrayed it as a opposing number of parties,

armenians, christians, kurds, aloites, the jews, minority groups who activity make up -- consist make up almost 50% of the syrian people. trying to hijack islam, as you know, same as in syria same as in the west, small minority who share the ideology under. >> ribal, conservative number many hundreds, you're not based in the country. >> yes. >> so what poalt entcy can you potency can you have? >> my father had a strong support and still has a very strong support in syria. in the military in the baath party, head of the national congress, the highest course of the national coming last time it met was in neighbor 80.

since that time president assad the father had stopped convening the national congress. >> he was like vice president? >> he was then vice president. he was named vice president after they got into confrontation because there was an argument. they used to argue and there was a split in the regime between my father who wanted to introduce democratic changes in syria which he had started, set up his magazine at the time, up in 1967, talking about why it's important not only for syria but the whole middle east to have democratic changes and freedom and democracy and so on. >> some refer to your father as butcher of hama acknowledge accused of put killing 10,000 people in the city of hama, some people say your father killed 10,000 people. >> the only report was the gia report, defense agency report,

came out two years ago, declaiftd recently. you see a lot of flames but not time the mention of my father or his units being in hama. the actual number that comes in this report is around 2,000 people who died and 400 of them were member of the armed groups of the muslim brotherhood. so he was not there but at the same time, the fight with the muslim brotherhood started long before the -- i mean my uncle came to power. it started in 1963 in the city of hama itself and at the time, the sunni baathists were in power. the former vice president was the mayor at the time and he had actually called on the yrches militaryrn searan muslim, were to take arms and that they should declare an islamic caliphate with its

capital being in hama. >> coming up more of my conversation with the son of a man who was called the black sheep of syria's ruling family. and how castro's cuba double crossed the bacardi family. setting up a booze battle for today. >> this is it. >> oscar winner alex gibney's "edge of eighteen" marathon. >> if i said that i'm perfectly fine, i would be lying. >> i feel so utterly alone. >> in this envelope is my life. >> if you don't go to college, you gonna be stuck here... i don't wanna be stuck here. >> catch the whole ground-breaking series, "edge of eighteen" marathon.

>> the united nations security council passed a resolution over

the weekend establishing a road map for peace in syria. it envisions new talks between the syrian government and its opponents following five years of civil war. one of the opposition groups that wants to have a say in syria's future is an exiled group led by ribal al assad, ribal says he wants democratic change in syria but the syrian opposition is splintered with conflicting oppositions, i asked ribal how his group merchandising those splits? >> the united states and the soviet union should step in, bringing together all groups that believe in our values. democracy and human rights. >> that's going to seclude a lot

of people. >> regardless of religious ethic group sects or genders, why should we, do not accept the equality twin a christian and a muslim consider open druz, lolita an alawite or sunni? >> the groups who seem to get a lot of ground support don't tend ohave those values that you just spoke of. >> this is wrong, we also have to regard the situation in syria today. the syrian regime not because they want otheocracy. they are looking at western countries, european countries and they want this kind of democracy because they know very well that is only way that a country with such a beautiful mosaic could live together,

under a genuine democratic rule. certainly we don't have that. if those groups are willing to accept that they're saying they want democracy, change, dictatorship they have to accept sign in and commit to those values and they will be responsible in front of the international community if they don't at a later stage adhere to that. >> let me pick that up. you say the united states wants to include the syrian regime that you are opposed to and the russians. >> yes. >> that legitimizes the russians activities, maybe even iran. >> we have to accept that the russians are there today and getting only stronger. why again? because turkey's downing of the jet of russians, they were able to bring the s-400 missiles, not one country has them outside of the russian borders, china will have them soon --

>> they used the downing of the jet as jufntion? >> exactly. we have to take things exactly as they are. that he are not willing to give up on syria. they are not willing to give up on the regime. again we have to be pragmatic. we have to work with the russians, we all share, the russians, chinese and syrian community we all have the same enemy. >> does it hurt you to have the last name al-assad quj. >> al-assad? >> you have accepted who was a form he prime minister of junior syria,sworn in two years after e upridessing started, even though there were many dead from both sides, then he left. member of the republican guard he knew very well he was serving a dictatorship and many others.

the assad name we should not mix between -- we should not put everyone in the same basket. not all assad are the same, not all baathists are the same. we have to differentiate between people. >> what role would you have in this? >> i honestly -- what i've always dreamed for my country is to be able to go back there and live peacefully and help the syrian people develop into a genuine democracy, countries i've lived in france, england, spain. >> you were out of syria since you were nine years old. >> yes, nine years old. i was back in 1997, 1999, and as soon as i left they bombed our house. the beautiful mosaic of syrian people that have lived there for thousands and thousands of years. >> call it a thirst for forbidden,

from the war of syria to

. >> a little more than a year ago, president barack obama strode into the cabinet room of the white house to make an historic announcement. after more than a half a century, the united states would normalize its relationship with cuba. >> through these changes we intend to create more opportunities for the american and cuban people. begin a new chapter among the nations of the americas. >> since that speech there has

been some changes. u.s. removed cuba from the list of states sponsoring terrorism are would no longer let companies like fedex and from setting up shop on the island. 12 loose ly categorized. divisions. david ariosto reports many are looking for new business opportunities. >> reporter: in this new york city tavern there's a growing thirst for what kenneth connolly is serving up. u.s. rum imports have increased by a third in the last five years to keep pace with the new american demand.

but to stay competitive connolly is on the lookout for those vintage and hard to get brands in order to temp his customers. >> there's always a huge fascination with havana labels, all that's going to change now with what's happening in cuba . >> reporter: havana clu has been recognized in places like europe. but those, idea of stocking up . he's doing that , send as much as possible back. i'd like to see if i could get cases of it. >> and that's exactly what may have

called bacardi a little bit concerned. a growing underground in cuban markets. the new u.s. regulation says you can buy $100 worth of liquor and bring it back to the us. the concern of bacardi is that if enough people come back here, that havana clube, can start showing up in restaurants. bacardi brought the havana club name. that sparked a nearly two decade long u.s. trademark battle between bacardi, cuba and its

french partner who had already been selling havana club in other countries. after spending nearly 3 million to lobby congress to essentially rewrite u.s. trademark law in its favor. but now as the cold war with cuba tha thaws, those old rum wars may be heating up as . >> you are going to see a good number of lawyers get involved with this because the bacardi folks may justifiably say this is an under run around restrictions. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: the u.s. rum market accounts for roughly 40% of global sales and cuba wants in. ists french partner registered a new brand of cuban rum known as havanista. >> this year the u.s. should

begin the work of ending the embargo. >> cuba is getting ready. yet for bacardi which declined to mention the issue. represents more than just competition. founded in the eastern city of santiago de cuba, emee e.melio bacardi. >> once in power, castro double crossed the bacardi srvetion and s and nationalized the facilities. but bacardi built up in puerto rico and intent on overthrowing the castro government. the effort failed but the family

vowed to one day return to its home land. walking through streets of havana you can't get sense help but get the sense of being in a time watch. the b for ba card i still used by the cuban government. there is an emotional attachment to this property. from those who left the country over a half a century ago. $20 billion worth of cuban businesses and private properties, including bacardi's offices and distilleries. triggering a u.s. trade embargo that's lasted for more than half a century. >> the reality is, many of the companies, almost every one, have written off the value of these acclimation, decades ago. but they're still on the books.

>> u.s. losses, those american claims have to be resolved before the u.s. trade embargo can be lifted. in the meantime, bar owners like kenneth connolly plan to stock up on this forbidden cuban rum under the changed policy is a little more accessible. >> joining me is david ariosto, used to live and work in cuba. david before the embargo can be fully lifted, these property claims have to be settled. where is the u.s. and cuba on that? >> one of the big sticking points there was that american property that was confiscated after 1959 when castro rolled to power. that's never been on the table. there's been back channeling, but earlier this month, the two

sides sat down in an official meeting and said this is what we're going to talk about. between 6 and $7 billion but this is the sort of main stick point. the very reason why the united states snapped an economic embargo on cuba. >> are they going to have the money to do this? >> sort of the devil in the details, cuban leaders have been meeting or are meeting for paris deals, restructuring their debt and insiders say, what comes out of the deal may be a framework for how cuba pays bam some of this compensation fund. that six, 7 billion they could pay 30 cents on the dollar but look to paris how this deal might unfold. if it does, this is one of the major impediments to lifting the trade embargo. >> david ariosto, thank you for that. the news continues here on al jazeera america.

>> we're here to fully get into the nuances of everything that's going on, not just in this country, but around the world. getting the news from the people who are affected. >> people need to demand reform... >> ali velshi on target. night. [ ♪ ] using marijuana for fun in colorado and washington state is already legal. and there's a longer list of states where meddiesinal marijuana is -- medicinal marijuana is available. but the federal government lists cannabis as a schedule one drug. that big disconnect between federal and state law left sellers trying to make a profit in an odd cul-de-sac of the law. the business of pot is