in spain catalonia police chief is in court in madrid following demonstrations around the region secession vote josep luistro pedal is accused of sedition along with one other police officer and two leaders of pro independence schools catalan leaders are frightened to declare independence from spain within days. turkey's president is not threatening a brocade of iraq's kurdish region by closing it as space and borders following the kurds vote for secession are shipped on says he will also decide with iran and iraq central government on whether to cut oil imports from the iraqi kurds at one has been discussing the vote with iranian leaders in tehran both countries have launched ethnic kurdish populations and yet another hurricane warning has been issued for the u.s. gulf coast and mexico forecasters say tropical storm nate's could strengthen to pummeling central america where at least twenty two people were killed eleven of

them died in nicaragua where hundreds of homes have been flooded a series of hurricanes in the past month has devastated islands in the caribbean parts of mexico and the united states. with headlines on al-jazeera coming up next here it's talk to al-jazeera stay with us. an indian mining company is heading to australia to build one of the world's biggest mines will it be an economic bonanza or an ecological disaster. at this time on al-jazeera. you can. see. chemical weapons it was an unprecedented moment at the united nations general assembly the president of the united states in front of other world leaders criticizing an international agreement negotiated by another american president the

iran deal was one of the worst and most one sided transaction the united states has ever entered and frankly that deal is in a barren spread to the united states and i don't think you've heard the last of it the nuclear be is a result of about ten years of posturing and two years of negotiations and unfortunately this is an illustration is going back to posture today on talk to al-jazeera iran's foreign minister responds to president trump he also discusses the geo political changes going on in the middle east from the efforts by kurds to create an independent state in iraq and the siege of qatar to the rivalry between iran and saudi arabia all of this when we sit down with iran's foreign minister mohammad zarif. let's start with iran's nuclear

issue you know what president donald trump has been saying in terms of it being a bad deal for the united states from his perspective. how seriously do you take that but i think it is. really of any importance statement because. certainly any deed would not be a perfect deal for all sides it has to be less than perfect so that also it could live with it that it has elements that we don't like it has elements that the united states doesn't like but it's not a bilateral trade it's not even a multilateral treaty it is a part of the resolution of the security council which was negotiated. in two years very difficult negotiations so i believe that the united states would be much better off if the united states agreed to abide by did lead because

if it didn't the international community would never trust any commitment by the united states because. it is possible that the administration or the future administration would like diddy and i think any time you could walk away from with the war any of these i think that would be a very bad precedent now how concerned are you about when donald trump and he's our lives particularly inside the united states the republicans talk about. slapping sanctions again on the islamic republic. well you see the united says had the policy of imposing sanctions on iran for the past forty years basically they have immunized us to u.s. sanctions but from a global perspective it seems that the united states is addicted to sanctions and

they believe they have an obsession they believe that sanctions will work in fact i think they should have learned by now that sanctions don't work you cannot impose pressure on countries to abandon their sovereignty to abandon their dignity for a few restrictions that the united states has imposed on them i think the sooner the united states realizes that this type of behavior this type of policy is bound . to backfire and it's bound to create resistance and strengthen the resolve of the people to move pursue their own policies and their own interests and the sooner the united states achieves this important recognition of reality the sooner it can adjust its policies in a way that would even serve the interests of the united states but when you hear these statements coming out of washington from donald trump and he's allies about

the agreement not being a good one for the united states from their perspective and you hear their statements about you know reimposing the sanctions see you is that where it stops or do you also hear the war drums well i think you see that the nuclear the is the result of about ten years of posturing and two years of negotiations and unfortunately this is ministration is going back to posturing what is important for for iran is that we have maintained our options. we have a number of options inside the in and outside the that are open to us and we will exercise those options according to our national security interest. we have no control over what the united states does obviously the deal has. reduced the options that are available to the united states. and if the united states makes

the wrong decision to withdraw from the then iran has the option of withdrawing and has other options will come back in a minute to the other options is as you called them that when you listen to the statements by particularly president donald trump do you just hear the voices of u.s. foreign policy or do you also hear the voices of allies of the united states in the region the israelis and the saudis who as you know are very unhappy as they say with iran's role regionally i just i see both i see parts of. certain more hard line elements within the united states talking and i also see. those regional players who were used to a smokescreen of iran or the nuclear the in order to justify their own bad behavior their own disruptive policies policies that included violations of the

rights of the palestinian people. trampling upon their most elemental right for for the past seventy years which has resulted in terror mostly in our region. aggression against every country in the region by by israel a nuclear weapon policy that has continued to threaten not only the region but the global nonproliferation regime pursued again by israel and an unfortunate policy of supporting extremism and terrorism by saudi arabia that has. affected our region if you look at syria if you look at yemen if you look at elsewhere in the region the unfortunate saudi posture against qatar. these are all policies that are pursued by saudi arabia have been pursued by saudi arabia and they only use the smokescreen of iran's nuclear program as

a way to hide behind it and to sort of justify their own iranians policies i guess the nuclear agreement deprive them of that smokescreen and that is why they are screaming back to donald trump do you miss the days of barack obama when he comes to dealing with the administration or do you feel that ultimately donald trump is a pragmatist and he'll do the right thing from your perspective at the end of the day i think the situation inside the united states is the business of american people not ours. and whatever the american people do or don't do they were sort of enjoy or suffer the consequences for us of what is important is the global posture of the united states is global behavior it hasn't been positive it has not been conducive to stability in our region we have seen the consequences of u.s. policies in our region both historically as well as since president took office

and i don't think they've been conducive to peace and stability in the region and i believe it is in the interests of the united states if you revisit those policies i cannot predict where that he will be a pragmatist or not but i certainly believe that the type of policy that is being pursued the type of statements that are being made certainly do not help peace and security in the region not at nor ultimately the interests of the united states you said that iran ultimately has alternatives can you outline some of those alternatives well i think the order of the day in this is ministration is to not be predictable. i want to say being. unpredictable is different from being unreliable and this is an illustration is proving that it can't be predicted then and it can't be relied upon iran has shown that it's it is a reliable partner we have implemented our side of the bargain up until now seven reports of the international atomic energy agency verified as we have lived up to

our own part of the bargain but if the united states decides to even further by late its obligations under the agreement because it has already not been faithful completely to its obligations under the agreement but if he decides to commit any material breach i was obligations under the agreement then iran would have options options that have been. elaborated within the agreement including the option of partial or complete withdrawal from the deed as well as options that would depend on the behavior and the policies of other parties and participants in that regionally you aware of the positions of countries such as saudi arabia for example the criticism that iran. has not been good for the stability of iraq do you see a way out of this situation with the saudis i mean you've made two points. as

a second first yes we are willing to talk to saudi arabia about our differences we have made it clear to them since we assumed office four years ago that we were prepared to talk to them about the regional situation because we do not believe that iran and saudi arabia should have the type of relations that they do have now we believe iran and saudi arabia and other countries in the region should have a co-operative arrangement so that we can augment teacher the security not try to undermine the security of one another we believe that the posture in the persian. gulf war saudi arabia is not a positive one policy that it pursues against qatar other policies or saudi arabia we believe that they need to be changed they need to be altered but through dialogue that is why we have supported the efforts of the emir of kuwait in the saudi qatar dispute and we have always called for dialogue between countries in the

region we have responded positively to every proposal to engage in dialogue including the proposal by the emir of qatar when he was the chair of the g.c.c. and the proposal by demeter of kuwait when he sent his foreign minister to iran representing the disease you see so that has been our policy ever since on your first. point. it is a matter of historical fact whose policies have been conducive to regional stability and whose policies have supported instability it was an iran that recognized the taliban as the legitimate government of afghanistan it was saudi arabia and the u.a.e. the only two countries that recognize taliban other than pakistan were saudi arabia and the u.a.e. it wasn't iran that undermined the government democratic government of iraq it was saudi arabia we recognized the governing council we sent our ambassador to iraq

immediately after the new establishments in two thousand and three saudi arabia paid to send an ambassador to iraq for at least eleven years it wasn't the iran that supported de terrorist extremist groups in syria it wasn't saudi arabia that came to the help of iraq is in erbil and then baghdad when isis invaded the country so we need to be clear about our historical rap record iran has been on the side of stability iran has been on the side of it. fighting terrorism and extremism for the past at least since two thousand and eleven two thousand and one we have a clear straight record of engaging in every attempt to counter terrorism in the region and unfortunately so the rabia and the united arab emirates have been

on the wrong side the saudis and like minded countries in the region they've heard these positions from. iran retreated over and over again non the less they will say the islamic republic has not stopped trying to export the islamic revolution ever since the islamic revolution took place and therefore they say that that continues to destabilize all these places whether it's iraq whether it's iran whether it's lebanon on. what's the way out again let's look at the fact iran is not spending billions upon billions of dollars exporting them throughout the world it's saudi arabia look at every mask look at every incident of terrorism in the region and in the world who are behind these acts of terrorism they're all financed both ideologically and. financially supported

ideologically and pronouncedly by saudi arabia this is unfortunate iran has an idea that idea is available we have a democracy people participate in determining their fate my friend we drive our legitimacy and our security from our own people that is something that people like. we're not like sam who need a foreign law for their security we're not like some who have to purchase their security by buying four hundred billion dollars worth of beautiful military equipment what makes iran secure what makes you round progress is the fact that we are we rely on our own people the concepts that they are using

in order to muddy the waters in order to justify policies that have brought unfortunate disastrous consequences for our region cannot be justified by the smokescreens of exporting revolution saudi arabia needs to stop exporting terror exporting exclusionist extremist ideology of hate is there any situation for us the islamic republic of iran where you would say yes we do understand some of the concerns that the saudis have because these are vital interests for them in iraq in syria in lebanon on in yemen and therefore because we do understand them maybe we can find some common ground or do you think that the positions of the islamic republic and saudi arabia are diametrically opposed all along i think even if our positions are diametrically opposed we need

to engage in a conversation with other countries in the region because we cannot decide for other countries in the region. with other countries in the region in order to find ways of accommodating. we do not need the type of relations that we have now i do not think that these relations are. necessary i do not believe these that these relations are in the interests of either iran and saudi arabia and that is why we have said all along that we are ready to talk we are ready to accommodate we are ready to address the concerns of all sides because we believe that geography cannot be changed we are bound to be neighbors we have been neighbors for centuries and we are bound to remain neighbors until eternity. it is important for us to find ways of talking to each other to find ways of accommodating each other to

find possibilities for addressing our differences through dialogue at dressing our grievances through. discussions and discourse rather than through accusations and taking. negative measures that at the end of the day the people of the region look at the situation in yemen people of yemen are paying a heavy price i do not believe that the aggression against them and the bombing of the yemenis the fact that seven hundred thousand yemeni people are suffering from colorado today i do not believe none of it is necessary and i do not believe any of it has any interest for saudi arabia or the united arab emirates i believe these countries need to look at what they have achieved over the past several years and see whether they're prepared to have to follow a different course of action and if they did it and will be

a serious partner for them what do you think the gulf crisis has done to the region you as the islamic republic as as the islamic republic we have a record of. insisting on stability on inviolability of internationally recognized borders and on non interference in the internal affairs of each other we took a strong position against the iraq invasion of kuwait if you if you remember iran condemned iraq invasion of kuwait before g.c.c. that is our position today in the region and we believe that imposition trying to strangulate trying to suffocate. any country is not acceptable we would have adopted incidentally the exact same position if people were trying to do this to you e if people were trying to do. this to saudi arabia or to the same. as we did when

we opposed the invasion of kuwait or measures against gata we believe that all issues need to be settled through dialogue and through greater understanding and that is why we proposed in one thousand nine hundred eighty six that we are stablish a regional security mechanism in the persian gulf we are still prepared for that we believe that security council resolution five nine eight which and the date on iraq war provides us with a brain will put doing that and we have called upon our neighbors to engage in that effort and we believe the sooner we start engaging each other the more crises we can prevent we have gone through many crises unfortunately the after the iran iraq war we've seen the iraq invasion of kuwait it the iraq war the advent of terrorism and extremism in the region u.s. invasion of iraq we have seen the difficulties between qatar saudi arabia and others we have seen other incidents of. instability and turmoil in our region so

the sooner we start discussing these issues around the negotiating table the better we are in preventing further escalation and further eruptions in the region there are people who feel that the countries that have imposed a blockade in the gulf they've pushed the qataris. into the arms of iran isn't that a good thing for the islamic republic in the region no. you see the problems in the region are like that they. complain about our influence in iraq they complain about our influence in syria all of it happened just like the situation in qatar they adopted wrong policies we took the right side and that creates an influence for iran it's not our choice we don't like what's

happening in iraq we don't like what's happening in syria we don't like what's happening between qatar and saudi arabia and the u.a.e. because we believe that the what is happening is injurious to the region and whatever harms the stability of our region harms us because we're a major part of this region so while we opened our ports and our airspace to our brothers and. what we would have done exactly the same had united arab emirates been threatened we're not happy with it because we believe that these issues need to be settled through peaceful means we believe that nobody should try to bully others we believe that differences need to be resolved around the negotiating table not through these measures now the kurds have voted in the referendum what does the referendum now spell three you as the islamic republic of iran

having your own kurdish community in iran but also looking at other kurds throughout the middle east where. again this policy with regard to the referendum is driven by our quest to see stability in the region we have been and will continue to be a turn on friends of the kurds we have our own kurdish population with whom we have excellent relations and we've had excellent relations with the u.k. argy in. in iraq as i said we we were the first to go to their help when they were being attacked and under the threat of occupation by my dash what we consider the referendum first of all to be unconstitutional against iraq a constitution and we believe it would create instability dangerous instability inside iraq and at the end of the day it would not serve the interests

about of iraq a kurdish friends who have gained a lot since the removal of saddam hussein and can even gain more through negotiations within the framework of the constitutional legitimacy in iraq that is what we have called for and we believe that a planned on was an imprudent decision going on the opposite way of what would be in the interest of the region and our kurdish friends they have a right to have their own state ever the kurds i believe this issue is a the issue of regional stability and regional security and it is important for. our friends in in iraq various communities in iraq to come together and maintain territorial integrity and national unity of iraq which is an important arab state an important region a state it is important in our region to respect the boundaries to respect

the unity and territorial integrity of all the state in the region otherwise we would be facing situations that would be very difficult to control and would harm the interests of all communities particularly the communities in iraq. forum is the thank you so much thank you. on al-jazeera. after a year of mourning bids a final farewell to its longest reigning monarch. for the stories beyond the headlines faultlines examines the u.s. is role in the world liberians are preparing for their third election since a bitter civil war and service a calling it a crucial test for democracy an investigation into the electronics industry

revealing out even the smallest devices a deadly environmental and health costs. china's communist party is holding its annual congress what would it mean for the country and its people. on al-jazeera. news has never been more available it's a constant barrage of it with every day but the message is a simplistic you have the brain a good logical rational crazy monster and misinformation is rife dismissal and denial of well documented accusations and evidence is part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narrative at this time on al-jazeera. discover the wealth of award winning programming from around the globe . powerful documentaries ever tell you that hurting us this is

literally killing off and we had to stop would you then listen to bates and discussions and you tell me the one thing you'd like the us to do and gauge and gauge and not pour more on the fire challenge your perceptions. facing realities your president said that there would be a complete audit a hundred percent audit that audit hasn't happened getting to the heart of the matter so are you saying then that the future of the g.c.c. will be in doubt. here the story. on talk to al-jazeera at this time. killing and injuring children in the war in yemen the united nations criticizes bowl.