talk or scream would be beaten again a quest for a better life but ended in a concentration. of guantanamo twenty two this time on al-jazeera. now been his prime minister saad hariri gives his first interview from saudi arabia since his short resignation and says he will return to his country soon. hello i'm maryam namazie and london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up. what he believes is what he believes. conflicting messages from trump on putin and

whether russia interfered in the u.s. presidential election. thousands of civilians flee aleppo as rebel fighters face heavy bombardment from syrian government forces. lebanon's prime minister saad hariri has spoken out publicly for the first time since his shock resignation eight days ago he says that he is free in saudi arabia quashing rumors that he was being held there against his will carry also pledged to return to his country very soon. i don't hold her here in the kingdom of saudi arabia are i'm free i have complete freedom but i want to look after my family as well i don't want to see my children have the same fate like what happened to us i'm not talking about months i'm talking about weeks i'm only talking about and i'll go back to lebanon. for more on this i'm joined by baria alamuddin foreign

editor for the daily arab newspaper al-hayat and so we're hearing saad hariri there making a number of comments he says that he will return to lebanon but i suppose what might concern many lebanese is that he does not say when yes he said actually in few days but what's interesting when what he said is that he didn't say i'm going back as prime minister he said i'll go back to the constitution and sing soul design also interesting that he brought the that up sanctions and he just declared that probably there would be arab sanctions on lebanon i got news just before i came on air that there would be a meeting for arab foreign ministers next sunday in the arab league in cairo and what saudi arabia will probably and the emirates and others will discuss the possibility that the problem is his below which is a political party in the government but also it's this party that is fighting wars

it's the most attentive and actually you make a really interesting comment there about the sanctions and saudi arabia already said that they were called best citizens from lebanon now they've done this a number of times through the years but lebanon has had its fair share of economic problems how concerned will people be about that the sanctions really affecting everyone he'll surely concern you or julie because of the gulf not only lebanese who are living in the gulf sent seven point two billion a year and remittances from the gulf but also there is the the trade between the countries there is also to design between the countries in lebanon as it is it would be. stick a destination for arabs especially from the gulf and it's arab nationalists that come and spend a lot of money also there are other ways and means of football heard the economy the economy is already on the brink so let alone. these sanctions if they come

i think it's very important to put this into perspective there were rumors of course with the windmill or from hezbollah. media outlets etc that you know there is b.s. going to attack there's going to be a war from saudi arabia and lebanon i find this rather ridiculous if you're not going to be i guess it also not just not just hezbollah but i suppose there has been concern across what you know plenty of western media outlets as well about this sort of. very sudden resignation in the fact that it happened in riyadh and not beirut kind of contributing to this climate of tension between these different forces and you know all this is sad headed as it is aggression came as a surprise to others but not to the people who really know the politics of lebanon or to the people who are near him i can tell you a little story in july i wanted to go to beirut and i was on the former saturday and i said i'm coming will you be there and he said yes come you should come it's all right it's it's safe it's fine i said you know we worry about your safety so

this is only two months ago for him to teach this is must be very critical again i tell you. hezbollah is seen as somebody who trains the horses is seen as somebody who is interfering in iraq is seen as somebody in a senior thing was there areas that there had been a meeting in riyadh in the days prior to his recent visit just at the end of october he went back he was speaking to his colleagues from the future movement he was briefing let the lebanese council of ministers there was no hint that his resignation was coming or that there was perhaps a serious internal problem within the country that would. and his resignation is that the problem it was not able to rule but also he said he left when he left because he had received threats and he did mention in his interview said i also have to care about my family i visited his house and riyadh and his children go to school under that sad how did he lived all his life because his father used to walk

to work or to work there so yes i do understand your question but when your life is threatened and one you have lost your father you definitely think it and also it's not only to feel how did he who was killed we have also twenty other lebanese that were killed. in conjunction between hezbollah and the city and this is that is that there is a core going on in the hague as we speak. actually baria we can now listen some more of the interview that. various carty giving and disagreements with hezbollah which we put aside just for the interest of the country this is what is freedom of . the. of. these troubles. nobody respected these settlements really reached the declaration of grab and signed the declaration of. you know what they're. in the minute

in the ministerial declination the policy of. staying above the trouble and differences. of what i'm saying is not that it's just another. part of the things i've done. we should use it. for the interest of lebanon. we know that there are three hundred to four hundred thousand lebanese in the gold. living in the gulf we have so many venues in europe. we have so many lebanese living anywhere. they attach themselves to attach ourselves to search to the regional policy what's going to happen to this lebanese. i was

principle to lebanese everywhere. i am responsible for them given his every word. i say premier. as a prime minister. of course does love but they're not going to love it more than. you said the settlement the most the parties in lebanon. didn't end yet and you. holding on to it. we see today it's not only a coup against you even constitutionally that is different we are in different. old a constitutional steps. have to yes i'm going to go back to beirut to confirm my resignation then we start negotiating again.

i think with all the political parties. discussions and if we want it. if i have to take my resignation back we have to respect these to keep ourselves above the differences. and the feeling and other problems level i can take that are you going to consider yourself i can then it for position of prime minister. is it a government without hezbollah and at all same as the one day. are you going to be a caretaker prime minister discovered months poll let me tell you something. being . all my life work with positive attitude. i've only done this to create a positive shock and that's why when i go back to lebanon but i want to be positive

for him and his interest and for the arabic interest as well. for the interest of lebanon lebanon's relationship with other countries. relationship with lebanon and the area. i mean. again and i just. wanted to know i should talk about the campaigns against the saudi there's. also the. interference of that a news. now of course i am the head of the. coming unstuck world blog and the premier league and now we have to take another short break. and then i'll ask you about your visit to

the united arab emirates. this. preview. what i get. so we've been listening. we've been listening to an interview by the lebanese prime minister saad hariri in the saudi capital riyadh this following his shock resignation just about a week ago he's been answering questions about the circumstances of his resignation actually his living conditions right now let's go to the lebanese capital beirut was in a holder is standing by and in recent days we've really seen lebanese people across the board say no rallying in support of saad hariri and voicing concern as to why he hasn't returned to the country would this interview satisfy those concerns in any way rectally but yes people are rallying in support of the prime minister in solidarity with the prime minister the majority of the lebanese believe in one way

or another there is something wrong that saddam how did he is either detained he's under house arrest and he's not able to return to beirut now the reason why this interview happened this live interview from riyadh is to convince people that. heavy is not a hostage in fact that is what the journalist asked the prime minister convince the lebanese who are not a hostage now whether or not he managed to do that well i'm sure there's going to be mixed reactions because some people described him as stressed some people pointed to the fact that he kept drinking water that this was not saddle had he just reiterated what he said in his resignation speech he wasn't really confrontational and his answers were were not really clear and categorical yes he said i will return to lebanon then he said soon he did not give a date nor a time he said he talked about his personal security saying that the reasons why he can't come to lebanon for the time being is that security arrangements need to be

put in place but he also struck a conciliatory tone with the president because we have to remember the president of the republic is refusing to accept his resignation saying the way he resigned is absolutely not acceptable according to the constitution the president the prime minister should come to lebanon resign in person give his resignation to the to the president and the prime minister himself saying yes i agreed and i agree and i will do this but he also opened the door to the possibility of pulling back his resignation so we are he is so at the end of the day the reason this interview is taking place is to convince the lebanese will have to wait to see whether or not the majority of people now believe that he is not held hostage or is under house arrest and the second whether or not his his speech or his statements will defuse the tensions in this in this country. and of course the the other big concern right now is on the economic front because lebanon has been facing economic challenges

over the past few years and there is now an expectation that work that there will be further economic sanctions. i'm not sure if you can hear me still but i just wanted to ask you about. ok well so apologies for that will resist alysha connection with a holiday there for us in beirut just answering a few questions about the atmosphere the mood there at the moment a great deal of concern around the prime minister saad hariri this someone week of his resignation which he made from the saudi capital riyadh an interesting nice out here we now on certain questions about the circumstances of his resignation i really reiterating the reasons around why he resigned and also on certain questions really was asked about whether he is under duress about whether he is currently under house arrest which he said he was not but saad hariri there speaking from the saudi capital riyadh i think we can just hear a clip of what he had to say

a bit earlier on the home of her here in the kingdom of saudi arabia are in free i have complete freedom but i want to look after my family as well i don't want to see my children have the same fate like what happened to us i'm not talking about months i'm talking about weeks i'm only talking about days i'll go back to lebanon . and that interview is still under way let's just depend again. well i had heard the news that. seven point two i hope this is not true mr. bin.

have you been at home all the time or have you on someone else. i also know all these rumors all the time. sometimes when you create such a shock. for people to take it in it was a huge shock but. that's why i wanted to give people a chance to absorb the shock and think about it. think about what i've done and why i've done it. and that's why i didn't want to say anything to them. as for your visit to the united arab emirates. and many people put it in the same frame that this is like a saudi theoretical theoretical move. and.

and there was some information that you troubled the saudi plan not your plan. doesn't make much difference if i use my old plane order oil plane as if it's my pleasure the same. so even months before i used. to go to lebanon i went to lebanon on to talk about to win his interest and explain the situation. to shaikh mohammad and. to protect lebanon from any results negative results because i know all what i'm doing is for the protection. and lebanese and. that's why i went there that's why there was a dialogue. and there were agreements on my positions apologize i'm looking on my phone from the time now the congress twenty two

seventeen real time me time. and i want to go back to the issue of visits to the emirates. and according to some information it was some tense meeting. you seem to be surprised when you. said the sheikh mohammad as a brother and a friend. and i came upon many issues. contrary to what you said it's making. me think and you know i haven't been to them but it's for some time. but. i don't know when that could explain my position and there was a big understanding for it that. i can see from the.

but. it seems that i must talk about t.v. and. that was. lebanese. broadcasting was stopped under the him to field with him you know and beirut's southern suburbs. that interest our interest finally is to have settlement and peace in lebanon. right so we've been listening to saad hariri speaking publicly for the first time following his short resignation as premier a week ago insisting that he will return to lebanon to confirm his resignation though he said it could be in a few days but he doesn't specifically say when he will return to the country let's now speak to al-jazeera senior political analyst marwan bashara he joins us now

from doha and we've been listening to saad hariri marwan but also just looking at some of the other comments he's been making he's been talking about the possibility of rescinding his resignation but basically costing some doubt on the finality of his position this is quite remarkable isn't it certainly it's coming from such tremendous pressure he's certainly under stress you can see it from his body language from his emotional outburst in a bit of his language. clearly somewhere between fearing for his life and fearing for the future of lebanon and fearing for his relationship with saudi arabia and for his family in saudi arabia feeling for the pressure of his so i would be hosts . as well as the pressures of his supporters back at home as well as his detractors i think the man is sandwiched and is trying to sound rational about

basically what sounds for almost everyone an irrational decision to leave the country as he did to go to saudi arabia nov third and suddenly out of the blue to submit his resignation on saudi t.v. using language against against his lebanese coalition partners and iran a language that many people say is not written by him but rather by his host the saudis he does insist that he did write the speech personally i am not convinced but i am convinced that he does agree with the saudis on a number of issues and by the way he does agree with this so it is on the timing of his return and he doesn't want to return to be under the pressure of his detractors in lebanon like hezbollah and the lebanese president alone he did by the way

towards the end of the interview while you were talking to one of your guests. he did say that he will submit his resignation when he goes back to lebanon and he clarified that he will then enter into negotiations and perhaps await the next elections in order to form another government because in as far as this is concerned the present situation the present go the present government and the present coalition partners namely hezbollah are not respecting the agreements that he reached with them last year whereby they will not interfere or intervene in regional conflicts that would come back to haunt lebanon he did accuse hezbollah without naming it by name he called it a lebanese group working out of yemen to shoot missiles towards riyadh or he said as there are missiles being shot to words in riyadh there is

a group of lebanese in yemen basically he's taking the line that saudi a reader's have taken that it's hezbollah that is responsible for shooting those ballots that missiles toward saudi arabia so all in all he does seem convinced by the overall line that what he compromised towards hezbollah and president alone in the coalition negotiations last year and throughout for the last year that this compromised what was not reciprocated by hezbollah and other foreigners in the coalition government and hence he wants to create what he called an awakening or a positive shock to the lebanese political establishment whereby he is going to try apparently with his saudi hosts to recreate the situation in lebanon in a way that's let's say friendlier to saudi arabia and than any.

didn't use this word shock he did mention that it was important to him make everyone said happen realize that it wasn't an ideal political situation in the country given that it's not clear what his resignation achieves. could it be used as some sort of bargaining chip when he does return well let's just say that he's trying to rationalize a decision that was basically made for him in riyadh that he does not exactly disagree with but he certainly disagrees with the style he disagrees with the timing he disagrees with he disagrees with the vehicle and perhaps the wording that was prepared for him look after all this is a prime minister of lebanon are prime minister of a sovereign country and even though he's a dual saudi lebanese citizenship and by the way that's certainly

a terrible thing for any country to have a prime minister that has citizenship of another country but let's leave that aside for the moment. certainly the saudis have dictated to him his speech of his resignation certainly he was under pressure as soon as he landed in saudi arabia and now the timing of his return to be root and the way he's going to renegotiate. our government or the way he's going to submit his resignation or the timing of it it's going to all be to the liking of the saudi hosts rather than under the pressure of hezbollah and it's rainy and supporters so the point here now is that now that a lot of things are clear to the outside world saudi arabia is is not giving up on the idea that he is they do have an ally a client names out there harry and that in the end of the day they will continue to

pressure lebannon not to take sides with iran or with syria's assad and cleanest if they're not going to support saudi a position towards iran they're going to have to stay neutral all right thank you very much senior political analyst marwan bashara in doha we can now he joins anucha is in the lebanese capital beirut center if you give us a sense of how harry speech his interview will be received and that. well the aim of this interview really is trying to convince the majority of the lebanese that he is not a hostage that he is he has the freedom of movement and he is not being dictated to the saudi arabians are not dictating to him what to say or what to do but i think he has sort of explained what it will take to resolve this political crisis when he said that i am ready to withdraw my resignation if this association policy is

respected now lebanon adopted the disassociation policy a few years ago this policy so that lebanon does not get involved in regional conflicts particularly in neighboring syria hezbollah has been accused of ignoring this policy by sending forces to fight alongside the syrian government in one way or another how did he threw the ball in hezbollah's court he kept on saying i'm i have to do this for to save the country and now he's telling hezbollah this is your way to save the country and i say this because the very fact that how did he resign he is seen as the top sunny politician the sunday street is very angry first of all that there was anger towards saudi arabia they felt that they robbed the saudi arabia robbed them from their leader because this is a community that has felt the marginalized for many years now they feel that iran has the grip on the country iran is dictating lebanon's policies so how do you throwing the ball in hezbollah's court telling it that it has to this arm it has to

withdraw its troops this and gauge itself for from regional crisis in syria and iraq and elsewhere for there to be some sort of political agreement because lebanon is a parliamentary democracy but lebanon is also a consensual democracy all the different groups need to agree need to find some sort of consensus for there to be political stability and when there is no political stability there could be security incident so the prime minister is saying he is ready to withdraw that resignation but he has conditions and hezbollah will have to heed those demands demands which have been made for years now but demands that hezbollah has not heeded. that's right he. seems to say that his resignation is conditional on the behavior of hezbollah but as you well know zain are they they have never disarmed it's unlikely that they would consent to ever going that far what might has barlow do now what concessions might they be willing to make. a very difficult question so far has been a lot has tried to avoid any political escalation in fact even portraying how to be

as a victim in this crisis we heard the secretary general of hezbollah say the other day you know he is our political opponent but right now he is our prime minister has been treading the line really very carefully trying to reach out to the lebanese telling them that this that they are lebanese party but i can tell you there has been a rare sense of unity in this country over the past week but the political differences remain they're still there the political divide is very very deep you talk to people and they say yes we want to unite but we don't want to a group or to have arms to be stronger than the state or to have a state within a state has been has been accused of creating a state within a state its armed wing is even stronger than the national army so these demands these long standing demands hezbollah has never heeded and this is not the first time there has been an attempt to curb hezbollah's influence in lebanon past attempts have failed there has been wars there have been bouts of violence in lebanon they have all failed it is not clear you know how how do you can achieve

this especially since iran sees himself very powerful not just in lebanon but across the region in iraq in syria in lebanon and this is why we're seeing saudi arabia with this new aggressive attitude because it really feels it has lost out it has lost a lot of influence in the region all right thank you very much zain a hunter in beirut well all right we want to bring you another important story this hour a seven point three magnitude quake hitting a region of iran very close to the iranian border the epicenter was around two hundred kilometers northeast of the capital baghdad close to the city of her at least eight villages were also damaged in iran with electricity cuts and rescue teams dispatched imran khan joins us now via skype from baghdad and of course there will be concerns about the death toll this is a very powerful earthquake in iran what are you hearing. so. that's something. on the richter scale that we felt back out for about

a minute this hotel and i'm on the fifth floor was swaying from left to right i don't know if you can see the calls they all came to a standstill it was very powerful not but that is not used to seeing breaks we've never really felt breaks here in the pulse very first just peek into people outside as we made up our emergency procedures went outside people were in shock wondering what got on up for the very first few seconds i did think it may have been some sort of explosion that takes place but once it carried on going i realize it was an earthquake that was like i say very unusual now the epicenter is supposed to be so the money you know which it is in the kurdish region now as you said that's five hundred fifty kilometers away from his or very powerful bike felt it in baghdad but not just in back up throughout the region is what we're hearing reports that tremors were felt as far away as cats all the you eat so certainly were expecting to see damage take place and when the epicenter was in fact at work here.

that's. all right thank you very much imran khan with all the latest on that from baghdad speaking to us there from the iraqi capital just worth recapping that there has been a seven point three magnitude quake hitting the region of iraq that is close to the border with iran and at least eight villages have also been damaged in iran but a very powerful earthquake as enron was saying he could feel the vibrations you could feel the effect of it where he was in the iraqi capital baghdad well now. of course for the latest on everything we're covering there is a website al jazeera dot com is where you need to go for comment analysis and video on them on of course our top story there the prime minister saad hariri speaking from riyadh giving an interview in the saudi capital capital saying that he intends to return to lebanon in a few days though he doesn't say precisely when he will return so we're going to

keep an eye on that and everything else coming up next talk to al-jazeera with the interior minister of pakistan i'll see you often in about twenty five minutes time . quite provocative or is it about whether online we were in hurricane. almost like thirty six hours these are the things that has to address or if you join us on set. book. the relation with this is a dialogue tweet us with hash tag a stream and one of your pitches might make the next join the colobus conversation at this time on al-jazeera. is. traditionally seen as an important partner with the.