a special program dedicated to this year's nobel peace prize laureates. and their pursuit of a nuclear weapon free world and we look ahead to the big stories that could dominate the headlines in twenty eighteen. december on al-jazeera. setting the stage for a serious debate up front at this time on al-jazeera. after thirty seven years in power robert mugabe resigns as president of zimbabwe.

scenes of jubilation in the streets isn't bob when celebrate a day many songs they'd never see. another engine in which all this is live from london also coming up a teenage suicide bomber kills at least fifty people at a mosque in northeast nigeria. a mistake international accuses me of maher of a parted over its treatment of wreckage of muslims. it warm welcome to the program well after thirty seven years in power but mugabe has resigned as president of zimbabwe the new sparked scenes of jubilation around the country with thousands of zimbabweans poor ring into. the streets with in

minutes of that announcement well gobby sent a letter to zimbabwe's parliament as it launched proceedings to impeach him they've not been suspended but he said the decision was voluntary to allow was smooth transfer of power well the ruling party's legal secretary says emerson managua the vice president whose firing triggered by god these down fall will be sworn in as president on wednesday or thursday well this is the sinker and they live in harare but people keep on the celebrating and probably deep into the minds that's had our children on how we were forced in the days of us. delirium on the streets of harare the revolutionary have to. cross the country of the butler garbage for thirty seven years while celebrations going on for hours news that mugabe was stepping down came as both houses of parliament sat in extraordinary session to debate the president seemed preachment the speaker suspended the session and told

m.p.'s that he'd received a letter to the. only. if the. mugabe wrote that he was resigning with immediate effect voluntarily in order to facilitate a smooth transfer of power. to the crowds outside those words many thought they'd never hear ever since i was born and i have never thought that i would see this day i'm so glad that you have been here we have somebody our father was there when told that was the war that you went to war they did their way home but mugabe and his wife were going to paris to show well if you're starving here. his departure comes an emotional week out of the military first took to the streets intervening in party politics over his succession it likely means. that this man

and. will become zimbabwe's interim leader ahead of elections in two thousand and eighteen and this it was built it was about where you live just missing and what the people simply what will soon be up in you what we did what we had to go. forward we want to be one member of the budget and politicians. for a new fight ahead we have supported him and i got to trouble him a couple through these demonstrations and to accept that some of our job was to play the game fairly if he does not do well to play the game fairly we will take him on you also we are sick and tired of a sudden here soon. had for decades been a faithful mugabi left tenant described as the president's and for so close to the army nicknamed the crocodile few would describe him as a democrat you people will wonder whether zimbabwe's new era would be much

different from its past on this night and for now though many can judge how. well how much time is in harare for us with more on who is likely to succeed. most of all we know it's going to be innocent when in doubt what he was seen as the heir apparent in design to fit into the hierarchy of the readings on a party he was mistaken mostly off to robert mugabe another element of it was fired his party leader. is now the one in charge so what do people see the future being like the old feelings are mixed some hold some hope it's going to be good economy will recover quite quickly others say that they know it will take time others are aware of in the seven and i'd like he has a chip has some people are wondering did we just stop putting someone who's going to be worth that robots uncertain times was involved in. at the moment right now

is it's about the great thing the fact that all of the garbage has gone so the united on that front but as to what the future will hold for this country opinions are divided. well i haven't celebrations too in neighboring south africa tanya pages live in johannesburg for us and tanya of course a big zimbabwe in population in south africa what's been the reaction there. well we've seen similar scenes as those playing out in harare but obviously on a smaller scale there are an unknown number of zimbabweans living outside of that country many hundreds of thousands certainly are here in south africa for lots of reasons many of them of lives because of political repression but many also have been driven out purely for economic reasons and they come to countries like south africa which is the regional economic hub for jobs basically and there are lots of zimbabweans here who have degrees there to cater to their head work experience some

but for one reason or another either can't get work at home or aren't getting paid for their work at home so come to south africa to work often for not very much money but will what little they can earn is enough to send home to help support their families south africa as the region's economic hub is the brunt of that sort of exodus of zimbabweans and to other countries but of course it isn't alone all the other countries in southern africa particularly those surroundings and bob way have a large diaspora zimbabwean populations antinea what do you think said africa might play in the coming weeks and months is as we move forward. well south africa as the chair of the southern african development community said eric has tried to play a leading role on the very first day this happened south african president jacob zuma was able to make

a phone call to now former president robert mugabe and confirm that he was fine and in reasonably good health and they had made been maintaining communication with the military and sent on voice as well on tuesday there was a summit of set in angola and the resolution was made that president zuma and angola as presidential. would go to harare tomorrow wednesday bettors and we are told that. that visit is still going to take place they may still want to see for themselves president mugabe the incoming potential leader everson mung manuel who are as well as of course to get a firsthand assessment of exactly what the situation is on the ground said ike is always very cautious doesn't want to be seen to be overreaching on its mandate or in mandate or impinging on any nation's sovereignty you so it won't do anything like responding to the war veterans calls. however it will try to play

a leading role and that may or may not be welcome for because many of the zimbabweans we spoke to here in johannesburg they say said it hasn't done enough hasn't done anything to help them be rid of mugabe and they actually accuse that i can many instances of basically extending robert mugabe's rule by approving of dubious in some people's eyes election time you pitch there live from johannesburg tanya thanks. when i'm joined by steven chan a world politics professor at source university in london stephen has also written a book about the garveys life so a new chapter for your book steve given what's happened today how you were you surprised when that letter of resignation came out given that long rambling speech the other day when everybody thought it was going to happen i was surprised both the governor was indeed surprised we were all expecting will be impeachment proceedings to run their course and for the man to be thrown out on ceremoniously i

think the threat of being thrown out on ceremoniously prompted him to make those dignified. he was now capable or do you think that we'll see. grace politics or do you think that she will find a way to keep some sort of power base in zimbabwe i think the year of grace mugabe like the robert mugabe has now come to an end a lot will depend on what arrangements have been made for the future whether they'll be under the for track to house arrest and movement circumscribed or whether they'll go to exile is another question we don't know whether an immunity is deal has been broken it will be a lot of detail it is yet very very unclear in terms of the sudden resignation so over the next couple of days politically speaking what are we going to see we're going to see in this and we're not quite getting signed in and then i guess the

question is then you ought most of all there's a small constitutional hurdle to overcome in that sense he was dismissed as vice president another vice president constitutional claim to the succession i'm sure the party will broker to the parties preferred successor to mugabe isn't good and isn't. and i think that we will see over the next couple of days that being ratified and then finally ratified at the party called gross next month so the procedure again will be observed but i think that the new president who reached out to west as well as chinese interests to try to get some kind of injection of liquidity to stabilize or run completely runaway economy speaking to lots of people in the streets today our correspondent spoken to numerous people and they were all focusing on the economy saying things like you know now is not time for politics is a time for rebuilding not feeling that they really want to look ahead and have

something to look forward to in the economy so how does that process begin. basically if i'm going to be bloody minded about it it can begin the running about three hundred percent inflation right now there's no productive base there's no industrial agricultural inputs worth namely that can take the country out of the doldrums it's going to take a very long carefully planned transition period and western powers of got to help because of that the chinese go and lose influence in that part of the world when we talk about the man who's likely to take over from the gobby there he obviously has a long history in politics in the country and people have an opinion on what he might bring to the table but what's your view is this a huge leap forward or half a step forward threats half a step forward that i think people are dancing in the streets because it's better than two three four five steps backward so any sort of movement is desirable when

god was a very very sober person very carefully considered he knows that he's got to transform his image he's got to reach out to become more user friendly to his own people as well as to the outside world he knows enough to appoint a technocratic cabinet or at least senior technocratic people the key portfolios like finance so they'll be much more practice everyday common political sense than mr mugabe was capable of in his dotage really stephen tom thanks very much for joining me thank you. still to come this half hour we'll take a closer look as we were saying a man due to replacement gobby as president in zimbabwe. and lebanon's prime minister is finally returning home but not before holding talks with the egyptian president will have all of that and more when we come back.

december on al-jazeera we look back at twenty seventeen through the eyes of five families who've been affected by some of the big stories of the year in an increasingly polarized world people in power sheds light on the darkest abuses of authority ten days of comprehensive coverage about nuclear arsenals around the globe and the impact they have on the diplomatic stage a special program dedicated to this year's nobel peace prize laureates i can and their pursuit of a nuclear weapon free world and we look ahead to the big stories that could dominate the headlines in twenty eighteen. december on al-jazeera. one day if you look out for a rival to the country club and they decide to play god. and certainly if you can cast just said to show you right now gee sure if we could. harm members of

cubans of our in this magnificent. a chronicle of the revolution and its aspirations through the prism of its architecture cuba's unfinished spaces at this time on al-jazeera. al-jazeera where every.

and our top stories here on out is iraq zimbabwe's president robert mugabe has resigned as impeachment proceedings against him by the way in a letter submitted to parliament the ninety three year old said he was standing that to live a smooth transition of power. there have been scenes on the streets of the capital harare since the midst of his resignation spread. vice president. in the gobby sacked earlier this month will take over within the next forty eight hours he'll then serve the rest of my god his term until next year shadow election

. takes a closer look now at background two leaders one side by side who became sworn enemies this is how an extraordinary sequence of events started this is in relation to ten minutes. of employment wise person i'm assuming had been sacked by robert mugabe are accused of being unreliable disloyal and deceitful speculation pointed towards grace mugabi the president's wife has been behind the move. the two had publicly fallen out in the jockeying for position over who should succeed ninety three year old mcgarvie. that highlighted the two factions splitting the ruling zanu p.f. party at the time the military and the war veterans loyal to the one. grace

mugabe's youth sam who dubbed g. forty one god were fled abroad but his supporters planned their response and it was dramatic the head of the defense forces warned the army would step in if the purges of politicians it favors didn't stop hours later armored vehicles rolled into the capital harare we wish to assure the nation that he is excellent to the president of the republic of zimbabwe and commander in chief of these and i would defend forces. comic. and his family are safe and sound and the vast security is going to teach many of my gob is long term supporters had clearly abandoned him. so the basic core from is the role as the president and first.

man gaga has stayed quiet a tactic that didn't surprise observers of the man who has been nicknamed the crocodile for his style in dealing with opponents yes the one man boy is not to be allowed to use culpability when you look at it when it wants to attack his prose is calculated you don't believe that was until there the person. is not knowing what is going to happen then. i miss. my god had been a powerful and loyal member of mugabe's inner circle serving as justice minister speaker of parliament and vice president his supporters praise his business acumen and hope he can improve zimbabwe's dire economic situation if given the chance he's also suggested reengaging with the west after years of international isolation

under the gobby andrew simmons al-jazeera united states has imposed a number of sanctions to put pressure on north korea's nuclear weapons program several chinese entities that do business with pyongyang are amongst those that have been targeted it comes a day after president don't trumpet north korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism well let's go to west jordan in washington d.c. hi there ross and so what's the significance then of the sanctions. chile the significance of these sanctions is that it brings the u.s. in compliance with the two u.n. security council resolutions which it supported that were passed earlier this year all in an effort to try to get north korea to give up not just its nuclear weapons program but to also stop building ballistic missiles the devices that would actually deliver nuclear warheads to other countries should north korea decide to

launch a nuclear missile attack this is of course targeting not just a chinese national and three businesses which he owns which are essentially import export firms but it also goes after the fact that these businesses allegedly are trading with north korea and materials that have been explicitly sanctioned or banned by these u.n. security council resolutions things. iron and coal and other goods that are considered so-called dual use goods things that could be used to lie either build nuclear warheads or ballistic missiles all of those things have been prohibited and what these sanctions do is basically make it much more difficult for this kind of activity to be carried out particularly if anyone who is considered a u.s. person either a citizen or a permanent resident were to help pay for this kind of equipment or this kind of

trade it also goes after the actual delivery of this equipment from one ship to another which has also been deemed illegal by the u.n. security council and twenty north korean vessels have been targeted and are supposed to be stopped from carrying out this sort of ship to ship transfer of this sanctioned equipment and materiel again to make it as difficult as not impossible for the north koreans to continue building nuclear warheads or building ballistic missiles starting now live from washington d.c. well thank you. lebanese prime minister saad hariri is returning to lebanon more than two weeks after announcing his schalke resignation whilst in riyadh hariri was so earlier in cairo where he's held talks with the gyptian leader abdel fattah el-sisi lebanon's president has said he will not accept the research as a nation and till he returns home to explain himself there in two separate attacks

in the northern nigerian state of adult ma now more than thirty cattle herders were killed by on a dent of five attackers in the newman area the attack began on sunday and ended on monday these fifty people were killed by a teenage suicide bomber in the type of movie which is also in the a dam was state b. say the assault happened just people were arriving at a mosque for morning prayers no one has so far claimed responsibility for that attack awkward interest is following developments for us from the capital of. the attack came as washing clothes were gathering for early morning prayers movie star has been relatively calm since its occupation by boko haram and later they were chased after one month stay in the city so the city itself is not far away from the boundary of that border state the epicenter of book insurgency we've seen in the last few weeks or so how but what are the fighters from the forest this and the

supporters have invaded communities like medically like. the headquarters of medical itself and have killed a lot of people they attempted in the last one week particularly to retake the time but what repelled by the military so a lot of people still believe that fight is belonging to boko haram although the group has not claimed responsibility have infiltrated communities that are not far away from the boundary with border state so we probably will see the rise in the number of be people who died or who will die because of the severity of injuries they sustained in the early morning such as the security services say they're stepping up their operations in the north east of the country to come things down and to finally defeat boko haram but over the last few months we've seen how bookworm has adapted and continuing to target soft targets in the north east of nigeria meanwhile mistreatment of its range of muslims amends to. a party

that's according to a report by amnesty international to a year long investigation says authorities have been segregated into an open air prisons by confining them to their villages report calls northern rakhine state a crime scene a recent military crackdown there has forced nearly two thirds of me in laws for him to population to sleep to bangladesh for him to a denied citizenship and many are deleted from the social records making it almost impossible for those who fled the country to return home. here pina nation for ministers have discussed the range of crisis on the sidelines of a summit in me in moscow hylas following developments from the in-laws largest city and gone. it was a meeting planned before the recent crisis that sent more than six hundred thousand refugees from rakhine state here fleeing for their lives into bangladesh the crisis became the focus horn ministers and representatives from more than fifty european and asian nations gathered in me and most capital nato. as the leaders were

wrapping up their final day of the two day talks amnesty international unveiled a report on the plight of the ranger in me and mark. after two years of research digging into the roots of how the rich have lived in myanmar the human rights watchdog concluded it was apartheid like the author of the report told our jazeera the government's reasoning for the range of treatment is not only unjustified it's criminal in relation to the ongoing system of apartheid that we describe in our report i think the world is way too willing to buy into the restoration presented by then getting our authorities about the need to combat terrorism about the need to establish security and that's why they felt it was a very important moment to remind both in gondar officials and their international counterparts that absolutely no considerations feed security or the need to combat terrorism can't justify the ongoing crimes against humanity to justify the system

of apartheid and back at the foreign ministers meeting myanmar's leader on song she said that her government is working with bangladesh on an agreement to repatriation for those who fled over the last three months the bangladeshi foreign minister will stay on after the meeting in myanmar continuing with the negotiations repatriations working toward a memo of understanding or m.-o. you this is why we have going to be having byelection discussions to do for tomorrow and the day often and we hope that this will result in the name of the human psyche which is to enable us to stop the situation volunteer to return old who's not on the board it won't be an easy process as many fled quickly as the violence escalated they won't have the documents to prove they lived in rakhine state many regions of villages were burned raising the question if they are repatriated what conditions will they think and what are the guarantees that violence won't get there al-jazeera the am gone. the kremlin says russia's

president vladimir putin has been in contact with the us president donald trump said the syrian government is in favor of conducting parliamentary presidential polls follows talks between putin and syria's president bashar al assad in the southern russian city of sochi according to the kremlin told us at the fight against on groups in syria is nearing its rush need to set the planning a peaceful political settlement will be the key issue once the conflict is. if we should have a president assad knows and he told me during our talks that thanks to the efforts of the russian army syria is saved as a state much has been done to stabilize the situation in syria and i hope in the near future we will put a final stop to fighting terrorism in syria which publicly for the family we just had a meeting with president vladimir putin and i passed greetings and gratitude to him and to the people of russia for the efforts which russia put in saving our country i particularly emphasized the role of the russian armed forces and the sacrifices

you have made to reach this goal thanks to your efforts and the efforts of our allies many syrians could return to their homes and i would like to express gratitude to you for what you have done on behalf of all the syrian people judges that the highest court in the philippines have been hearing petitions filed against the government's crackdown on drug dealers the weather service of victims what the court to decide whether president were to go to tertius campaign which is led to thousands of deaths is constitutional if the government fails to prove his case to tears he could be found guilty of not following due process. a manhunt is underway for twenty ethnic we give muslims from china who escaped from a thai immigration detention center police say the escapees book through the wall of the center in south though in southern thailand five of the runaways were called soon after the break out with border patrols in the area stepped up the escapees were detained in two thousand and four with hundreds of other we give muslims who claimed to be turkish citizens poland has insisted its logging

activities in one of europe's last ancient forests are lawful after the e.u. threatened bulls heavy fines and one day the european court of justice said it would find paul and one hundred eighty thousand dollars a day if it doesn't stop large scale logging in the below huge a forest again mescal world heritage site the polish environment minister says his government will fulfill the court's recommendations but he didn't specify if it would actually hold the logging activists accuse poland of selling those trees for commercial reasons but the government says it's for public safety be a ways includes one of the largest surviving parts of the primeval forest that covered the european play ten thousand years ago you can of course follow all the stories on our website head to our just sirrah dot com. thank. you and who don't

mind telling our headlines here on al-jazeera zimbabwe's president robert mugabe has resigned as impeachment proceedings against him were underway in a letter submitted to parliament the ninety three year old gold he's standing by to allow a smooth transition of power he also said his decision to resign is a voluntary one last wednesday the army took over and place mugabe under house arrest and since then he had remained defiant that he would not stand them. which is it isn't barclays parliament after the speaker where that mugabe's resignation letter and they have been jubilant scenes on the streets of the capital harare since that huge spread and celebrating by singing dancing in the streets. there are you there yet you don't really know for sure that i am very very hands on the only thing was easier to. work on. the bright future because we are only taking the best the economy in the world we have been minnows

of course the land the good the good linux people are good much educated and the people because we are here between one november seventeenth independence here we are having i have realized oh i have. already this month the former vice president emerson was sacked by mugabe and that's what sparked last week's military takeover now he said to become the next president within forty eight hours will then serve the rest of the garveys term until next year should job election at least fifty people have been killed by a teenage suicide bomber at a mosque in northeastern nigeria he said the attacker mingled with worshippers detonated his explosives before morning prayers it happened in movie and adam was a state where boko haram held territory twenty fourteen b. in march treatment over hinge of muslims mimes to call dehumanizing apostate according to

a report by amnesty international two year long investigation said authorities have been segregated away in giant open air prisons by confining them to their villages recent military crackdown there has forced more than six hundred thousand range of muslims to flee bangladesh you are up to date those are our current headlines stay with out zero insights stories coming up next. as the war in syria really almost over syria's president visits russia to thank his allies for their sacrifices they say victory is close and are talking about a political solution how likely is that with a badly divided opposition and rebel areas still bombarded by as strikes this is inside story.

i know that i'm oracle welcome to the program he's thanks them for their sacrifices and for saving his country so as president bashar al assad has flown to russia for a few hours to meet his major hussan the kremlin says russia's president told him that the fight against all md groups is close to finishing and once is over finding a peaceful political settlement will be a key is that achievable the opposition has long demanded a future syria without assad but he survived nearly seven years of war and is likely to remain unchallenged for the foreseeable future. we just had a meeting with president vladimir putin and i passed greetings and gratitude to him and to the people of russia for the efforts which russia put in saving our country i particularly emphasized the role of the russian armed forces and the sacrifices

you have made to reach this goal thanks to your efforts and the efforts of our allies many syrians could return to their homes and i would like to express gratitude to you for what you have done on behalf of all the syrian people. yes you would never president assad knows and he told me during the talks that thanks to the efforts of the russian army syria is saved as a state much has been done to stabilize the situation in syria and i hope in the near future we'll put a final stop to fighting terrorism in syria let's take a look at who controls what in syria right now the government forces and their russian allies have had the momentum on the ground for the past year they now control more than fifty percent of territories seen here in red including syria's four largest cities the rebel areas are in green iraqi militia allied to the syrian regime made gains into eisel territory in the east shown here in black and much of the north is in the hands of u.s. backed kurdish forces shown here in yellow they're seeking to establish an

independent region let's bring in our panel now we're joined here in doha doha by kabul under rector of policy analysis at the doha institute and a moscow we're joined by going to our russian foreign policy specialists in calling this for novaya gazeta welcome all of you thanks very much for joining us here on inside story pawel this is only the second time is that the bashar assad has left syria since the war began in two thousand and eleven why is he in moscow now does this market crucial turning point in the war. well it was actually not moscow but sochi which is the defacto russian second capital and putin spends almost half a year there and now he has right now gathered all his military top brass and military industry top brass and he introduced. to them and it's also important may

be interesting to notice that most likely. over food to search over turkish territory and russian military plane before that turkey was not allowing russian transit flights from the search area to. base but now it does so most likely here is over five thirty territory so yes it's important for urashima to demonstrate to the russian public are there in the election coming up next march presidential action that russia is victorious pushing us again victorious the war in syria is almost over mission accomplished. plays well on the domestic front in russia as well. do we generally accept now is there an acceptance that russia is firmly in the driving seat when it comes to finding a solution to the syria issue i guess it does and in fact. i said was actually

called to sochi head of an important summit that's going to take place to more for the heads of three key players in the syrian conflict. and iran and having to having pressure actually hosting this meeting but important meeting in my opinion means that russia is the de facto power broker in syria don't forget that the united states actually has one of the accepted that that russia is calling the shots and russia is leading i mean the political that they're supposed to mean that political solution in this country but before that i was one i wanted actually to do that then show into this picture which summarizes the seven years of conflict in syria or the outcome of some years of conflict in syria yesterday the head of the opposition resigned actually ahead of the major opposition conference and riyadh where i was the head of the syrian regime actually

is in moscow thanking his big ally for saving the country this summarize in my opinion that the outcome of the conflict and in syria which is a very important thing for me to watch actually. ok we're just pieces say that we've got our first guest joining us from london our wakka he is a member of the british syrian society welcome to the discussion mom was just talking about riyadh her job having just resigned from the h.n.c. we want to bring you a little bit about what he said because it was on monday this head of the main so saudi backed syrian opposition group that's a high negotiations committee resigned along with maine other figures and he did explain why exactly he was quitting but he did post this statement online solicits read that after close to two years of hard work to preserve the glorious principles of the syrian revolution i find myself forced to announce my resignation from the

h. and c. wishing it good luck and wishing peace and security to my beloved country syria is a crucial talking point isn't it today in our discussion and i'm a what do you see as behind riyadh jobs resignation the main point here was that as we understand it was that they were not really invited to to the conference in riyadh that we are to conference and the reason behind that would was apparently that they were known to be an obstacle to adopting a new kind of sea route towards a different sort of engagement for the syrian opposition with the peace process in syria or the political settlement in syria the. were understood to have said no we will stick with for example wanting to get rid of prison i want to

go to dismantle the security apparatus. you know the numerous ones and so on and so forth basically to dismantle the regime. and apparently there is a new tendency now in riyadh. to enlarge the. body. that is under the saudi umbrella and that would mean getting some new ideas and compromising a little bit with other bodies like the cairo for example. the platform and the moscow platform in order to engage with what is has become a reality which is that president assad is staying in place and one could argue for a longer time than previously perceived more on what is this new route is it soley that assad now has a place beyond the end of the military conflict whether it's transitional or more

permanent we don't know yet but is that generally the main gist of the new opposition's and i think this is what the trends are hoping for if you look at the joint statement by the u.s. president russian president on the side of the apec summit in vietnam last week actually he did not mention any political transition in syria this is on the one hand on the other hand actually they were talking about issues that maybe the russians are willing to to endure in syria like for example having a constitution although i mean nobody still know what sort of constitution we're going to have in syria because this is a major point of contention between him and the opposition and that is something that the conference for the opposition and the yard to more must address. they are talking about even having the two thousand and twelve constitution which was in fact written by the regime itself with few modifications or going back to the one nine hundred fifty constitution syrian constitution which was actually drafted like

sixty years sixty years ago number two is the elections but there is also no no talk about what sort of elections that we are going to have is a parliamentary elections or presidential elections these are two important things in brief the russians. are having their way it's seems that the russians are having their way in syria but without i mean we shouldn't be very optimistic about about the makes them succeeding because she was part of syria is still actually outside the control of the city and of the syrian regime one third of the of the country this is a might be in the most important one third of the country which means the syrian i'll just give up on the north and south. and south part of the country which is most of syria's oil reserve water easier also is actually located in that region and might be in the rest of the country cannot survive without that part of that but remains under the control of the syrian democratic forces i.e. the kurdish forces that means actually the conflict in syria is going to last for

much longer than people are actually talking about the important part of a lot of huge points which hopefully we can we can revisit relations gosh i just want to ask you one more question for the moment on the conference tomorrow that's being held in riyadh lots of different opposition groups being brought together do you think there will come out of that a single united opposition voice that doesn't involve assad stepping down i think there are three there are three major groups actually not many but three major groups the most core that are yard. opposition groups and they are meeting specifically for this purpose to agree on a common ground for the whole opposition in order to be able to go in one joint delegation to go to geneva and to start this negotiations with with there is jim there is a huge pressure on all of them actually including from saudi arabia from egypt from the three the three major players here that we all have in saudi arabia which

actually have leverage over the. opposition group which has leverage over the cairo egypt which has developed over the cairo group and most she was very much seeking right now to have this sort of new normal and you. delegation joined delegation to the bridge in the city and because without that you can't have a political process starting actually within the geneva process so there is going to be huge pressure on these different groups in order to agree on one common ground to start to kick off this geneva process of all would you agree with that there is a russian delegation going to this conference in saudi on wednesday is there a huge pressure being placed on the opposition to fall in line. well those are gathering in riyadh. of course not those who are part of that part of the opposition that's more with us close to moscow but it's right this is the russian delegation and the special representative for the him or put in there is going

there and will be speaking there it demonstrates the new kind defector who will bring him in the middle east where russia is trying very hard to broaden its alliances and not to be just kind of. appendix to. iran in part but have good connections with sunni major powers with saudi arabia with turkey with egypt and russia would want to be the kind of the. country that's kind of balancing the situation in the do east which talks to everyone has good relations with everyone including israel and that will make russia indispensable power in finding a kind of new status quo in the middle east and of course russia has very specific military targets in the syrian conflict and that's the establishment and

further keeping the military bases the tartarus naval bases being expanded and even more importantly the main meme airbase which is called the mediterranean coast and which will provide support and cover to the russian mediterranean flotilla so that explains why russia is so keen to be such a key player in this process. just going back tomorrow and points and i'm wondering whether you agree with that whether there are still huge parts of syria that are not represented of the diplomatic front and will be obstacles to this process when he what's called the geneva process or the astonished process but they don't feel that their representatives. well this is in a sense phase two of the problem or the syrian crisis if we could summarize there what happened in the past seven years as phase one which is coming to an end i.e. part of the syrian people taking up arms against the government that's you know ending up now as we speak the second phase would be to reunite the country under

a central government once more and obviously there are certain groups who disagree whether it should be a central government or a federal system and they have allies the united states is definitely giving or providing a huge cover to the kurds in terms of getting as much playing cora's as much under their belt to trade with the government they have to or oil fields they have a lot of the huge swaths of of the syrian. plateau where there are lots of resources oil water gas cotton wheat whatever. so there will be some trading but we don't think that this is going to turn into a be an armed conflict so to speak these people are still syrians their opinions will most probably be taken into consideration as long as they don't go you know off shoot with whatever dreams they have or somebody might say well if

you could tell for damascus then probably it would be at a later stage when they would join in the political process the political process is still in its infancy and really we're still getting the main body of the opposition to accept. defeat so to speak in their attempts to overthrow the government. let's see what happens in riyadh there is no. can there is no. guarantee whatsoever that it's going to be a successful conference even thought the hardliners or the hawks have resigned as their instinct turn of phrase it using their hard liner or hawk but that's only recently come into the conversation that if someone is insisting that assad go they are seen as an obstacle. well in a sense there are those in the syrian opposition who cannot envisage sharing power or. at least having to deal with any part of governance whilst present our side is

there they forget in a sense let's just call them the hawks for a moment they forget that there are quite a few syrians who believe that the government is actually protecting them and actually in fact the the majority of syrians who are currently inside syria feel a surge and to convince those at present shouldn't be there is going to be a very huge task and i think that's where practicality comes and that's where the regional powers and the international powers have realized who actually who originally backed the opposition and still do have realized that it would be very hard to just force a person outside our they've tried everything they could and it didn't happen and to convince the syrians inside syria who happened to be the only ones who are definitely going to for the moment at least definitely going to participate in any upcoming election is going to be very hard so off with those who believe that you

know. the syrian government is going to be dismantled and prison i said must go and let's bring those who are more problematic and can live with it so to speak more what happens to those people who still believe that assad must go before the get out there are two points number one is that in my opinion the opposition has not been offered a share to embark. by that otherwise the whole conflict shouldn't have started from the very beginning number two i can't accept the statement that one party in syria has been defeated and another party has won i think all syrians actually have been defeated in this conflict don't forget that. half of the syrian population are displaced now without internet or externally at the con. he is very much divided is the factor division now because we have been talking over the past a few minutes about the kurdish opposition and the regime controlling different

parts of the of the country more than sixty percent of the infrastructure has been destroyed we don't have control over our feet as syrians we are being point toward actually that you're on your knees the turks the saudis every single country maybe in the world is having is having a bit of control over the city and. sovereignty and and and control so i i don't see that a syrian went out in this in this conflict this is why i believe that the opposition and the regime must come to the conclusion that maybe it's time now for your point national reconciliation and for the syrian people to decide who is going on. around the country in the next in the next phase but what mullen says is absolutely right isn't it because let's look at the other important meeting that's on wednesday and this is a meeting between russia iran and turkey interesting enough that turkey is being brought to that table but also where the syrians are in that meeting i mean this is once again outside forces talking about thirty or without their presence.

oh that's how it's going to be because the internal syrian civil war if not ended but it kind of reached a big turning point and now it's going to be even more mosquera internationalized as the isis has been eliminated at least as a quasi state and is a back into being some kind of terrorist organization but there are the into x. outside forces there's reports of turkish armor and troops moving in to province additionally and moving up to the free in. occupied by the kurds will be a conflict there possibly israel has announced that it will not tolerate uranian or his bow our bases being established in syria and can go to war over that with all

due respect between and it and yahoo and puton and there are the saudis who are right now very much opposed to reigne and also a presence in lebanon has both and the iranians and syria so there is the outside powers that didn't go away and now since the common enemy of everyone isis is more or less out of the picture as a big force these forces are going to be kind of going at each other with each having their own agenda and i'm a wife we've been seeing these you tense from these outside powers i'm thinking of saudi arabia i'm thinking of tacky even cast they are no longer demanding assad steps down and they seem to be falling into line with russia. i think that the russian intervention in syria changed the formulae in a sense everybody is being more pragmatic pragmatic story and the whole of the point is that there is a conflict that i have invested

a lot of resources into into. for the reason of gaining some influence for getting whatever it is it's going to slip out of my hand if i don't do anything if i don't change my position if i don't become a little bit more problematic so they're keeping themselves in a game as such the saudis definitely the turkish position to slightly different because. they have been sort of forced either into a direct confrontation with russia which was likely to be the case two years exactly from now or get in line with russia and do something about it and actually gain or mitigate the risk of establishing a for example a kurdish state in north and northeast and syria so they benefited somehow from aligning themselves with russia on that specific no. it's probably because of the problems in the gulf they need some sort of a and insurance card in

a sense against whatever the saudis would like to have and so it is for different reasons different players have shifted positions likely in order to stay in the game and more what's that mean for the u.s. position what role is left for the u.s. to play now not much actually especially after the defeat of feisal in syria the major u.s. interest actually in syria and in the entire region was the war against isis and since i was and has been defeated in both iraq and syria we don't see much of us at all here but of course i mean i was friends with one actually that they were is to also fall in line and to support their off what in order to i mean to end this conflict but as i said i mean before that the u.s. seems to have accept that. russians are actually the major pop rock out here in syria that the syrian actually question has been my most of it actually has been left with the russians but i think that americans will be trying over the next next

phase actually of this conflict to influence somehow the course of events. concerning the political solution not allowing the opposition to be defeated and a settlement a political settlement in both suborned them bye bye bye a shot which which actually leaves them nothing after seven years of conflict so two big meetings to watch this week where well the discussion that for now thank you very much to all our guests for joining us. and. thank you two very much for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website this al-jazeera dot com and of other discussion to go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com for slash inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter at a.j. inside story from me and the whole team here i found.

hello there it's pretty warm for many of us in australia at the moment we've got an area of high pressure in the southeast corner and that's ensuring that not many clouds make it all way and it's also a making sure that the temperatures can rise as well say from melbourne thirty one degrees will be our maximum and for adelaide will be a thirty two this area of cloud and rain is trying to edge its way eastwards but that area of high pressure is blocking.