accuses saudi arabia and the u.a.e. of fabricating the rift with cata to seize their neighbor's wealth egypt's president abdel fatah see she's running for a second term in the march elections former army chief sami a man has added his name to the list calling for state institutions to be neutral towards candidates. pope francis has met peru's president pedro public kocinski as he wraps up his south america talk earlier he called for the protection of indigenous people are visiting the heart of peru's amazon forest the pope condemned the exploitation of timber gas and gold in the area he said one thousand peruvians have never been more threatened and as the governments to recognize their culture turkey is mobilizing thousands of free syrian army rebels on its border with syria as part of a military operation that threatened against syrian kurdish fighters known as the white b.g. were based in the town about three in the army's intensified shelling unafraid in recent days and says a ground assault could happen soon the lebanese army has found the bodies of nine syrian refugees who froze to death in

a snowstorm trying to cross the border into lebanon soldiers are looking for others caught in the blizzard well those were the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after talk to others who stated that so much of. america's controversial president continues to polarize opinions. do solemnly swear marking one year since he was sworn into office al-jazeera brings you a special program about the impact president trump has had at home and around the globe transposed a year on al jazeera. english you can. only. see. with wars and conflicts continue to rage in crises off the crises threatening the safety and wellbeing of millions of people around the world the question is who and how can we bring an end to all this suffering now for years the responsibility has always been placed on the

united nations but it's often failed to end these crises in conflicts because of the very nature of the organization and how it is set up on the one hand you have the general assembly which is who does the conscience but on the other hand you have the security council that's with its peace and security but often fails to do so as a direct result of the veto power wielded by only five countries the arguable incompetence of the united nations has been most evident recently in the debate over the us is decision to recognize illegally occupied through cinema as the capital of israel as miroslav might check the president of the un general assembly talks to al-jazeera he tells us that despite all of its troops comings the u.n. is the best option for while peace. present i should thank you very much for talking to al-jazeera thank you for inviting me proprietor your arrival in

doha you were in the united arab emirates and just over a week ago there was a complaint filed by petards un representative to the u.n. about the jets infiltrating cutty airspace the situation here is extremely fragile to say the least what's your message or what has your message been to the people that you've been meeting and the emirates and here in order to find a solution to this crisis. yes it's true that prior to my visits to qatar i visited united arab emirates and kuwait as well and of course i used my meetings with leaders of those countries including here to discuss the regional situation which is sensitive and i think the talks i had helped me to get a much better picture about the situation right now and i'm going to discuss it with the secretary general and then he will take it right now to answer your question about the message message is to stay calm. void any. provocations

and of course to to resort to dialogue plus i also believe that the region has the capacity. to sort out these these people. and they do national community is worried but also believes that there will be a solution that will be a negotiated solution which will be regional led what role does the u.n. general assembly have do you think what role could it played to make this solution come a bit faster because this is a crisis that has been going on now for for seven months and it is threatening what is the last remaining stable. piece of land or area so to speak within what is a very turbulent middle east region the gulf is literally maybe the last parts of the middle east that isn't faults with the gulf is definitely a very public voice and the voice is missing right now because of the internal situation in the region and that's why that's why i believe you'd see an interest of every country that belongs to this region to find a solution and u.n.

general assembly can play a role but has not been requested to do so which is good i think at this stage because un steps in when there is. no possibility for local or regional actors to find a solution so united nations does not impose itself on any of the of the situations and i really believe that we have a lot of trust in mediation efforts and i encourage to my partners in kuwait to continue business as well the only issue of imposing maybe actually there is a much more pressing conflict that isn't far from from the g.c.c. that the g.c.c. is playing a role in which would require you to actually impose and that is the war in yemen that's been led by saudi arabia and also orchestrated by the iraqis and according to the u.n. it's transformed yemen into the worst humanitarian crisis of our time trojan are either killed by the bombs or they're killed by color or by starvation why has the

general assembly not pushed for an end to this war how much more suffering has to happen for the u.n. to. restart put its foot down and say this has to stop now because it's not for the general assembly to do so this is the primary priority for all responsibility of the security council which according to the charter is the body responsible for maintenance of international peace and security. the general assembly deals with issues when they are brought to the attention or to be put on the agenda which has not been the case of course united nations followed the situation very closely and we are very much worried about a dire humanitarian see to what why do you think it hasn't been put on the agenda what stopped at least the general assembly coming out and discussing gets and maybe even suggesting that this should then go to the security council is it because saudi money or the p.r. is so well functional that it prevents countries from going to the general assembly it's not my role to speculate and the president of the general assembly i to

protect the dignity and integrity of the united nations general assembly and also to respect the division of responsibilities between and among different un bodies and as i said the general assembly of course according to the charter can deal with any matter but issues that have directly to do with it peace and security should be addressed primarily by the u.n. security council the war in syria iraq afghanistan to name just a few years forced hundreds of thousands if not millions of people to flee their homes risking their lives just to get to safety this is been going on for several years now you yourself have been very vocal about this issue and despite the fact that this is been going on for years we still see video of those crammed inflatable car we call them boats you know rubber dinghies essentially sinking in the middle of the sea we still see the videos and pictures of the children washed up to the shore why is this problem not been solved so now it's an irony that big this is

a global phenomenon as it is we do not have a single international convention or framework addressing this issue. of migration and this is exactly what we are doing right now at the united nations general assembly we are working on and other option of the first ever international document called global compact for safe orderly and regular migration and the name already indicates what is the purpose to limit the unsafe disorderly and irregular migration and to try to establish rules so that people move out of choice and out of need and when they are on the move their rights are protected and they the dignity is protected but after this phenomenon of refugees essentially feeling that they have more chance to survive in the midst of the seas without any kind of proper vessel to take them to across the waters then if they stay at home that despite all of this increase over the past couple of years that the best the united

nations can do is come up with none legally binding document you see how this is something maybe that makes people lose faith in the united nations no i don't think so united nations is here to set a global standard and to be a global leader and we need to help to address the global phenomenon and to help the member states to turn this or transform into their national legislation migration. well in recent years might that migration has been i'd identified with the with the people who are crossing the mediterranean and many of them groaning and losing their lives tragically and migration has many forms and of course people my good as a consequence of conflicts but also better governance and also climate change so we need one comprehensive if you want about the vast majority i think it's fair to say or not the vast majority but the majority at least this as a result or direct result of conflicts and wars and my question is true that

governments are failing the most vulnerable it's not just the united nations you're talking about governments that refuse to allow people in people to feel i don't think that it's due. united nations was fairly new it's the government of course and the conflicts and conflicts don't happen out of nothingness but the united nations is tasked with trying to solve these conflicts and that's why this is to do yes governments are feeling but there is a root cause true these which is the conflict itself so surely rather than trying to look at ways of convincing governments to allow more people and surely rather than to look at ways of how to protect these migrants from getting from one place to another we should look at the root cause of it which is the actual war in the conflict itself we are right now working very hard in the united nations to strengthen that all of the organization in preventing conflicts but the member states if they are not willing united nations cannot force them to do so. what we can do is to adopt the security council resolution and it's legally binding is it

always respected not necessarily so we really need to strengthen the atmosphere of zero tolerance against those who are violating international law who are not respecting the security council resolutions or general assembly resolution one of the main countries that was a source of migrants departing towards europe is libya now the united nations has imposed an arms embargo on libya where there's essentially been a civil war there going on for several years now and according to the un's own reports that was released in june i believe of two thousand and seventy and it says the united arab emirates has repeatedly broken essentially fueling the conflict even more and resulting in more and more migrants crossing over what can the general assembly do to prevent countries like the emirates from undermining the un and what is the use of the un if it can't even impose a simple arms embargo on a country like libya first of all i don't think that it's sort of the role of the

president of the general assembly to single out individual countries and member states i'm here to mobilize the international community as such. to solve problems and to solve conflicts libya but it's the general it's the un's own report. and any words should prompt us to address the situation and of course we are discussing these issues in the general assembly i don't think resolutions it's also the media that can help a lot because of some of the media reports about the un human treatment of people in in some places in libya. prompted us for to take action very quickly so i do believe that we should look at a decision as i would come on pain and i would come on problem rather than to point fingers at it each other some people say that while the world's conscience is represented in the general assembly the power is concentrated in the five permanent members of the security council arguably that was never more evident than during the last months votes on occupied jerusalem and the decision by president donald

trump to recognize it as the capital of israel you presided over a session for the world's biggest superpower a century threats from anyone who dared to vote against its will be taking names is what the us is embassador said at the time. what's your views on that session. i think the session was a message in itself. at many levels the outcome of the world was overwhelming you had to two thirds of the member states one hundred twenty eight voting in favor of the resolution nine countries voting against. chilled very strong support of the international committee of the majority of the international committee for what have been the principles of solving this issue namely the two state solution which would be negotiated by the israelis by the palestinians at the same time decisions show that we cannot take multilateralism for granted and therefore we all

have to stand up for it and we have to stand up for a struggle of the united nations because exactly as you said the general assembly is the global conscious it's the only platform where one hundred ninety three member states are presented and have equal rights and equal say you know despite being the global conscience it's ignored because on the one hand you have almost every country in the world votes to denounce the united states move in reform that jerusalem is not very end on the other hand we have the united states veto a motion at the security council essentially to spite almost every country in the world so how does that work i don't think it was ignored on the contrary i mean both the discussion in the security council and its outcome and then the discussion in the general assembly and its outcome what widely covered by the media all over the world the message was very powerful and the conclusions to be drawn by every member state by every government and sometimes these moral message is more powerful than a legally binding one but the reality of the matter is the world's biggest superpower

the united states will go ahead and move its embassy i mean every country is free to do what it once but will recognize occupied land as the capital of israel and there will be no sanctions imposed on the united states there will be no resolution passed by the united nations to essentially punish or to try and prevent the united states from. supporting the theft of land and the expulsion of of people. look i'm not a fortune teller we don't know what will happen a year two three five ten from now on what is clear is that the general assembly and the two thirds majority of member states expressed themselves clearly on this matter and i think this disability message will not go unnoticed do you think that the two state solution as adopted by the united nations is viable after what has happened. and do you fear that the. approach to try and

find some sort of political resolution to what is one of the oldest conflicts ongoing conflicts in the world that this is still an option on the table after what the united states has done the two state solution is the only solution we support is the only solution that has been discussed the only solution that is clearly been negotiated and has a strong support of do not have nations and other international organizations yes we are struggling now to get the process back on track but i've never been clear for how can there be one went without jerusalem. jerusalem is part of the negotiation process do so and status of jerusalem should be negotiated directly between the parties and it's part of the overall package and we need to support this and as secretary general until you get there are said more than once there is no plan b. so we only have one plan which is two state solution no one has ever presented any other solution and no one has ever proved that any other solution would be better

the general assembly set up one of the un's most important agencies to deal with palestinian refugees namely the relief and works agency or iraq as it's known is responsible for schooling medicating and even feeding millions of internally displaced palestinians and those that are refugees in jordan lebanon and syria now the united states is now threatening to cuts funding for iran fifty percent over his budget actually comes from the u.s. that means that hundreds of thousands of people will be out without medicine or possibly even food and schooling. what's going to happen to this agency the agency will continue operating and providing good services on the ground and. not to interrupt but according to chris gunness was the spokesperson for and according to the jordanian authorities will host millions of refugees or it's seriously under threat if this funding is cuts. it is if the funding is cut i sincerely believe that the funding will be found and there will be other countries that will

provide or increase their voluntary contributions do you think the united states could still present itself as an honest broker as a claims in the palestinian issue if after recognizing illegal occupied as israel's cops on the cutting funding for palestinian refugees the most vulnerable of people it could still be seen as a this is for the parties involved to decide but you're a diplomat you should i mean you're have i given my answer i mean. for as long as they are accept accepted by the parties involved will take away some of you were promised and this is a hypothetical question i don't answer hypothetical questions ok let's let's move on to another another issue and that's the iranian nuclear deal again the united states is heavily involved and has been seen as a maybe playing and negative role since president donald trump took office it's now under threat according to some people he's saying he wants to pull the rug on the whole deal what's your take on the on the iran deal do you think it's going to

survive iran deal is a good deal and it's a victory of diplomacy and victory of dialogue and this is a prove that you can solve very sits difficult and sensitive questions through patients through negotiation through that look and really is more than a deal it's a security council resolution and it's a multilateral agreement so. i do hold that united states will not pull out from the deal. in case they do the deal continues for as long as the other parties. are in their commitments on the deal and i really hope that this will happen and we have or other agreements such as the climate agreement from paris. the united states decided to withdraw from but the rest of the international committee made it very clear that we stand by our commitments and we will continue getting all our responsibilities you don't find it peculiar that maybe. wald's superpower is essentially trying to get self into a pariah i believe in diplomacy i believe in dialogue and i really believe that the

best way we can solve problems is that we when we talk about it if you pull yourself out of the process you lose the ability to influence the process at the same time the process it will go on with the result obviously it's a great loss to the processes when the united states are not part of it and i really hope that these different decisions are temporarily and that the united states will come back to the negotiating table well. there's another nuclear. threat that is the issue of north korea there has been some talks that have taken place between north and south over the past couple of weeks admittedly they were about the winter olympics but many people felt and coverage particularly has that came the same time where we had talk of nuclear buttons and desks and whose was bigger and the drums of war essentially beating like we've never heard before and that's something that should be worrying do you think that there is a real threat to some sort of a conflict in the korean peninsula honestly i really believe that we are now seeing

a very positive momentum compared to the situation we were in a couple of months back when that i thought it was very tough and on the verge of. switching from war of words into something much worse right now we see and i look right now we see a concrete outcome of this dialogue which is the agreement for the two koreas to to be presented at the olympics under one flag and their willingness to talk and to negotiate so this is a very positive momentum which we all of us we have to still supported the north korean diplomats that are represented in the united nations you speak to them what is it that they want what do they tell you i mean regular contact with north korean diplomats at the u.n. . and using these contacts to try to calm down the situation and to what help restart the positive therefore i don't want to and then to read by giving any judgment that does not know not necessarily about this conflict just generally generally speaking is there a sense of what project the korean leadership has for for north korea or what they

how they would like the wall to see them i do have the opportunity to hear from them about it but i don't think again that i should be the spokesman for for the p.r. kate's you are to ask them or let's really hope that as a consequence of these positive momentum that we are seeing right now the presence of the olympic games we will hear more and we will hear more good news but let's stay in the region there for a little bit and. one of the more shocking conflicts or speak or at least from from an image perspective has been what's been taking place in myanmar burma but we haven't seen the general assembly. so active and so vocal in terms of the plight of the of the ring of muslims. i don't think so on this issue has been. very widely present in the general assembly as discussions and debates including during the the general debate in september it was one of the most frequent

frequently mentioned issue of the myanmar leask situation is very much on the agenda of the united nations is decide who to go that has been dealing with it and adopted several resolutions right now. we are in the process of adopting a special representative. of the secretary general for myanmar that have been many contacts many visits and we have also seen positive results we have seen commitments by the government of myanmar to take these people beg of course we have seen commitments to address the humanitarian situation but we have to be very clear and very tough when it comes to prevent suffering of innocent people and at the same time we have to be. good diplomats in addressing the the causes of the situation and trying and helping the parties to solve it i want to talk about u.n. reform here ok for many years we've had many different leaders leaders talk about how the united nations need to reform and to be honest if you were to take a poll of just any streets meet in the arab world or europe or other countries most

people particularly in the developing world that suffer most will tell you the united nations does not represent them how does that work why is there no greater push to do away with this idea and to reform the united nations. first of all the united nations is the best we have and second the process of reform is going on there is a general understanding that the composition of the security council as it stands now does not represent the realities of the twenty first century these are the realities of one thousand nine hundred five and the process is happening is happening in the general assembly is taking place also now under my presidency and i am i made it very clear that i want to see a real process a real debate bringing the parties and the position of parties closer together because there are opposing views of different countries or groups of countries. but it has been clearly identified that among the issues that need to be addressed as a part of the reform process the right of veto is one of these issues so it's

a process and again. we can go as far and as fast as the member states they are willing to but in the general assembly there is no veto in general assembly everybody's equal what is your message for two thousand and eighteen with so many different conflicts going on around the world how the united nations. holistically can approach conflict resolution in what seems to be a very very troubling time for millions of people around the world and i want the year two thousand and eighteen to be a year when we are successful in preventing conflicts we are working on it very hard in the united nations and i really hope that we will be able to say at the end of this year that has been a better year than many years before and that we have been able to save people's life and we have been able to save a values and monies by preventing it for summer stuff like chuck president of the u.n. general assembly thank you very much for talking to al jazeera thank you but if you see.

this live. it is live or treat. their lives just listing it all this time on al-jazeera. and then reported well on. u.s. and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to for the dry riverbed like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country have

been truly. unable to escape the war. on the stand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera. argument.

in two thousand and eight al-jazeera documented a groundbreaking school. preparing some of india's poorest children for entry into its toughest universities. ten years on we return to see how the students and the skiing a helping change the face of india. super thirty at this time around is there. a u.s. government shutdown as a start about now after senators block plans to avoid it happening. hello i'm daryn jordan.