interest syria will be met by force no wonder modi has made the first official visit by an indian prime minister to the palestinian territory he met the palestinian president mahmoud abbas the trip to the west bank part of a three nation tour to strengthen ties with the middle east earlier he laid a wreath on the tomb of former palestinian leader yasser arafat's north korea's leader kim goldman has extended a rare invitation to the south korean president mungy him to visit pyongyang moon hosted kim sr for talks in seoul the sidelines of the winter olympics at least nineteen people have been killed in a double decker bus toppled over in hong kong witnesses say the bus was going much faster than usual. one of the most controversial public figures in northern ireland is retiring in fein leader gerry adams is being replaced by mary lou mcdonald he was considered the spokesman for the irish republican army in its thirty year was when british rule of northern ireland since then these played a pivotal part in the peace process those are your headlines the news continues

after upfront stay with us here announcer zero. after you. he's been called one of the most wanted political fugitives of twenty nine team that's former georgian president mikheil saakashvili faces possible extradition to his home country from his new country ukraine i'll ask him if he's prepared for life behind bars and later i'll talk to the somali refugee turned u.s. politician about life in trump's america.

really thanks for joining me up front you were twice as president of georgia and govern there for nine years and yet you're now a wanted man in georgia you've gone from president to fugitive how does it feel. i mean i finished my presidential. record well we you know georgia has been the most. transformation case in this part of the world but then we had the government out there peaceful transition of course there were peaceful transition in this region which from the very beginning said our main one of main goals is to indict secretary going no matter what so in the end they said let us look for at least something a plan and they gave me a sentence for presidential pardon for pardoning prisoners well that's the only case in more than a world where the president's right not for corruption not for other abuses but for

right hold on pardon although it was in the pardon it was the cover up that they alleged was associated with the pardon but just for the benefit of our global audience you could face up to eleven years in prison in georgia for multiple charges dating about your presidency there including abuse of power you've already been sentenced to three years behind bars earlier this week an appeals court in ukraine rejected your request for protection against extradition to georgia you're in ukraine right now it does look like you're on your way to prison doesn't it regardless of what how how accurate you think the charges are i have to say nobody in georgia is expecting the georgian government despite their formal and nels meant are very scared that if i ever get extradited ga then there will be just wiped out by an epic populace we are where their present government is extremely unpopular and i am a creator of more than georgia state we have very strong support among the people but also when you say you have look you say you have a lot of support amongst the georgian people will come but not

a moment before we do just to be clear is it correct to say that as of now as of today this week you are currently a stateless person because you gave up your georgian citizenship in twenty fifteen to pursue a career in politics in ukraine and then last july you were stripped of ukrainian citizenship for allegedly providing false information on your registration form so you will know the ukrainian or georgian right now. this person but. in the. courts and so on going to get bites at the back of course present legal system in ukraine there's a slim possibility i can do that because the president certainly can control the courts and for him it's a very very important but you know you have to wonder if you've had this big rally you mention the president you had this big round with president poroshenko of ukraine who is a former friend and ally of yours but just on this issue of you being in ukraine you're sitting in front of a ukrainian flag what made you a former president of one country georgia move to another country ukraine and try

and become prime minister of that country many would say that's pretty unpatriotic of the former president of georgia to do first of all there is sort of pressed him on the balloon there was such great historic figure was president the leader in american countries but on the other hand if ukraine fails if ukraine breaks up if russia ukraine the georgists which is ten times smaller we'll just might disappear from the map that's one big motivation i have second i already had spent thirteen years of my adult life in ukraine. not only participant of two ukraine and i don't ukraine revolutions or uprisings i was one of their organizers or a group of the first my done so i've been heavily invested emotionally in ukraine and i have strong links with this country and also i have people you say you have you say you have strong links with the country but ukrainians don't seem to support your poll last december by the international republican institute showed that seventy five percent of ukrainians three out of four people in that country had

either a somewhat whole very unfavorable view of you want to just move on and let more viable popular candidates run for office in ukraine you know popular look look look i mean first of all presence of ukraine according to sample is you know more unpopular second if you look at the poll numbers every politician is doing rather bad and that's the that's the political crisis in this country that basically the entire political class is hate your policy with calling it. one percent at the end of last year ukrainian party the movement a new force is the one that's here at present that is really going on. between one and seven and eight percent depending on the course their current president's party is not falling much better either the problem is that our political spectrum needs to reshuffle and needs to be changed and that's exactly what we are to stand up for the idea of modernized democratic european crane with open economy all the guards free of corruption because corruption is killing the economy and if you are condom is being killed it does. it will just disappear or whole entire region will become

amuse you said earlier in the interview that you said earlier in the interview that the criminal charges against you in georgia oral politically motivated they're made up and you also face criminal charges in ukraine where you are right now in fact you were supposed to come to a studio to do this interview but i believe you are so worried about being arrested we've had to do this via skype is it a problem for you that wherever you go for the georgia ukraine you're being accused of crimes the ukrainians don't want to arrest me to just try me i told them if you want to try me try me because there is no evidence of any crime so commit you know they don't want to try me they want to expel me from the country they want to get rid of me and that's entirely different game and the reason why they want to get through don't mean is that because they don't have a real case against me because i really. crossed the all the guards that want for plunder to come to the country support i should the wealthiest country in europe because of resources and the right notes poorest country in europe to do what g.d.p. was because someone oligarchs whole hostages the entire wealth of the country and

their whole goal so there i am there and they regard me as their main enemy so you say you are the enemy of the all agog and yet you quit as governor of the corruption ridden odessa region in southern ukraine after just eighteen months and twenty sixteen without really making any dent in reducing that corruption or going after that oligarchy and in fact back in georgia one of the main charges against you relates to massive embezzlement of public funds by you. well wait a minute let's go to jordan not public funds but presidential office expresses the fact that they can fight any personal benefit from me no personal accounts no personal wealth which is extremely rare in this region where everybody still like everybody else and we were the only case where absolute president had zero i can with the same amount of wealth or whatever s.s.n. to the left with the same ones i've never been reached and i'm not rich no i mean record that i would be for presidents so we get you all so innocent why not go back to georgia and make the case to your making to me in

a court in your own foreign country would you run for nine years. it was european court of human rights york they used preliminary detention for the purpose of a former mikhail saakashvili do you know how old it is to hear you quoting the e.c. h.r. against your own country's court system when you were president for nine years they criticize you and the court system you locked up hundreds of people and you did have a problem with the georgian court system then. you looked up your own defense minister on charges of money laundering extortion and abuse of power and your court never supported this case and supported the government first or second yes i'm proud that we locked up corrupt officials or my own government when i became president the country was absolutely corrupt and it wasn't there when i finished my presidency said but it went up eleven times economy went up four times georgia became the best place to do business in the world georgia is number eight sixteen in terms of economic freedom index when you with respect that's nothing to do with what i asked

about the judicial system and it's all about transparency it's all about government it's all about the legal system in fact our judiciary is not ideal and right now being controlled controlled control what's the biggest private goal of shareholder oppression gus brooks with a clear goal to jail me so the fact is that he had clear goal to put me in pretty limited pension of course many years we document trying me because this whole trial and i understand your argument all i'm asking is do you understand anyone watching this interview might find it odd that when you're accused of corruption by a georgian court you say it's all biased but when you accuse others of corruption you look them up and you were criticized by human rights groups earlier the united states department said the charges were biased you know your opinion it's the same consulate they also criticize your arrests of people you were criticised by the e c h r m twenty eleven when you were president you were criticized by human rights watch you were criticized by canadian various groups. oh so what if we put him into a hypocrite i won't. or no i don't accept this that's what many would say looking

at the double standard. should select their words more carefully because world bank wrote the loan wrote the book when it said that the only case of successful transformational world work in the ga was world number one for former reformist country ok under the i'm not i've been questioned you told me a lot of people we locked up criminals georgia that was one of the most criminal in the world you say you long to work out you said you locked up criminals you say you locked up the criminals right and i see gee the international crisis group said they were worried about your increasingly authoritarian behavior human rights watch said your government forces use violent excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations in the capital the international committee to protect journalists pointed out you shut down two television channels these are not all criminals because i could really or not. there was one really went because they were going to influence money and there. are of course were not ideal and we couldn't have turned

georgia into a liberal democracy but non-existing country was turned into the best way for example in eurasia no country no country in gross gross national so well in one year's time and this is a well known fact that's why i was in the why did you create that's why we feel strong support among the best young people among young reporters among well educated ukraine as well as georgia that's how i feel if you mention that i'm a putin you're best known in the west in the wider world for being president of georgia in two thousand and eight when your then country went to war with russia and in just five days nearly a thousand people died more than one hundred thousand people were displaced an exhaustive one thousand page report commissioned by the european union published in two thousand and nine ultimately blamed georgia they blamed you not russia will putin for having started that war many would say therefore you have blood on your hands. it's totally never blown doesn't especially not in iraq what they said is that russian troops were first to enter georgian territory and indeed our military

response to other countries troops entering my territory or territory was regarded with talk of war with respect to the law they didn't say that a little let me i've got the report quotes here they said it was georgia this is the diplomat who led the investigation it was georgia which triggered off the war when attacked in south ossetia with heavy artillery it could not be verified that russia was on the verge of a major attack as you claimed that's what the report said. before read it very carefully they said russian troops where we come from there all of the georgian territory and then what you're court is well but when psycho is well the quote says it was georgia which triggered off the war that's you you triggered a war that killed almost a thousand people in order to enter it when they enter your response i would say that any president who doesn't respond to a foreign army is a traitor and a president who doesn't use military force when you are being get there he said straight the report says you overplayed your hand and you acted in the heat of the moment with heavy artillery or blood stake hundred times smaller country was

invaded by a hundred times bigger. enemy we were attacked one by two hundred russian planes we were attacked by hundreds of people army and you didn't want us to human the water to suck in the i'm not mean i'm quoting that easy i'm quoting an evil commission report which says open hostilities began with a large scale georgian military operation the question is whether it was justifiable on the international law it was not the report is not my words because i was really just about an independent report commissioned by the e.u. . we have all are well meaning that we wasn't one expert i mean several several as well on that we were responding and sometimes it is also people who like to blame the weekend when you don't want to say well we can behaviors well i'm sorry we were not. leave the swiss diplomat who led the investigation was biased against georgia i believe that the facts are very stubborn we weren't there we were attacked you cannot be blamed for being attacked we were attacked and this is the fact that we

protect our summer to they went towards our capital they couldn't get our capital because united states intervened because our army was here or because six president leaders of european countries came and stood under the russian bombardment we do our people in this is just to be clear in their country just a big no way a very just to be good no one on this show or in this interview is defending the russians of putin and the report criticizes russia very heavily you're right about that but it does say that you started the war in defiance of international law you can reject that conclusion but that's what the report says don't shoot the messenger i would say. and then somebody initial i'm sort of but i'm international i mean you were a lawyer ok right now just before we finish right now you have not the ukrainian nor georgian citizenship so what's next for you because i can tell you we're going to be a year from now two years from now i'll be fighting together with people of ukraine and georgia against. europe or liberation of our country from russian that missile

program hostile armies but as well as from domestic oligarchs and corrupt elements that seize power in our countries and our prospects for our population i think ukraine will become superpower of europe and georgia will be again once again be shining example of success and the reports world wide as it was under my bed because i really thank you for joining me on that front. hers is a remarkable journey from a refugee camp in africa to a state legislature in the united states in twenty sixteen ilhan almost became the country's first elected somali american lawmaker last year time magazine put her on the front cover calling out one of the women who are changing the world so does the future of the u.s. look more like her. trump she joins me know will have a thanks for coming on up front you were elected aged just thirty three to the minnesota house of representatives in the number twenty six team. that was of

course the same donald trump was elected president of the u.s. how did you feel it was a happy for you a sob a bit of both i think was bittersweet i joked with my campaign staff and campaign supporters that we stayed a little too long at our party. because we were still out of crying a lot of people who were upset but when the reporters asked me how i was feeling i told them that i was actually optimistic and hopeful because i believed that this was going to be the awakening of our nation people were going to. walk a walk in from their complacency and we were actually going to get to work in not only resisting but reshaping and restoring this country's promise and within just a few days of taking office president brought in his infamous travel by the muslim by. not just a muslim immigrant to the united states you're a former muslim or a few gee who's from one of the countries on the banned list somalia so do you

think president doesn't want people like you in the country because he says it's not personal it's national security. i mean i think you know if if if we were really being honest about what could be masquerade as. national security issue we know that no one from any of these countries is ever posed a threat within this country and so we know that for for him and his supporters this is just political football and they're using. our communities and people who look like me as as leverage to talk about him and his supporters more than a million people in your. of minnesota voted for trump you only lost upstate i think by a percentage point and the horse do you feel cut off disconnected from a lot of your own constituents who clearly don't see trump's islamophobia immigrant

rhetoric as disqualifying i mean i think what we are seeing in minnesota is people actually coming to terms with the kind of rhetoric that the thought was just that rhetoric. now actually becoming policy i don't think a lot of minutes so and sent a lot of the people in this country actually thought that he would implement the food it because there was that economic anxiety they believed this guy was going to be part of negotiating this country into a better election alex situation you with economic cultural racial anxiety yes i don't feel the love of a try i don't think a lot of people understood that the what the ones the people that he was talking about the policies that he was talking about on the campaign trail were going to have an effect on on the members of their community the people that they have grown

to appreciate to be part of their communities when you hear reports of your president referring to countries in africa including your own country of birth somalia. whole country do you think that makes him a racist is donald trump a racist in your view. i mean i think there isn't a debate about whether. trump is a racist i think he he he fits into every every ism. what is important is for people to actually understand the implication. of those kind of descriptions that he attaches to countries. in africa in he in el salvador when we are having a conversation about what will ultimately make our country safe it is about showing strong and principled leadership it's about. being the country

that has been known to foster open and inclusive society you so there's no debate about whether trump cirrhosis a lot of people would agree with you or not and in fact there's been an explosion in the number of muslim far right white nationalist groups in the u.s. over the past couple of years your own state of minnesota experience a record number of muslim incidents in twenty sixteen you yourself i believe just a few weeks after election victory i think got a cab driver called you filthy and threatened to remove you his job how much do you hold trump on the rise of trump responsible for this explosion of u.s. islamophobia. oh i would actually come very short of holding them exclusively responsible for for their rights i think when you demonize. and they humanize it is easy for people to to to to commit acts of violence

against those those individuals because they no longer see them as as a person as someone who who has feelings was worthy of respect and i think that is where we are moving away from the idea that we are supposed to be a welcoming nation a lot of conservatives in particular would say that the rise in islamophobia is a result of hate but of fear a legitimate fear of quote unquote just terrorism whether it's for some bernadino the recent truck attack in new york what do you say to them. i would say our country should be more fearful. of weight man across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country and so if fear was the driving force of policies to keep america safe americans safe inside of this country we should be profiling monitoring.

and creating policies to fight the radicalization of weight men but most of the funding and attention even on the obama or as he went towards muslim communities one of those communities in minnesota the somali american community in minnesota where i think over the past few years more than twenty young somali americans have left to go and fight for. one of these quote unquote jihad is groups abroad that's a real threat obviously no one's pretending it's not a threat so what do you do about it but i mean i think like i said the focus of our. policies should should be about keeping americans safe keeping us domestically cif and and where we actually find a solution is looking at our foreign policy looking at how we are engaging

with. the members of these these communities and the kind of rhetoric like that is being spewed out of leaders within our city halls within our state capitals and within our nation's capitol some would say that's true there are some really bad rhetoric coming from politicians security leaders but also a lot about rhetoric coming from muslim community leaders him arms but. is not for . i think. both of those statements could be true and i hate and i think you know it just goes to show what happens when you have a segment within communities that are using fear and hate to more belies their base and it is it is important for us to actually have a conversation about what kind of communities we are trying to build and what this

nation actually stands for in an interview last year you said your campaign for state office was about more than new it was about shifting quote the narrative about what is possible for those outside of the u.s. we have a global audience watching who look at the current us president maybe think he defines to us now his anti immigrant minority muslim sentiment do you see you all story as a kind of counter-narrative to that are you personally the un to trump what i represent is is is an america that is still allows people to fulfill that american dream that you can come here at the age of twelve only knowing two phrases in english. have the opportunity to put yourself through school and all timid lead to feed forty four year income pent to win. a seat at the table now only representing people that look like you but

a district that has a seventy percent white population what i wanted people to know throughout my election was that this dream isn't closed off to people that the idea that a person of color or women could only win and run in districts that looked like them. was was was something that we needed to move away from a lot to learn thanks for joining me on that front thank you that's our show outfront will be back next week.

right. let's.

see. this is al jazeera and live from studio. welcome to the news and israeli jets what's been labeled an iranian drone. and a complicated mix in the middle east.