initial efforts to find the us a man airlines jet which crashed into a mountain range on sunday thoughts have gone down in heavy fog iran's president hassan rouhani has ordered an investigation into the accident which killed sixty five people and in turn a report released by oxfam has revealed that three of its workers threatened witnesses during an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct during an aid mission in haiti u.s. president charms facing increasing calls to act after a group of russians was accused of meddling in the twenty sixteen presidential election and five of several tweets rejecting accusations his campaign colluded with moscow the court of arbitration for sport has charged a russian curling medalist with doping alexander crucial need ski won bronze with these wife in mixed doubles curling at the winter games is said to have tested positive for the banned substance smell dhoni i'm the russian curling federation president says it is possible rival russian athletes or political enemies spites

crucial in its food or drink or the headlines up front is up next. on counting the cost will fall to i.m.f. chief christine lagarde about how the economic model is changing here in the middle east can ireland break regs that find out how the emerald isle is caught in the middle of a big round between the u.k. and the e.u. the year of the dog in china counting the cost at this time on or does either. when the arab spring protests swept through the middle east seven years ago demonstrators across the region were hoping for democratic reforms and even the overthrow of local dust spots but is war torn libya really a better place now without its brutal dictator colonel gaddafi and out of bahrain become the forgotten revolution and up from special.

libya remains a mess the country continues to grapple with civil war humanitarian crises foreign interventions and the threat from i saw this week a panel of u.n. experts said a political solution in libya remains out of reach in the near future so looking back was the nato intervention in twenty eleven to topple colonel gadhafi in the midst of the arab spring a mistake will continued foreign intervention from outside powers bring more harm than good and who's to blame for the violence and chaos on the ground that's produced such a massive refugee crisis joining me to debate this a half and i'll go i'll call him mr arab news and former senior fellow at the atlantic council in washington d.c. and. former deputy prime minister of post gadhafi libya thank you both for joining me in the arena last of a given how many problems libya has right now political economic social security do you have any regrets about supporting the original nato led intervention in your

country in twenty eleven to topple gadhafi i think i think we are very expect expectations are much higher than they should be because when you have people been living under forty two years of oppression you don't expect those people to be able to make a better to become a democratic society in a few months and that's what has happened so what is going on today is really we are paying for the legacy of the regime so no regrets about not only allowed no i do not because maybe if the intervention that had been libyan. could have been killed thousands and thousands on the hands of gadhafi how for you were an opponent of gadhafi for a long time where do you stand on the intervention was it a mistake to get rid of gadhafi in the way that he was got rid of and everything we've seen since i think it is a huge mistake and i think both libyans and the world is paying for it consistently i disagree with most of on several issues one is that talking about and i was one of the opposition talking about his intolerance of any opposition was quite

a long time ago in terms of history it was in the late seventy's and eighty's we also on the world or you know can attest to this that could daffy's policies have changed dramatically over the last ten years so just secondly just to be clear than just to be clear for the sake of our viewers you're saying that gadhafi who was a brutal dictator brutalize his people for several decades it would be libya would be better off if he was still in power today without a question because without without a question because it was a civil war between two sides of libya and two thousand and eleven there were and still are significant tribal presence that is in support of gadhafi and loyalists and loyal to him the fact that nato and europe intervened on behalf of one side against another does not make it a revolution mostly because there was a revolution because it was a civil war and outside powers no it was a revolution differently because because those people who they want to the streets

in tripoli in benghazi at the beginning and then in tripoli in other cities they are really they coming out really against your pression that they have lived under the tyranny they have lived under for many many years i think the intervention by the united nation to need to is really to save the libyan lifes and the intervention really happened because of that would have been said that libya would be better off today under gadhafi as you are someone who was in the post gadhafi government what's your response to him though. it is it's not i mean clearly from one perspective can say it is it is better off because people they were living under oppression of some security but security that service does himself with the libyan people but no really we have taken several steps towards making the place but about again yes i mean security is not a great in libya notice it is improving slowly but it is not ideal in that sense but also the same time libyans have taken some steps that will not go back and that they were able to do some real elections complete you see you say you say not great

not ideal summer so you're kind of under playing how bad the situation is on the ground no you just dozens of different militia groups in different cities competing for power you have i saw turning up for a while running one of your services the making of gadhafi himself he is the one who took these criminals out of the to prison seventeen thousand of them he is the one who distributed weapons to everybody because he wanted to learn how to respond to that and this is the legacy of gadhafi unless it's easy to blame the outsiders i don't know. what gaddafi did seven years ago we're coming up on eight cannot be blamed for impunity you know as you infinity most of us had for decades he was in power for us it's only been thirty years in the grand scheme of history of our time to the defending at the time but the same argument that they used to blame get that we can be used today to blame what happened in the last seven years let me also say that to most of us how are things improve for ordinary libyans have that experience i mean clearly people are far more free to express their opinions they are not i am

still trying to know i am in the united states if i go to you i'll be i'll disappear within twenty four hours so during thirty years of you stepped inside the country i would be how you do it's socio national in india for thirty one years and so i know that but to answer your question completely i am against that but once you have a government that is reforming and moving in the right direction it doesn't take a brain surgeon it's not get daffy who did it. it was the system around them that was improving and moving to the right direction so seven years would have been enough to see some results but what we did this is what we spent the last leg of our list of recommended i also thought it was one of the reasons he keeps challenging you saying everything is worse now you are deputy prime minister in a post-war government yes there supported the intervention in the war i did tell you tell your fellow libyan what's better in libya today what is the result what do what is better in libya today is that first a former libyan be able to start enjoying some of their freedoms yes that is the

conditions that we have today it is it is a legacy when we get there he was toppled there was no institutions in the country to be able to carry all of that you know little narrow militia yourself nobody did not my ministry they disagreed with your policy how much security and freedom of speech does that reflect no that's the truth i mean i have been kidnapped but that's never been to this case here it is kidnapped by a militia to settle things that the better off place of solace at least devotion to the cold snow it is because really i have been going to gadhafi for thirty some years ok and the changes of the death we did the deal and they are going to geneva because really they were started to lay the ground for his children to rule the government for the next fifty years the only army there it's the militias of his children they are not there is no real libyan army the irony is necessary it is a difference today for election so if gadhafi saved it that if he runs today for election all probability is his will that he will win the no evidence what is your

idea about quite a few monitored for example the social media and all of my blogs are able in libya watching the show might say it's easy to say in the u.s. for hours it was a horrible life living as roddick tattling in a matter of good are very high risk every little yes and out of it today but that of security economically politically liberal voters are actually trying to debate today is that the legacy of at afi or is that the fault of the peano feel that us is the fault of the people who led. what this are brazing a lot of them were from the gadhafi regime themselves mahmoud jabril. most of our d.g. among other ideally we all of these guys they are the ones who did not put libya on the right direction but i think you may develop most of it i mean first of all those people why they are doing that because those these institutions they were oppressing them for so long then when the arab revolutions started clearly defined or maybe they can it looks let me let me let me know what level they are the globalization let me ask you this outside powers have played

a big role in libya both the original western led intervention nato the united states britain france but also today egypt the u.a.e. the taking sides different militias with funding and arming militias which is what is the solution to that is no it is what it is is that the intervention from those countries really is the one which is causing the problems which going on and it is see it is when you were deputy prime minister what there was a lot of countries know that the time to was very different that was if i was there in the first year or so you know it took support from any outside no not really but never never did and that time it was a of say the much better time because really there was some progress has to be taking place unfortunately i think what happens later on when the country becoming stable those countries clearly they have different agendas for it because first of all they want to end anything called the arab revolutions because those regimes in these countries they are dictators and they are afraid of a country which can be democratic can be prosperous which was and also wealthy which is libya so they have done everything to solve

a might be afraid that look what happens when a dictator falls it turns into a bass with all that and i can buy that but they're not exactly the can they are they are a loser in libya or they are the ones who they have contributed to this mess and they are still funding it and today i mean if you look at the surely you can see the point of it if libya were left to the libyan still for libyan people it would be in a much better place again you are giving a pass to other peoples and cause problems two things one is yes the disco. jews have never interfered with the libyan government directly but the problem is they've always interviewed with militias that sources all of us did interview i will be available to work second i want to make my second point you cannot blame other countries i mean this is the problem with all the supporters of this they blame gadhafi they blame foreigners they blame qatar and the u.a.e. and others they blame the failure of the un you cannot build

a state or a country on that basis you have to take responsibility and realize that the failure of the fundamentally a is a libya ok hold on but that's good rhetoric but you yourself are admitting that outside countries are supporting different militias the president united states form barack obama has admitted on the record one of my greatest mistakes if not the biggest thing was not planning for the aftermath of libya which has the u.s. plan better know how the outside power status would only be a better place not only job sorry for the ones who caused the war they came later telling them they were no from their point of view they are supporting their own interests and supporting that happened everywhere in lebanon on in iraq everywhere there than a video of saying for a political leadership that we are blaming everybody else instead of taking our own initiatives to build their state is israel and most of us if the if you are blaming outside powers doesn't that mean basically libya will be messed up for a long time to come to those outside powers are going anywhere no i mean party

going to do that not only partially blaming the outside world but clearly we as libyans we should be responsible for this and this is the problem that we have when people live under dictator who throaty years they have no room for dialogue there is no room for any other opinion this is what you have you have people who have this culture the culture of oppression and they found themselves in a position now they are not willing to talk to women and when you're essentially mention color. a lot of people in the west have this view of arabs can't do democracy or you need to have a strongman culture and in a country like libya it doesn't help that there's this guy khalifa haftar former general who's now running a bunch of militias who was accused of being a former cia asset cuse to being an m.r.i. said accused of war crimes he seems to have a lot of power and influence in a section of the country is that where libya is heading back towards the arms of another dictator another general and i think liberals they would never accept another dictator they would never accept another military rule force mr hope to

have that that you mention he will support the egyptians that the iraqis buy you money and weapons because they want to make sure that will never get out of the what's your bill been someone like him as i call it hourly has to be contained and whole and annoyed right now right now there is there is there is a divided nations going for an election for the next quarter this the end of the year. and you have said when should the united nations this week a panel of u.n. experts said and i quote the political solution in libya remains out of reach in the near future do you disagree with them that clearly i partially agree with them yes that would be a very difficult for us to be able to get out of this mess because we liberals have to realize that the supportability it is in it is a lifetime opportunity for the country to be able to take it forward and i think we are responsible for for getting together and being able to reconsolidate be able to build the country and of course we expect from the international to stop for the population to stay remain silent for forty two years does not mean that they don't

take a blame god at the focus has to be for any statesman to move the country forward the idea that you don't to mr about the future no i am not because that doesn't even the election nonsense libya had a number of elections it produced nothing but division your nine know that sometimes elections in these kind of mass and these are kind of societies that don't have any institutions create also world wars last word to most of your optimist yes i know. again look at what's going on is a natural progression that one which we go to how it was in libya. three weeks ago i was there and i was driving through all of the horde city of tripoli as well there is a lot improve and security wise if you. will you go there to visit and then to let you know that it is secure in order why don't you both arrange a joint visit we'll have to leave because we're out of time thank you both for joining me on that front. it's been seven

years since the arab spring protests broke out in the gulf of bahrain with thousands of demonstrators at the pole roundabout in the capital manama initially calling for reforms and eventually demanding the ruling royal family step down human rights groups say the barony government continues to violently crackdown on dissent and lock up political prisoners so what's the future for the country's protestors joining me to discuss this is maria about her amy activist in exile an advisor to the gulf center for human rights who's been sentenced to prison in absentia by the barony authorities and whose father is currently serving a life sentence there and has been called a prisoner of conscience by amnesty international maria thanks for coming on up front. you called the february twenty levon uprising in bahrain an inconvenient revolution for the arab world and for the international community what did you mean by that well what i meant is that because of her hands geo political importance being you know between saudi arabia and iran and hosting the flame to now also a base for the united kingdom there are

a lot of interests that are based in where and you know when we took to the streets in two thousand and eleven we knew that we weren't just up against the bahamian government but rather the sixty's you see countries plus their allies the united kingdom and the united states and i think to the most part we've been proven correct in that you know the united kingdom the united states continue to sell arms to the bahraini government and they continue to some extent to prop up the monarchy and behind a lot of the deck is stacked against you when you were on the show two years ago and twenty sixteen you said you wouldn't call. but here in the arab spring protests a quote failed uprising you said change would happen and it would happen either through a very violent situation coming about because of the repression or international pressure forcing the government to quote do the right thing neither of those things have happened in the intervening period do you now except with you like your long has been a failure of the uprising no i don't because if you look at wednesday the fourteenth of february the seventh year anniversary of the behind uprising and the amount of protests that happened around the country i think is even more evidence that the

people of but i will continue to protest until they reach their demands for civil and political rights that being said because of the nature of the situation in the region but also internationally of course it's going to take time when i said that you know there's going to be a part of violence or a part of reform that's the path we're on behind as best described as a pressure cooker because things will turn you know more violent if we continue down this path but there is still an opportunity for reforms it's just about whether that international pressure happens or not just to be clear for the sake of our viewers you've been accused by the bahraini government you and your family of being violent people supporters of terrorism charge all sorts of accusations are against you charges thrown against you what is your position on violence i am believe in nonviolence as a methodology for change political and social change let me put it this way even when i was being assaulted by four police officers in the airport and behind during my arrest i did not lift a finger to defend myself so even when i'm being attacked i believe that nonviolence is

a way of regaining control of the situation and not being reactive and you mentioned a demand for civil and political rights going on right now on the anniversary of the revolution of the protests this week just to be clear again what are the goals of the protesters in bahrain is it just political reform more freedom all right or is it a revolution against the monarchy a regime change well as you stated in the beginning when people took to the streets it was about the king fulfilling the. says that he made in two thousand and one which was a constitutional monarchy nothing that has happened since then has led us to a part of concert hall monitor on the contrary he unilaterally change the constitution placed himself above the constitution and gave us a parliament as knowledge a lot of our monitoring powers and so when people took to the streets they were just demanding that he fulfill his promises it was after they started shooting and killing unarmed protesters that the demand shifted from being just about the constitution to demanding the stepping down of the ruling for berenice or your third we offered reforms in twenty eleven we offered reforms again in twenty

fourteen the opposition boycotted any kind of elections or participation in the political process it's the opposition who walked away from dialogue from reform from working together and all you have to do is look at the facts on the ground to know that there is absolutely no truth and that first of all it will fall on lot have been disbanded the largest to opposition societies in the country we have a parliamentary election coming up later this year with no opposition to run in the elections but even let's talk about the elections themselves the gerrymandering and behave puts even texas to shame where in the opposition can receive up to sixty percent of the boat vote but only eighteen out of forty seats of parliament and those are all fair points just on twenty fourteen was it looking back with the benefit of hindsight was it a mistake for the opposition to. so i'm not a politician myself but i do understand that you know when one will fall in love and so on came out and said that they were not going to participate in the elections to me it makes sense because if they had part spirited they would have lost complete credibility amongst the communities that they're supposed to serve

there was a complete credibility amongst the people of bahrain but even taking him beyond that for them to take part in an election that was a sham that would have only served to you know give the government the legitimacy it was seeking internationally you mention that the bahraini people who have been protesting against the government demonstrating is to go not just against the ruling rule family but it up against the united states government which supports that ruling government has the election of donald trump as president of the. u.s. given you cause for optimism or pessimism has it made things better or worse for the people of bettering the situation i was definitely gone and gotten worse i mean what we're looking at in two thousand and seventeen and me forty eight hours after president trump met with the king of bahrain and said there will no longer be a strain on us behind relations five people were killed extrajudicial killed and up to three hundred people were arrested on the same day that's more than we had even in two thousand and eleven but on the other hand the gulf monarchies love president trump and so he has

a lot more sway with them than obama which means that he can also influence the situation in ways that the obama administration could not what evidence is there that he wants to influence the situation in a way that you would support that is exactly the question there is an understanding that there needs to be reform and behind that the situation has continued to deteriorate whether we're looking at the number of political prisoners whether we're looking at the use of torture by the military now as well as the ministry of interior and so on so there is that understanding the question is how do you build policy behind that understanding many people who look at the middle east today look at the region they see proxy wars being fought everywhere in the argument is that a lot of what goes on in the middle east is basically saudi arabia versus iran whether it's in yemen whether it's in syria whether it's in bahrain and a lot of people think the bahraini government claims that the protests in bahrain driven by iran it's all about iranian sponsorship a new involvement in provocation you have a shia majority country with a minority sunni ruling family and iran is basically stirring up the hornet's nest

there would you say to them well i think you know it's all you have to do is look up behind history to understand that behind the ruling family has been trying to paint brush the opposition as anything that is perceived as a threat to israel so for example you know to begin with are on also socialist that we all became communist that we all became iranian agents and now were terrorists there any agents are now apparently also hot body agents as well but i think iran getting involved in behind as a self-fulfilling prophecy. the more heavy handed the crackdown is the more iran speaks out saying that there's oppression and torture and behind and the more there's a failure from the west to do so the more the behind the people are going to find themselves in a position where they don't see any other way out or any other ally that iran is the best thing for but when of course it's not with a very government it's a cause of violence they point to of ember of last year when one of the main oil pipelines they say there was an explosion caused by terrorist sabotage links to iran where are you going to deny it obviously the behind government has been making

a lot of claims for a very long time way beyond two thousand and eleven they've been talking about many terrorist cells now the question is why isn't the behind government refuses to allow any form of independent investigation to back up their claims that's where i place the question mark i'm not saying it's not happening at all i don't know if it is because i don't have access to that information how much of this is sectarian you've said on the record in the past you've called battery in it said the apartheid regime because of its discrimination against she is there you've attacked the bahraini military and compared some of its rhetoric to. rhetoric the bahraini government says that's absurd with one of the most secular liberal governments in the region when you're looking at the situation but i'm from a sectarian viewpoint the sectarian you know language that's being used the discourse is coming from the government the basically sectarianism is a tool that's being used to divide and conquer that's the whole purpose of it have they been successful in actually creating sectarian violence in the country no they have not because the bahamian people generally from you know its origin have always been a very peaceful very friendly society the sun is and she has

a like you will not just a human rights activist you're someone who's actually personally deeply affected by all of this your father is currently serving a life sentence in bahrain trials a lot of human rights group criticized as unfair unjust he's been on hunger strikes you and your sister both had to leave her reign after being detained charged with crimes there and you've basically been campaigning on the issue of bahrain and for your family and for others i think since the age of twenty two. how hard is it to keep carrying on like this when the odds of clearly so start to get to you well i think you know change is going to come and some are just a matter of time given the economic shift that's happening that climate change and the way that it's going to affect the middle east and all of these changes that we're witnessing right now plus you know the changes happening in saudi arabia at the current the current time i think it is becoming more and more evident that is just a matter of time before things change as just about how that change is going to come about and i really hope that it's not going to be by everything exploding into

violence where we can no longer listen to forget about it exactly. thanks for joining me from thank you that's our show outfront will be back next week. for. the nature as it breaks the u.s. cut the funding has cemented the feeling that the u.s.

is the problem and it's picked the israeli. coverage. negotiations are ongoing to secure the release of the girls and hundreds of others . from around the world three decades on chileans are still thinking about abuses but this time those committed by the church. more than a century ago britain and france made a secret deal to divide the middle east between them now we can draw him. but what were the last in your facts of this agreement there's a regional so to speak oh it's not those borders were drawn. with consulting the people got to live with the. psychs pekoe lines in the sand at this time on al-jazeera. the scene for us where they're online what is american sign in yemen that peace is possible but it never

happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on set there are people that are choosing between buying medication and eating basis is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who is an activist and has posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. defending the board a u.s. backed kurdish fighters in syria say government forces will join them to stop the turkish offensive in a free.