political ally when kesha has been voted in as vice president xi jinping is also being confirmed for a second term with unanimous support the national people's congress approves the government reshuffle at its annual meeting in beijing dozens of people have been killed in separate airstrikes in syria in rebel held eastern go to a market was hit leaving more than seventy people dead and activists say fifteen others died when turkish forces bombed the only functioning hospital in kurdish controlled a free south africa's former president jacob zuma is facing prosecution prosecution for corruption the charges against him include fraud record tearing and money laundering of a two point five billion dollars deal signed in the one nine hundred ninety s. zuma denies any wrongdoing. illegal applications been filed in australia against me and. she's in sydney as part of a special asean summit of southeast asian leaders lawyers are attempting to

prosecute her on charges of crimes against humanity in relation to the treatment of me and. those are the headlines talked to al-jazeera is up this is really an attack on itself is a lot of misunderstanding of what free speech is supposed to be about the context of hugely important setting the stage for a serious debate up front at this time on al-jazeera. the. political position in the mediterranean but it's been a big dispute. the republic of cyprus is controlled by greek cypriots and is recognized by the international community in fact it became a member of the european union in two thousand and four the northern part of the

island is ruled by the government of the self declared north in cyprus. it's recognized by turkey and guarded by its armed forces. the conflict has gone through many ups and downs but things escalated recently when the turkish navy blocked access to an italian drill ship in february the vessel was part of efforts to explore recently discovered gas fields on the southeastern tip of the island the heads of the e.u. backed the greek cypriot leader nikos anastasio address the european commission's president jean-claude juncker said he was strictly against the behavior of turkey's turkish president ordered on issued a warning to cyprus and foreign companies though not to infringe on what he calls turkey's sovereignty where do things go from here and this diplomacy the only way forward i'm sam is a than at the presidential palace in the casea this week the president of staff the others tells me he's ready to jump out of a television interview and begin peace talks if the turkish cypriot leader calls

him he also confirms u.s. energy giant eggs and mobile is on track to start exploration in the distant mediterranean sea and he says he's confident the u.s. knows how to protect its interests because i just i see how this president of the republic of cyprus talks to obviously the. president and the others thank you so much for talking to al jazeera the cyprus conflict is one of the longest one of the most frozen in history when will really unification talks begin when will you resume talks one was written to continue the deliberations from the stage they have been left during the ground on a conference. so while you are doing even if you will allow me what we need it's a much better preparation before going to such a conference every time we are failing to reach a settlement the disappointment of the people and the mistrust are increasing i

want to clarify something so what your foreign minister recently said that there can be no talks until the turkish side as he sees it stops blocking exploration in cypriot waters that is no longer a precondition be resuming talks now it is always it's not a precondition it's a matter of respecting the international you could not expect from a government to. continue the talks or to accept to start. a new round of negotiations when the other side is putting a precondition that before starting you have to accept that the. exploitation the exploration exploitation or whatever policy we are portraying as regards the. hydrocarbons we have to decide together we have to agree to a got a whole committee will decide. regards to licensing guys or gods with

whom we have to to whom we have to sell and all of these kind of things ok but if most of the turkish cypriot leader if he calls you today and says let's have talks would you accept given us ladies going to you and the ten to meet ok i understand you've actually extended a dinner invitation to him as he accepted is there a date for that is a hurdle you has accepted but we are waiting period so there's no date before twenty or so many days twenty five days i have convey the message that i'm ready to meet at any given moment with mr king in order a pleased. to have a talk to see where is we are standing where what we are planning for the future where we are going the unacceptable status quo for both communities is going to continue or we have to seat with i mean decisiveness to

see how we can proceed ok so why do it if you're willing to unfortunately since then i haven't received a clear answer when so everything is is pending you can g.'s he answers the day he's ready to. this is the this is the baffling thing you say already he saved his family so there where is the problem in that i don't know why because when i'm saying i'm ready i mean it right the other side is saying in jew course so you're basically waiting on a date from them but it is quite clear i can't read a message two times through elizabeth spec or the special advisor of the secretary general as well as with the undersecretary teller since the collapse of the talks in switzerland last year you did mention now that there has to be better preparation what exactly does that mean how would the agenda of talks be different

now from your perspective when explaining to you are joining the ground one donna the secretary general of the united nations put his framework the framework or was . in including six issues issues security in the ninety's the nation actually. of the obsolete system of security and guarantees the withdrawal of troops. or a proposal to see how to face we draw in the rabbit production and so on and talk about turkish troops in the owner is just to clarify for our ears yes yes and then if it were for other we should be faring today internally. mutters we are discussing go for example the property issue of the territory are very just means they take the participation and the demand by turkey for a equitable treatment between greeks and turks nationalists so this is

the way if you want a basket of. the issues there secretary-general race judging that i'm going to when we are saying and to be well prepared we went there with promises or with expectations that teddy was to make the surprise to accept that we have to be after the solution at least an independent sobering state without interventions without any dependencies. by any third country so you feel you were disappointed or misled with going into talks with certain expectations. like what were you promised before you went into talks that you felt you were let down when i have said that if there is a progress in telling money aspects of the problem then turkey will make a positive movements towards our own. not only our own but for every. country what is looking is to be an independent state and not

a protector or a door not contort who has made these promises that turkey would make a more positive during the negotiations the understanding that if we shall make progress then we shall connected with the security which means terminations of guarantees replacement if you want of the old or the obsolete system of got and he's with another. system bearing in mind that cyprus is a member state of the union united nation as well as a member state of the european union which. according to their charters there are enough provisions to protect all that people or the people when i mean a they are critical to your superiors when you talk about the old system guarantees let's call a spade a spade are we talking about the move of turkish troops argument that's that's not only is the current is and take withdrawal of troops do you see that there is any role whatsoever for turkish troops to play in cyprus after

a unified italy that we need any more any kind of troops able to greek british or turkish troops this was our problem in the past with. this is the problem we are facing till today due to the intervention by turkey and i have explained to mr troubleshoot that the distance between cyprus and turkey is just sixty kilometers so who is there. to do anything and we have eleven from our mistakes from the past so nobody will touch from the moment really what sort of mistakes when you say we've learned from us things in the past what would you say you've learned we have i mean image of the after the independence the the greek cypriots they will continue to have in their mind the union we greece wives of turkish cypriots they were having in their mind the division of the island the taxi as they were calling it at the time and they have been encouraged both

communities by the motherland countries is a federal system still the starting point for negotiations yes this is the basis of the solution actually i disheartened when you hear statements from some on the other side who talk about perhaps having to look outside of federalism perhaps having to look at some other sort of solution i don't know what they have in their mind a plan b. but there is no plan b. from your perspective in our own there is only one plan and plan a means of unification of the island and the most important to be to to build up a viable lasting solution there functioning state a modern state areal european state which is what we are looking without privileges to be a one community or to the other we are accepting then we have accepted the right in

the political equality but not the numerical equality it is quite different. well the other side say that while outwardly the greek cypriot side wants is for turkish cypriots to simply be some kind of underclass minority rather than equal partners in a unified state there are them any conversion says who have already gave the answer to these concerns of the turkish cypriots to the contrary what we are watching is that they want to control the alignment and this is their own mistake for example when we have seen effective participation they are asking for that for any or any decision of the central government we should covered least one positive turkish cypriot vote if you will find another system all over the world in any other country where the central government in order to decide they have to have a positive vote let's take the example of belgium of germany or whatever

if you will find the central government better lean in order to decide they have to have a positive bold throw from from from some of the other communities and yes with or intention it will work but they have accepted i have accepted. according to their own we have already agreed that there are none encroachments quote that the central government will never intervene in the internal affairs of each one of the two constituents states neither one constituent state might intervene in the internal affairs of the central government or in the affairs of the other state and what they have put on the table is that i'm ready to accept your positive vote in case the central government we take it is israel which might get tremendous interest. of the of your own community in such a case you will have the right but in any case we have to find an effective.

deadlock solving machinery for the functioning of the state to be blocked by these positive about what you're asking actually is to have the right to veto on every and each one of the decisions the central government is called upon to take let's talk a little bit about hydrocarbon exploration you've invited foreign companies to come and explore for gas and natural resources in the eastern mediterranean wouldn't it make more sense though mr president to start that kind of exploration once you've resolved all the conflict over this country so that also prints can benefit we have a pretty rich conversions as regards the. exploitation of the natural resources that's not what you understand you listen to stuff or kenji or even the voice is an anchor and they say there is no agreement talk and for god's sake i mean if they will use excuses not to intervene in the

soaring rights of the republic it's another thing but we have made it clear and i have made all of them they say these all these countries there are a number of countries which have claims to this common area of water and they say that this needs to be resolved first you do says well if you listen to the statements coming from turkey if you are from turkey guess because their keys are serving their own interest not the interest of that of the turkish cypriot unfortunately what turkey's looking for is to become. their absolute right to do so or do looking for such it to become the energy up of europe and this is what they are trying to. that doesn't make sense to reassign time to do right let's say what we have agreed with our capacity woods and i haven't made a written statement in spite the convergence is because there is

a convergence of brady and by which. these are commercial was providing the decisions with regard to that money time areas territorial sea continues to zone continental shelf and exclusive economic zone as defined by the united nations convention on the law of this year from one nine hundred eighty two will constitute a federal court be dense in the united cyprus remains valid i mean this was remain valid and it has been confirmed but the addition of the northern separate foreign minister could have heard others say only a few days ago he characterized directivity as unilateral drilling he says authorities in the north might start their own exploration and drilling in waters which they control if you don't stop as they see unilaterally this is an acceleration this is a threat so what is next is where you know where you're suresh and resolve the

issue and then explore how do you how do you respond and least get we for four years now we are negotiating to find a solution and the point issue has never been on the table because it has been agreed and therefore we took steps to prove that we mean business and they have made a clear statement not only because there is a convergence but the natural resources are belonging to that state. and to all legitimate people of cyprus a go to these are great quarter disciplines bear in mind exploration issue and think expectations and i think from exploring our of what we are doing we are exploring our it we know we're only exclusive economic zone if there is such a wealth in order to fill the moment we will be able to exploit eight these wealth it might take five seven or ten years

if there is a good will we do in this time we can easily find a solution for cyprus question but in any case even without a solution we know how to protect not only the quick but the turkish cypriots as well but to put as a precondition that we have first and why they raise it now after forty four years or after so many other explorations why they are raising it from their perspective they say you know they don't want basically what amounts to an iou or a promissory note while no revenues are going to be so you know they would like all citizens of cyprus to benefit from any wealth has a principle you agree on everything we mean business we are not the ones we secure buying the properties of the other community of course they don't see it that way though i'm sure where they have is very close on the northern part they think that

the they it was always a belonging to them don't forget that after the invasion they're occupying the properties of the greek cypriots and this is the behavior we have to count we have done anything against that that you see but it. we don't want to. get advantage of what they are entitled to but that's precisely the point mr president they see that their unilateral expiration is not targeting nothingness which they are really trying to make a government of the republic of cyprus which is internationally recognized their own which will come to participate in the government on the issue of eggs on mobiles expiration have they begun their activities the exploration drillings well let's call it any work in the eastern mediterranean as a very is there anything during the next stage i understand in the coming it's not going to be the readings are going to be an investigation about. the environment

suitability suitability and so one has any of that started this project not here i think within these days within a few days are you confident that they will be able to carry out their work that you have given them a concession to do i do hope so that it will refrain from any or any horse trailer why are you confident they will be able to you know i'm not confident i'm saying what i want to happen if we want to beat up. a couple koocher without a super stress and out of work. plot has never been very vocal by taking that is belonging to the republic of cyprus they are saying that it was belonging to egypt. and with an agreement with egypt plot ten is belonging according to the international law to the cyprus republic your friend

your two thousand and thirteen agreement with egypt four years right have you asked any u.s. authorities to help ensure that eggs and will be able to carry out its activities. which deliberations will governance with the company the company has its own program they have to but only not be made on implications the us is a superpower has a very big navy parts of that now people are interested in many rewards. and military interventions by anybody but it's up to the united states to protect their own interests but have you asked them at all i mean it would cross my mind if i was in your position you have a company from a superpower you have a superpower navy sure that we have done whatever it is necessary to be done in order to succeed to the energy program of the republic i don't to put you in a hard position server with all due respect that sounds like

a diplomatic way of giving the indication that that's again with or without let me put it this way have you received any assurances from u.s. authorities that they will make sure eggs in can do the job no we haven't asked for such guarantees and we haven't received search or identities it's the company who is doing whatever. they thought and probably appropriate in order to succeed in the program and their applications of courting to. the license they've got. even if you haven't asked the u.s. side you have expectations from the u.s. navy that they will take measures my expectation is that test our core part that they would realize that the most important and the most there is to find a lasting viable solution by which we shall have a functioning state and repeating it a lot of times this is the best way to find a solution as regards the hydrocarbons which is included of course in the solution

because by solving the problem all of these are belong or a are could be dense as belonging to the central government i do hope that. the turkey will be benefited out of such a solution we have no reason why not to sell to we have no reason why not to be friends with we want a friendly neighbor country and not. we are supporting the accession to europe we on that point will you will you disrupt the orvieto the upcoming meeting between there is no e.u. officials and turkey on the twenty sixth of model to a long area or what has happened now is that in. joining the. european council they will evaluate this standard set and then we shall decide i mean the european council will decide if there are no over your nations already

there they are in framing from illegal acts and they mean illegal acts violating the international law i was only talking specifically about turkish naval activities in the eastern mediterranean so there is a kind of a link there is kind of like a threat hanging over it is quite clear by a statement made by mr. to escape the president of the european comes right how disruptive have the activities of the turkish navy been to your efforts to explore resources in the eastern mediterranean has it impacted your efforts has it shut it now we'll do it in person and change our work then a program but in the last month italian firm you were not able to carry out the work they were able to do to intervention by the turkish. make does not represent a problem in a minute ago you told me you're not you can't say you're confident that eggs and is going to be able to carry out it's no i haven't said so just now but i was the

meaning that the actions by ted right but they do believe that it is not the same but if you how do you say to investors come and explore for resources if you're not one hundred percent confident that they will be able to explore here for the sort of resources your rebuttal will be leaving their turkey will never. they will refrain from acting as they are acting they don't think that it is to the best interests they that of the third p.c. but it's sort of the. turkey side but we have the sobering sobering rates and all we are going to exercise them and i do believe that we'll cut it out the program on us it has been planned right now as from what i've been able to gather he has a frigate the barber us it's got three corvette vessels or ships in regional waters

the us has the era jima russia has a nuclear powered submarine in the area the israelis are conducting war games the americans are watching the russians the russians are watching everybody else is in the eastern mediterranean becoming far too tense and risky for commercial activity that's why you don't want to. provoke. that's why we are trying to be quite cool and to see how the through the diplomatic challenge sure we can channels we can find a peaceful solution and to. of course continuing to implement energy program we don't want to. talk to anybody or to affect the interest especially while competitors and i'm quite clear on that it does not belong to the galaxy but it it belongs to the people of cyprus and the people as cyprus is consisting of the

a cheating mate communities illegitimate the residence that he's had a great quarter disappears nickers honest as they are this president of the republic of cyprus thank you so much for talking to our visitors thank you very. subzero temperatures stream altitudes. this is where the hard part because of the extraordinary journey from polish to tajikistan braved ordinary georgia. we're too high up there's no oxygen. just to experience life simple pleasures. risking it all in kurdistan of this time on al-jazeera. when the winning the will of the people hinges on the mass media state

p.r. machine is going to overdrive. but just who is influencing. we just don't know yet where the lines will be drawn between come to set and what conduct that. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for outside the polling the media opinion the listening post base time on al-jazeera. the white house sex the deputy director of the f.b.i. on the eve of his retirement.