those activists mentioned in that tweet is somewhat a by the way a relative of canadian citizens by the way and fellow activists and saga were arrested last month but who is the recipient of the two thousand and twelve international women of courage award who is known for challenging saudi arabia's male guardianship system she is the sister of blogger by the way and the former wife of a lawyer would be the board who are both serving lengthy jail terms in saudi prisons the canadian foreign minister says her country will not back down we will always speak up for human rights we will always speak up for women's rights around the world. and i do also want to say when it comes to the big dowie family. and stuff haidar is a canadian citizen and she and her family therefore. merit special attention from the government of canada and a lot of canadian civil society has been speaking up for her it's something that we

do we stand up for canadians and their families around the world earlier on monday saudi foreign minister identity bear tweeted saying the kingdom doesn't interfere in the affairs of other countries and we will not accept any interference attempts we will deal with this firmly the surprising canadian stance is based on misleading information the prosecution of those mentioned is subject to our judicial systems that guarantee their rights saudi authorities have arrested a number of people in recent days more than a dozen women's rights campaigners were detained in may on charges of undermining national security some have since been released dozens of clerics have also been arrested including leading preachers said amount i woulda out with them cutting me and suffered a how of. several high profile human rights activists are in jail and some have been referred to a counterterrorism tribunal for trial and saudi arabia has in prison nearly all the founders of the band saudi civil and political rights association.

all right let's bring in our panel joining us in london ruffin a big i'm a senior researcher in women's rights and human rights watch in leeds salon but i've got director of the center for conflict and humanitarian studies at the doha institute and in washington d.c. and about how to director of research and analysis at the arab center washington d.c. welcome to you all rough and i want to start with you we are really in uncharted territory these days when it comes to detention of activists in saudi arabia i mean there was a time not that long ago when the arrest of so many prominent women might be viewed as something that would engender a lot of anger in saudi society is not the case. absolutely this is an unprecedented and unrelenting crackdown on all forms of dissent and criticism in the country now the difference this time is that it's highly unusual for the saudi authorities to one actually detain the activists and at the same time take credit

for their reforms in previous times of course they've arrested and harassed and intimidated activists but never in a manner in which they the there was a concerted campaign of arrests before it was always in relation to something so the women defied the driving ban so they were arrested so it was sudden acts that led to them back being arrested this time around they were rounded up and arrested from the minute in the middle of the night from their homes in such a concerted a way with a smear campaign something we've not seen before eva saudi authorities are launching a very social media campaign to malign the reputation within side revia and at the same time trying to make sure that they have a p.r. savvy campaign in order to ensure that the saudi crown prince mohammed bin someone is able to take full credit for the reforms that these women have been championing for years. let me ask you does this does this you know crack down and also this rift now with canada does this have a risk at all of backfiring on the crown prince mohammed bin so much from either

inside or outside the king. well to me the truth i mean how can it not back piled on him unfortunately this is. an almost irrational action i mean it's just an emotional impulse and he acted on it i don't think that the reading makes his case any better domestically or internationally for what he says you know he's trying to you know to to kingdom that basically on the cusp of modernization or that i don't think that modernization comes by arresting woman or any civil society activists what anybody for that matter so i really doubt that this is going to help the saudi cause at all so time does the fact that canada granted citizenship in early july to and soft hi there who is the wife of jailed saudi blogger and activist that i have by the way does that play into this i mean how angry was saudi arabia about that and has that added you know fuel to this fire you know that

emerged because of the tweet. well i think the citizenship was granted earlier this year but the asylum was given back in two thousand and fifteen and drive a diet he was imprisoned in saudi arabia in two thousand and twelve so canada you know way has something to to justify why they should be concerned about what's going on in saudi arabia however i think probably the medium in which and the way in which they reacted was very unfortunate i think this is there to two stories here one is the crackdown within saudi arabia and the second is a lesson to all that you cannot really conduct foreign policy based on tweets and when they express their concerns of course i don't think that came directly from freedom and but it has been she has she she got implicated in it and the uni of

warre is the way it escalated so quickly over the last few days and i think again the saudi. totally irrational response as a series of responses that followed that tweet made the situation much worse and in these circumstances i think it will very quickly grow beyond that initial family problem and the sister in law of. the day we are often if we could just step back for a minute because our viewers are hearing a lot of names they may not be familiar with saudi human rights activists both female and male who have been detained the past few months let's talk specifically for a moment about somebody by the way she is the person who was mentioned by name in that tweet by the canadian embassy in saudi arabia let's talk for a moment about somebody by the way of course she's known for being a very prominent human rights activist herself a recipient of u.s. state department award in two thousand and twelve formerly married to a double care very prominent rights lawyer saudi arabia has been jailed sister of by the way very prominent blogger who is in jail in saudi arabia why would she be

targeted now. that's the question that's actually been on many people's minds who actually know summer by the way summer is a prominent women's rights activists know as you say not just awarded but for the very activism that she's campaigned on inside reveals she herself was a victim of the abusive male guardianship system she forwards in the courts to remove the guardianship from her father to her brother she also sued the government in a number of occasions because of just going to policies like for instance the driving ban so she sued the government in trying to ensure because they didn't give her driver's license back some years ago she also through the government for not allowing her to stand at the municipal council elections a fight that they later won because in part of these actions now some are have actually gone through the quiet there was an intimidation campaign by the authorities against women's rights activists and they were clearly concerned by that some of them may still be speaking to the media around the time of the driving ban being lifted because that was

a time when international journalists were flying into saudi arabia to cover the this reform and so a lot of these women were arrested but some are wasn't and why she's been arrested now is unclear but she is not the only one who's been arrested two other women have also been arrested and it seems as if they're trying to get rid of all vestiges of activists within the who may have the potential to speak out or you know just make it very clear that you simply even for your previous activism you cannot stay within the country without being prosecuted and just to be aware of summer but that we actually had a travel ban on her before she was actually arrested and this is been going on for some time now i'm a u.s. leadership you know has been close for decades with saudi arabia but you know they have been critical in the past at least somewhat of human rights policies in saudi arabia that seems to have stopped with the trumpet ministries is the fact that the u.s. is no longer being vocal when it comes to perceived rights abuses in saudi arabia

is that emboldening the saudi regime well it's a. unfortunately yes the white house has basically conduct on the issue of protecting democracy and human rights around the world and including in the gulf and saudi arabia is one of those states which washington basically tries always to avoid. to criticize but you know i mean the last year's state department report on human rights mentioned issues of spouses and things like that in saudi arabia but yes i on the other hand say that maybe the current so did leadership is that this is a really waiting for the trumpet administration to approve or disapprove of what they're trying to do they have a program they have a program of modernization all that and they say they think that all of this is going to affect their modernization efforts which is which is definitely wrong so i

doubt that the time but musician whatever of london musician does or because the size or does not get the size i think the saudi leadership will continue to do whatever it wants to do to gun human rights and democracy to do the heavy development assault on critics of canadian prime minister justin trudeau have have charged that he has not been strong enough in the past of his criticism of saudi arabia and i say the fact that he is allowing arms deals to saudi arabia that were negotiated before his tenure to go through that that shouldn't happen and some have said that this criticism that has come up in the last few days is really just essentially a p.r. move to deflect criticism that he's been receiving because of the arms deal what do you say to all that is there merit to that. well canada like sweden and others can even countries have declared the human rights and feminist agenda very much central to their foreign policy and they've been very

proud of this the go around the world speaking about this policy and i think that has raised expectations particularly within human rights corners advocates. southern countries mostly that they expect a stronger stand from canada and those countries that. are far as developing a lobby in that direction now that hasn't been coming forthcoming and of course the real disappointment has been around yemen the whole intervention in yemen that attracted very little criticism from those countries direct criticism and from the americans as well know this i go back to the point that i think it's been an fortunate incidence and had the saudis chosen not to respond to the tweet probably nobody would have noticed it over if you would have noticed that i don't think conducting foreign policy affecting changes. is going to be code on twitter

i think the canadians should and could have written to the saudis sean more support and there may or may be behind the scene they're doing all this and the saudis are not responding but there are other channels for for press to place pressure on the saudis at this very important critical time given their agenda of modernization and given their very broad interventions around the middle east so that they do need critical friends and i think canada could be one of those friends that chose the saudi the right way occasionally but it has to be done in a way that the saudis feel appropriate and not insulting rotton amnesty international has called for the international community to speak out against rights abuses rights abuses in saudi arabia can we expect to be hearing more from countries specifically the u.k. and france at this time. if the u.k. france and other e.u. states other countries allies decide to review and care about human rights care

about women's rights as they supposed to according to their charters and within their own laws they should be standing up and declaring their support for what canada has said and urging the release all of these activists inside rebiya the fact that they have been silent so far is deafening silence is absolutely deafening and it sort of leaves the side raving authorities much more emboldened because what that's what they really doing is they're trying to silence all of their critics not just internally but externally by reacting so harshly and so aggressively against the canadian authorities they want to make it clear these are the consequences of what it means when you criticize us but the u.k. france and others if they stood up at the same time and said no in these cases you can't call simply criticizing you simply urging you to release some activists as unlawful interference then you know that would then show that no side to be has to continue trading with many countries and if all of these countries stood up and said something they would then be pushed they would be required to actually respond

in a more adequate munna the right now they're getting away with the idea that this so-called interference when it is just normal in adequate criticism that is absolutely reasonable in the circumstance they're getting away with and i'm not saudi arabia of course have been trying to burnish its image especially with the west i mean you had crown prince mohammed bin so you know take that trip to the united states really put on a charm offensive with potential investors and with government figures how does something like this help that i mean we keep talking about this in the past few months even in the run up to women driving in saudi arabia finally they were granted the women to drive in the run up to that some of the most prominent activists who called for the right to drive they were arrested and there was outrage because of that i mean what is the in game here when it comes to public relations and saudi arabia and all those. well for one thing there is that is unfortunately

a little ignorance of what the preserve what the what the function of public relations is i mean you have to really always work on your image abroad but i think the underlying truth here is that the saudi leadership and many bitter ships like it consider economic relations to be separate from political relations or political reputations around the world so i think the they could own prince baby thinks that if i strike deals enough deals with companies and make sure that for instance you know american president is happy with how many jobs i'm helping to create in the united states maybe then they won't say anything about our human rights record but . it's very difficult to day in our day and age to really separate economics from politics or from the reputations of states this is not it's not helpful you know

war and in fact only this i mean of the war in yemen is obviously not helpful yes you know what the american administration is happy because they're buying weapons to use in the war and all that but you know what killing children and women and different places by the way they're not the only one doing the killing whole bunch of others are doing the killing but it's really does not serve any purpose of public relations here so don we were just talking the economic aspect of this and i could ask you to expand on some of what and that was and i mean saudi arabia is going to great lengths these days to tell potential investors that it is open for business there is the crown prince's saudi vision twenty thirty initiative how does this help that at a time they're trying to bring investors to saudi arabia wouldn't potential investors be scared. of course they would i don't think it's helping at all i think it's another episode of shooting themselves in the foot as a result of this rush to reaction and the reliance on. facebook and

twitter and so on as a form of communication the trade relations between canada and saudi arabia around maybe four billion dollars a year mostly exports to canada from saudi arabia and they have a huge program of higher and higher degree higher education so it is going to occur and therefore education health cetera and stopping all this all of a sudden is really causing a lot of hardship to to the saudi citizens themselves first to suddenly expect students to switch and look for other places where they cannot continue their studies in canada or to arsk. patients to look for alternative sources of medication and so on it's too difficult for those individuals and i think the saudis should show more concern to their own citizenship and and really react in a much more measured way which is becoming extremely difficult giving the way mom

advance a man seems to have. given the rein to some of his advisers to conduct policy over or over twitter the moment they tweet is very difficult to attract they say they find it too embarrassing to say sorry even when they publish this very unfortunate image of an aircraft. flying towards toronto they are in english they apologized in arabic they did not dare to apologize they just would do it now i think someone should really be taking control and if saudi arabia and muhammad is a man is serious about his modernization reform so banfield and i'm starting recital to i should just mention there there was an apollo. by those who issued that tweet of the of the plane the image of the plane there was an apology that was issued hours after that was generated and. there was an admission that it was

inappropriate but the texan arabic never said sorry ok but i met read a tweet but this is what i did and not a bit can english ok it's clearly apologized for causing the stress or thanks for clarifying you know your herself on their talk about how he believes that saudi leadership should show greater care or in pathy to their citizens is there any way to actually gauge what saudi citizens are feeling i mean clearly people in saudi arabia are afraid to speak out because the representations if there seem to be seen criticizing the government there could be severe consequences so can you actually gauge what the saudi public feels about what the government is doing right now. unfortunately you can't we have no idea really what the vast majority of side raven's really feel about what the government is doing i think there is a genuine concern of course that the saudi authorities are really cracking down on dissent but the fear now is penetrated that they cannot say anything i mean this is

a saudi arabians who are prominent on social media they're like one of the biggest users of twitter in the country in the world i mean and yet you know when you look at the kind of reactions like one of what's happening with canada the vast majority of those attacking and the sort of things that are happening they usually try to bots the usually done in the sudden kind of manner that suggests these are on recruits these are not regular side arabians who are showing outrage about what side really is doing it about what side rubin's allies are saying about them and so it's not really clear what the side re bins are able to say or think we will never really know because the saudi authorities will not allow a polling into won't allow for the for the outrage to really to to come out in public and if anything those who have been somewhat critical of so for instance after the arrest of the women's rights activist one woman had tweeted her support of those women who had been arrested she was arrested shortly after her friend then

posted the letter to she had prepared if she was arrested in that instance and then that friend was arrested now that friend was not not an active as she simply posted something her friend also to do online and the previous friend was also not really a prominent activist either she just showed support for these activists so it's a very very clear you cannot not only be an activist you cannot express yourself but you also cannot show some support for these activists so they are really going out of the way to silence saudis to even a you know to prohibit them from coming out and speaking their minds and what we all you really see are the twitter bots that will come out in support of the saudi government so we don't have a whole lot of time left i want to give you the last word here this is not expected to have much of an impact on canada's economy are the biggest losers you're going to be those fifteen or sixteen thousand students that potentially will have to leave canada and get education elsewhere now these saudi students. in the immediate terms i think it is this only students and patients are going to suffer most and

those who don't will business holidaying travelling directly between so dear abia and canada but in the long term of this escalates further i mean there is a thirteen billion dollar deal or at least initiate a deal between saudi and canada to provide them with vehicles and maybe this is a good reminder in a way it could it could there could be a silver lining to all this is that you can't buy your way over issues global issues of human rights that have become more and more central in the way we conduct our affairs so over and t. is important intervention is not acceptable but increasingly human rights. there's a global agreement that you can and you should interfere and maybe make some noises or highlight issues and only in extreme cases it could justify a responsibility to protect in certain circumstances now that of course it is not

going to reach that level but i think it's good that canada has spoken out it's important that other countries do the same but we should do it in a medium and in ways in the channels that are established for doing this sort of business through you know embassies and and foreign policy mechanisms all right we're going to have to leave it there we're out of time thanks so much to all our guests rotten a big time but a card and i'm out how to and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page at facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is add a.j. can type story for me my homage and join in the entire team here by for now. i.

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this is zero. am jim and all this is the news hour line for monday coming up in the next sixty minutes sending a message to america iran sits down with north korea's u.s. nuclear sanctions are we in polls rights groups slamming bangladesh over its handling of student that protests and the detention of journalists who forced it. come because new president ivan duquesne is about to be sworn anything faces some very thorny issues where life impacts. on paul race with all the sports as an american billionaire wins the fight take control of football club stan kroenke keep eyes out his rival it's a club valued more than two point three billion dollars.

if they're warm welcome to the news iran is now officially back under u.s. sanctions and donald trump is warning the world not to defy them by doing business with tehran well president trump alle the sanctions as the toughest yet and said the second round june november or only increase the pressure tehran meanwhile has dismissed any talks with washington to resolve the crisis from tehran reports the day after the united states reimposed nuclear sanctions against iran the foreign minister of another sanctioned country sat down with leaders in to her on north korea's foreign minister really young ho met iranian leaders in an effort to improve ties the timing of this visit is likely no coincidence iran wants america to know it has friends everywhere. in a televised interview on monday night iran's president admonished america praised

his european allies and asked his people for a little more time to fix the country's economy. that if. we need more solidarity we should be more united i'm telling my dear people god willing with your help we will get through this problem american economic pressure has been destructive for iran but officials and civilians alike say mismanagement by its own leaders made iran's economy more vulnerable it's about time you start first of all sanctions will be imposed the harder the station will be for the people no one is satisfied. i'm so worried about my life future country and as a young girl i'm worried about my job there are no job opportunities and i'm afraid of losing my job as sanctions took effect on tuesday so too did new fiscal policy to try and save the falling value of iranian currency government subsidized american dollars meant to help import foreign goods will no longer be as easily

available the system was open to abuse by people who would buy low and sell high to make quick cash instead of importing food medicine car parts and other necessities . iran is also allowing people to open u.s. dollar accounts and earn interest in the hopes of halting mass capital flight that according to the islamic parliament research center has seen fifty nine billion dollars drain from the economy in the last two years the latest comments by the european foreign policy chief perhaps give iranians a reason to be optimistic we in the european union. they did our blocking said it you're very much up to date. with this this is a legislation the european union has in place to protect european businesses from the effect of secondary sanctions of sanctions that u.s. imposes outside of its territory at home the president is under pressure to make

something good happen later this month he's expected to appear in parliament were m.p.'s are likely to grill him about the economy and on wednesday parliament plans to impeach his minister of labor in a no confidence vote over high unemployment scattered economic protests across the country signal growing public discontent with economic conditions but the worst is yet to come in november more u.s. sanctions will go into effect this time striking at the very heart of iran's biggest source of revenue oil and gas zain bus ravi old zero. let's get more on what donald trump has been saying about the sanctions he will sponsor so that they were the most biting ever imposed anyone anyone doing business with iran will not be doing business with the united states adding i'm asking for world peace nothing less. joins us live from washington d.c. hi there kimberly so what's the broader message then from trying to the international community. really this is the u.s.

president caution ng any allies particularly the business community within those variety of nations not to do business with iran that's essentially the focus of a tuesday morning tweet well he did say that he believes that these are the most biting sanctions ever there will be another round as my colleague mentioned in november and so there's something that strong signal not just to businesses that are operating and conducting business in tehran and in iran broader ron right now but also those perhaps in the oil markets and so this is a message to partners like india for example that the national security advisor john bolton said on tuesday morning here in the united states that countries like that need to be looking for what he called substitute sources for business but what we're seeing here really truly is kind of a fracture this taking place between the diplomatic community and the business community while the diplomatic community is pushing back as we saw there with the

e.u. chief and her comments russia as well putting in sort of these sort of statutes to try and help business leaders what we're seeing are some business leaders particularly in europe already taking action following the advice of the united states saying they won't do business in tehran anymore for example french automakers like citron even daimler so we expect that because the united states still holds the reserve currency the u.s. dollar having that clout is something that is forcing business leaders at least to listen to what the u.s. is saying reconsider their business relationships even if diplomats are not and kimberly i guess another way of looking at this from troubles perspective is that this is simply america first in action and that was a campaign promise. absolutely the u.s. president and the campaign trail that he did not like this agreement felt was a very bad in his words one sided agreement what he means by that perhaps it's an oversimplification but the trumpet ministration position is that the j c p

a way which the united states withdrew from in may that's the the agreement that was negotiated by the united states iran other world powers to live in iran's nuclear program the feeling is of the united states that it just didn't go far enough that it only addressed the nuclear problem but not what the united states calls iran's malign activity across the broader middle east so the argument being that when those sanctions were lifted the money that it started to profit from was not filtered back to ordinary torontonians and that's why perhaps the united states believes there is this growing unrest in terms of protests in the stead was funding militias to destabilize a variety of reasons so the united states is looking for the iranian leaders to get back to the table to negotiate even though there has been an impasse for decades and this is the maximum pressure campaign economic pressure campaign they believe made cheve that although it doesn't appear that the climate for any kind of talking

seems to be on the horizon can be out there live from washington d.c. with the latest kimberly thank you the u.s. sanctions are expected to hit iran hard it's struggling economy has already resulted in a crackdown on refugees and migrant workers in the country three million afghans live in iran but many are losing jobs and facing deportation as the we are weakens the seanad bellus reports from heroin in western afghanistan within two hundred thousand have already been sent back. this is the human cost of u.s. sanctions on iran these people are not iranian or american but afghan sikkim and her family have lived in iran for twenty five years all her children were born there they were deported this week ending up in a un transit camp in wiston afghanistan. why was it that you know as they don't mind that we left behind our house our furniture i locked the doors and now i am

here they were beating us they were very cruel they kept saying get lost. in the past iranian officials have said they have been proud to host a new system aged three million afghans but is iran's economic situation worsens afghans one of the most vulnerable communities in iran are some of the first to feel the pinch. more than two hundred thousand have been deported since the start of the year only a few thousand have received un support. their economy kept getting worse and everyone was shouting and screaming we kept saying we're refugees here but they kept saying if we cannot help iranians how can we help you another two hundred thousand afghans have returned home voluntarily after they couldn't find work in iran for decades afghans in the west of send their sons across the border to work and seen money harma with the collapse of the nuclear deal in the currency in freefall those jobs have dried up remittances had propped up households across

western afghanistan some a mess of drought has devastated the region's main industry agriculture not only have the afghan people been affected by drought but they now have less ability to rely on family members who are working abroad and sending home of their paycheck in which case you know the number of people who may be forced to migrate based on a lack of resources in their own homes could rise exponentially very short order the un needs international funding to support the returning they have nearly half a million unemployed mostly young men returning to a war zone the swiss and italians have donated the u.s. has not shallow ballasts out his era herat. so rights watch has accused the bangladesh government of using heavy handed tactics to stop a student led protest swept the country the protests began last week after two to schoolchildren were killed in a well the accident rights group is also demanding the release of reporters who've

been detained for covering the unrest one of them is shot a hole it was arrested after speaking to al-jazeera in one khan explains. what started his protests in high schools has now got university students on the move in the capital dhaka and beyond police have tried to stop the protests using take gas and rubber coated bullets observers say the government of prime minister sharon is concerned the protests could become larger and he's using tactics it's used before. i just got back from bangladesh and my impression is. this government is behaving in a way that bangladeshi governments are very used to behaving in terms of this and they just see people shelling dissent even though they're young and what they're protesting in way beyond any kind of party political issue they haven't been able to show that anything are within the usual way or responding to this which has been

a lot before. it all began ten days ago after a speeding bus killed two teenagers in late july shooting demonstrators took to the streets calling for tougher law enforcement of bangladeshi road traffic the government says it's going to introduce the death penalty for some road traffic accidents. human rights groups have weighed in as the government crackdown has spread to arresting journalists shuttle islam a photographer that was arrested sunday after appearing on al-jazeera in criticizing the government.