administration carrying out punitive measures against the palestinians and the prospects of a two state solution being at a particularly low but they also reflect the legacy of what many here believe to have been twenty five last years harry forsett al-jazeera ramallah in the occupied west bank well for a deeper look at this twenty fifth anniversary of all slow i spoke just before we came on air with yet he is formally a palestinian negotiator with israel and he joins us from beirut argues the all slow accords could have allowed or been prepared to go to a point of a successful outcome. in the one nine hundred ninety s. between one nine hundred ninety three and two thousand of course there were numerous problems of the number of terrorist attacks israeli collective punishment of the palestinian economy but there was an important degree of political confidence building at both the government to levels the security level

and also societal level. so there were important shifts that. could have allowed i think a successful outcome there was this so-called matrix of control which was laid at the door of the israelis if you will was that inherently a bad idea or a bad concept to fold into what they wanted to achieve over that initial period of five years i was part of the negotiating team starting in one thousand nine hundred through that whole period and right up to the one thousand nine hundred nine start of the so-called final status negotiations so i had direct sight of all israeli proposals and i can say that what we also accords did was to recreate the system of control the control matrix of israeli control over the occupied palestinian territories in a slightly different form so instead of having direct military government and

direct civil administration as they were called by israel of all aspects of palestinian civil civilian life this shifted into joint committees in which however the veto power was held in every domain for instance registering births and deaths issuing passports allowing imports and exports access to water access to land land registry everything you can think of was ultimately under the veto power of the israeli side so this was an absolute control mechanism which was sort of possible to ignore. or in the good years because things were growing the palestinian economy was growing and had not yet exhausted the potential for growth within the israeli control system but by around two thousand per capita income was no longer growing many lower income groups among the palestinians who had hoped for much more from the peace process found that their political economic and social status hadn't changed and so there's

a great deal of frustration with israeli policies of course colonizing the territory imposing collective economic punishments restricting access to markets these things were coming to a boil by two thousand what were the other political dynamics that came into play both in a positive sense and a negative sense you were talking about the israeli rubber stamping of the reality of this just then i mean the palestinians were pretty much split down the middle surely. both sides had their opposition camp after all it was in his really nationalist a jewish israeli who assassinated prime minister yitzhak rabin in one thousand nine hundred five that that was clearly an example of just how deeply divided israel was as well but on both sides a majority went along with the oslo process they supported a two state solution there were doubters who went along nonetheless others who were openly hostile and determined to defeat the process and of course you know

a large israeli settlement movement in the occupied territories as well as in palestine and the opponents led by most importantly the hamas movement but in the one nine hundred ninety s. both the settlers on the one side and other nationalist israelis and the hamas movement made their peace with their own governments and agreed not to move into direct open and continuing opposition but these two camps on both sides of course emerged and dominated the discourse on both sides after two thousand so we now have a split palestinian movement right down the middle but we also have in israel the domination by the most right wing governments a series of governments in israel the most right wing nationalist ultra nationalists that israel has ever had and who are now openly opposed to palestinian statehood so this is something that sadly is mirrored on both sides did yasser arafat concentrate on the wrong things. well yes and no i mean he concentrated on

in the one nine hundred ninety s. what i call the golden years when hope was the highest and when there was i believe in still believe a genuine opportunity to go in a different direction in those years he concentrated on building his internal power consolidating control building the new palestinian authority as a state like governmental apparatus so he built up ministries extent of the security forces all with the blessing funding and political support both of the government of israel and of western donors so that in his you could say it wasn't all wrong but the problem there was he wasn't preparing his own people to confront the day when they were going to have to confront the israeli can and we're leaving the interview that we recorded just a little earlier to take you live to geneva will go back to that into your little later i'm sure which aking you live now to the swiss city because the u.n. is holding a briefing on the di humanitarian situation in the province of syria let's listen

in to what they're saying. this intuition is. very different to any other area given the composition of including all of the fighters and extremist groups that are there and that really brings the need for humanitarian diplomacy for diplomacy for conflict prevention and to find a way where people are really protected on the ground we're also doing this for serious concerns about the protection of health facilities schools of infrastructure and as humanitarian workers we have really the conflicted number of facilities and we have shared the d. confliction and the conflicted sides the g.p.s. coordinates with the co-chairs of the task force and this is the russian federation and the united states and again today to related feel and really the need to make sure that the basic. and civil war the health facilities.

school was heavily populated civilian areas are protected and any military escalation does not make it ensures that the protection is in place during the task force we also reiterated the need for the protection of humanitarian workers service providers doctors drivers relief workers working with organizations as we see. to make sure that they are protected in the conduct of their duty on the day to day another principle that were put on the table is really the freedom of movement of civilians is very important that the moment of an escalation the women civilians have the right to flee and the right to remain they should really move according to what is safe for them and this is their right to all areas whether it is into government controlled areas or into non-government controlled areas the people wish it really has to be insured as

humanitarians of course and hindered and unconditional access access to people access to. their needs and as a situation may escalate is really extremely important and the moment we have a significant cross border of gratian into the area of more than two million people are assisted on a monthly basis based on very. vulnerable easy and acuteness of need criteria in this area so this axis will have to continue and enabling ourselves our partners to respond to humanitarian needs is really an absolutely vital. a key element too of course is that at the moment. we hope for the best we're preparing for the worst and i think. we have put together a preparedness plan. we're looking at a response for for up to nine hundred thousand people that may flee that we hope a new one happened that will help and it will not be needed but our teams are

really working twenty four seven on the stockpiling on planning or on looking at the level of readiness to be able to respond we have asked our donors for three hundred eleven million dollars that covers the need for nine hundred thousand people where we think we don't know obviously nobody can read the crystal ball and what is going to happen but. the preparedness plan is to assist for up to seven hundred thousand people who my family further north into non-government controlled areas further into it leave and. turkish and one hundred thousand may go into government controlled areas and there is another one hundred thousand that are currently in the telephone out area this is area where there is this place for them including population and we think that that group also may move actually to both directions from government and government area in no way am saying that we are ready i think that what's important is we are doing our maximum to ensure a level of readiness while we continue to raise our own voice to to politicians to

everybody with influence every government every every person have an influence to make sure that the worse what we are afraid of will not happen to make sure the peaceful solution is the one that will prevail logic will prevail to really put the people of syria first women children and this is billions and to refrain from seeing what we saw in other areas with massive. impact on the civilian on the ground so there is the culture of day there's also. it's been released that provides for you some of the latest facts and figures. on the ground as human intelligence will continue your operations and readiness on all areas whether it is from within government of the head it is our position to really make sure that the right thing is done both with regards to the response and the support the needed.

so i'm often relieved of any questions reactions. you margaret yeah so we'll take the first and the. great. was. there. you see this great insight. and you indicate that you work for us. as it was and yet like to call it the war of the americans. will work conditions. are made yes. is it ok for them all. right well i think the figures as you see in the day this is really our population tracking trying to see is the

movement happens to make sure they are but most importantly to be able to respond to the needs on the ground so and the reports also indicates including the four and a half thousand people that have also returned in the meantime and i think this is all sort of in a way about our meter of how things are on the ground obviously people would rather be at home if they feel safe and i think that's the first thing so on our side we know freedom of movement and that's why one of the point reported points is our advantage is it to make sure that freedom of movement is open to all directions for the people can go to the government to help their this is what they want to do or further within it live further within another government controlled areas including the areas where the turkish presence is to be able to be there and of course the principle of borders remaining off and i think the secretary general has spoken about that that's really important for people to want to have the right to to safety and the right to flee is one of the fundamental principles that we have in our work at the moment the movement that has taken place has been for. in the

government there and experience from the past from the last look at what happened in other situations is and that's why also our preparedness response plan is based on a scenario where we think that if there is significant movement most likely in all likelihood the movement would be more within it live itself or all within that pocket of non-government controlled areas. yes. well we're going to the government of syria we have a presence in damascus and we were colleagues on the ground of course the humanitarian response plan the preparedness plan has been shared has been consultations to make sure that everybody's on board and everybody supports or

supports this because access is needed to all the areas by all of parties to make sure and very importantly to make sure the international humanitarian law protection of civilians protection of infrastructure health education and so on is respected by everybody on the ground during the task force and the one we had today was really restrained there was a number of countries where all of influence. russia it's with iran we have we have turkey we have the u.s. . really we continue advocating in talking to everybody directly indirectly to make sure that the principles are upheld and that the protection of civilians is really put on the top of the journey of everybody is equal responsibility for whatever but in the way they can. i think our you will see we have actually more frequent times for the objective is really to keep on repeating the message and to keep on other.

getting through your back in terms of what is happening and the communication to explain the task forces i don't see one of the closer stars conflicts but with the humanitarian linking it to the political linking it all the way to capitals to make sure the right thing is done. for the u.n. in geneva taking us through where they are right now when it comes to their thinking and forward planning for what looks like and has looked like for three days now will be an imminent assault on it live he was talking about conflict prevention he was saying we're focusing on the impact on schools and hospitals he's saying we need people to focus in on the protection of humanitarian workers freedom of movement of people the u.n. the ngos they need access to people he says we're planning on a response for up to nine hundred thousand people who may start very quickly either being directly affected by this apparent imminent onslaught that will cost three hundred million dollars he also said very clearly in no way are we saying we are

ready for this he was asked one follow up question about the detail of what they've been dealing with he said people will be allowed to go to wherever they want within reason that's that's in effect what he was saying whether it's government held areas or turkish controlled areas let's talk to our correspondent stephanie decker who's on the border between turkey and syria in the area of an attack here so steph it sounds as if they're hoping for one thing but having to plan for the reality of option number two an onslaught on adlib. absolutely they have to be ready because they have to prepare for the worst i think it's interesting peter i think at no point in this war which amount to eight year has so much international attention been on a certain part of the conflict it is because it had been seen as the final conflict going to comes to the opposition so huge challenges when it comes to the humanitarian said that he they expected maximum number seven hundred thousand

people to be fleeing to opposition held areas that either further north and or indeed the territory that the turkish backed opposition fighters control around one hundred thousand to government controlled areas he said there should be freedom of movement he mentioned the opening of borders of course turkey's borders remain closed and they intend for that to stay that way and i think you know there are all these contingency plans being made we've spoken to various turkish aid organizations but you know their message is they want to protect people inside inside syria they certainly don't want it spilling over we do know there's been some movement inside already some of those people moving towards the turkish border some of them also moving towards turkey's observation post it has soldiers inside it live part of the process people even some of them trying to gather close to there because it makes them feel relatively safe having said all that in the last three days it has been relatively quiet no airstrikes no barrel bombs some

artillery shelling and i think reading between the lines it seems turkey has been given more time diplomatically to try and negotiate with the groups on the ground but that is a very difficult task stephanie we must leave it there many thanks. american florence has been downgraded to a category two storm as it heads towards the u.s. east coast but weather forecasters still warning of a disaster this is the latest satellite image it's now about three hundred eighty kilometers offshore it's expected to make landfall on the coast of north and south carolina and bring a life threatening storm surge and with it ten million people are now under a hurricane warning. and a few moments we'll have the weather for you with everton but also still ahead here on the news hour defiance in california the state leads the way on tackling climate change all the white house won't. and the weather couldn't stop the more you storming into the final of south asia's biggest football tournament that's coming up in the sports news with joe in about fifteen minutes.

by the springtime flowers of a mountain lake. to the first snowfall on a winter's day. just. florence has now weakened slightly it's a strong category two just keep your eye on the eye of the storm as it where you can see clearly center of the storm just getting filled in by the cloud and that is signs of the system losing some intensity but there is still plenty of rain to come and that's the main concern the outer bands already having an impact on the shores of north carolina where suspecting the storm just stagger along the coastal fringes over the next talk and couple of days and gradually pushing its way inland sustained winds at the moment one hundred seventy five times as perasso it is the equivalent of

a category two hurricane but this really is about the winds and about the rain sorry looking at a storm surge of two to four meters or more we're looking at maybe six hundred millimeters of rain possibly higher as well as the catastrophic flooding certainly on the cards and we take a look at the bigger picture along those coastal fringes this is why that's the situation now thursday going into friday still very much in a similar position and yeah have a look at saturday again the system very much in a similar area so it's stuck over a similar area and absolutely tipping down for a couple of days we're going to go through to high tide steering that period so widespread flooding is inevitable on the other side of the world we have got an even stronger system making its way towards the philippines this of course is super typhoon man coots sustained winds of two hundred seventy kilometers per hour says the equivalent of a category five storm will weaken slightly but we are looking at huge amounts of

rainfall and of course those damaging winds coming in across the area as we go on through the next couple of days so a big rain there for the philippines and also southern parts of china. there with sponsored by i had time to raise. we're. i have dedicated almost my entire professional life so that we venture and fight against corruption and what i have heard is that we need champions we need also to shine the light on those shampoos and this award bridges that gap that existed in this. nominate your own for us from here on child the light on what they do and to

have not shine a light on your hero with your nomination for the international peso war two thousand and eighteen for more information go to isa war dot com. should be four twenty five to the hour these are your top stories here on the news of the russian president has inspect troops taking part in the biggest war game since the fall of the soviet union but he may putin says the armed forces will continue to be strengthened but russia is a peace loving state which doesn't have aggressive plans he said commanders of the coalition of war in europe say they continue to control the main routes supplying

the important port city of the data the fighters are underplaying the reports saying they've repelled government forces and stopped the progress the u.n. envoy to yemen is set to visit santa to revive talks to stop the fighting. the de facto leader of me and my son su chief says in hindsight government could have handled the crisis better seven hundred thousand muslims fled the military crackdown in rakhine state a year ago un investigators say there were mass killings and gang rapes but smith speaking at an international meeting in vietnam defended security forces from charges of civilian atrocities when he is their. own son sue cheese appearance at the world economic forum on southeast asia in hanoi was the first international speaking engagement since a united nations report was released last month that called for genocide charges to be laid against me and military leaders for attacks on communities in rakhine state

that report was also very critical of aung san suu kyi and her government for their failure to condemn the violence something she also refused to do here in hanoi there are of course. we simply to be with hindsight might think that the situation could have been handled better but we believe that for the sake of long term stability and security we have to be fair to all of the rule. law must apply to everybody we cannot choose and pick who should be protected by the rule of law and have to keep repeating because people are very few are interested in that aspect of the situation that in the rakhine there are many many small groups ethnic groups and religious groups and there don't just the muslims and the cons and seems to be at the section of much of the world for example we are very

small ethnic groups which are fast disappearing but nobody seems to be interested in them and yet they are the ones who could disappear altogether because someone not down to four figures she was also asked about the case of the two reuters journalists who last week were jailed for seven years true or so and while lone were arrested last year while investigating a massacre in rakhine state and there was growing international pressure on sun suchi and two governments to grant them pardons it's not a matter of lou they were not jailed because of adjournment they would do with jail because the court has while sentence has been awesome then because the court has decided that they had broken the official secrets act so if we believe in the rule of law they have every right to appeal the judgment and to point out why the gesture in this room if they consider it wrong me and my is expected to come under even more scrutiny at the united nations general assembly next week but on sun

sujit will now not be attending. back to europe because hungary says it will challenge a european parliament decision which could see it stripped of its voting rights parliament members voted by a large majority to take action against hungary for not following the values on democracy and civil rights it's the first time such measures have been approved reports from strasburg. there was applause as members of the european parliament voted to punish hungry for breaching e.u. values for the first time they agreed to norge article seven a procedure that could lead to budapest losing its voting rights it was nice dodge lawmakers report on hungary then led to the decision we've seen the democrats in hungary deteriorate since two thousand and ten. press freedom. is not guaranteed the judiciary has lost in the pendants academic freedom is sure is

it is falling down the vote is unlikely to surprise hungary's far right anti immigration prime minister he and the e.u. have clashed repeatedly over the years. victor brand has accused the european parliament of trying to blackmail him to change his ways and in budapest his foreign minister has dismissed the vote saying hungary is being unfairly targeted we like your. problem and today's european parliament decision was nothing else but petry the range of pro immigration politicians against hungary outside but a pests parliament anti government campaigners protested. all of them in that are best opened talks about everything on tuesday but not the reality here in hungary everything is always about migration it's to full heard gary ns and they swallow it by going through their own fears is true it's not a distortion the government have been changing the law step by step i think because they want to hold on to power the e.u.

will issue hungry with a formal warning before deciding whether to strip it of its voting rights such a move would damage hungary's international reputation but this supporter says it could actually bolster leadership in the long term mr obama come also be of in or of this journey because he can establish a new platform vid in the european peoples party and can make new alliances in europe and through that it can increase his influence on the european domestic politics for now pro european politicians are celebrating but their victory may be short lived the vote has highlighted the growing divisions in the e.u. the threats in the bloke's very existence and its future natasha butler al-jazeera stroudsburg france a state funerals being held for the former u.n. secretary general kofi annan in his home country ghana mr annan died last month at the age of eighteen these are live pictures from the capital accra where

a large crowd is gathered for a celebration of his life in addition to his family dignitaries from around the world are also there and attendants including the current u.n. secretary general and turning to terrorists. a high level conference on climate change is now getting underway in san francisco and he does of us states and cities will go along with representatives of civil society organizations from around the world they hope to act on their own even if the u.s. government will not for california the world's fifth biggest economy the stakes are high rob reynolds explains more intense fires more devastating droughts deadly heat waves with tens of thousands of premature deaths a rising ocean and disastrous floods that's the future california faces due to manmade global warming over the next century according to a major new state climate change assessment university of california scientist

stephanie penn's cell helped review the findings the future seems dire if we don't do anything the assessment says heat waves and polluted air could cause up to eleven thousand deaths annually by mid century the pain of climate change will be felt most acutely by vulnerable poor and marginalized people the poor are going to be hit by the apocalyptic putra like the poor are always hit by any of apocalypse harder and worse aging infrastructure like this major dam that nearly failed last year will be heavily stressed by heavier rains and flooding associated with the changing climate california is already dealing with the biggest most deadly outbreak of wildfires in state history but the assessment says the area burned by such conflagrations will increase seventy seven percent by the turn of the century . and two thirds of california's famous beaches could completely disappear by then

devoured by the pacific rising nearly three meters above its current level in response to these dire warnings about climate change california's legislature and its governor of instituted a new law that would phase out the use of all fossil fuels to generate the state's electricity the law requires california to rely on renewable sources like solar and wind power for sixty percent of its energy by twenty thirty and for using only carbon free sources including nuclear power by twenty forty five it's not going to be easy and it will not be immediate but it must be done california is committed to doing whatever is necessary to meet the existential threat of climate change but with president donald trump's repudiation of the paris climate accord and his efforts to increase coal mining and relaxed standards for fuel efficient vehicles

california is taking the lead hoping other states and cities will help it stays off a fiery and foreboding future robert oulds al-jazeera los angeles. japan is proposing an end to a thirty three year old ban on commercial whaling the move comes as the international whaling commission begins its two union meeting which is taking place this week in brazil around the home to explains the it seems on the table. you'd be forgiven for thinking whaling is a thing of the past gone of the fleets slaughtering whales to near extinction commercial whaling is banned trading and while products is to endure it every year to pen norway and iceland collette least fifteen hundred that's an estimated forty five thousand whales at least since the ban was introduced in one thousand nine hundred eighty six and they want to take more norway has never been bound by the

eighty six moratorium because it lodged an objection to pen in iceland to conduct scientific whaling a controversial loophole allowing countries to hunt for research purposes together they have been lobbying the international whaling commission to reinstate sustainable commercial whaling the stocks that they say have recovered and he whaling countries though say the numbers and the practices just don't stack up they accuse japan of aggressive lobbying and particular of trying to entice developing nations to vote on this side and return for investment in their fishing industries and so every two years i.w.c. member nations on both sides of the divide prepare for a fight like whaling itself it's a bloody business the russian protest group pussy riot says one of their members has been poisoned piotr of a symbol has been in the mission secure since losing his eyesight and.