it was. without is there are these are top stories rescue operations have resumed on the tanzanian shores of lake victoria after a ferry capsized on thursday at least seventy one people are confirmed dead but that number is expected to rise as hundreds of others are still missing catherine so is the latest from nairobi in neighboring kenya we did speak. to the regional commissioner all one who said that this morning alone since this operation is received and twenty seven bodies have been retrieved so that adds to the forty four that were retrieved yesterday we're still not very clear on the actual number of people who are on board and this is because. there are no records yet that we are told that that picketing officer might have drowned as well

with his data and associated press news agency investigation appears to show a systematic campaign by the chinese government to strip the young week of muslims of their language and culture says they're being separated from their families against their will. vietnam's president tran di aquinas died at the age of sixty one state media confirms he passed away at a military hospital was vietnam second most powerful leader in the frontrunner to take over as general secretary of the communist party. the leader of yemen's who is the rebels has called on his supporters to stand firm against the saudi ambassador led coalition trying to defeat them that says thousands of people filled the streets of the yemeni capital sana'a to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the who sees takeover of the city the u.n. is trying to mediate peace talks to end the fighting between the government and he sees. and the white house says it's authorize new cyber operations against foreign

countries ahead of november's midterm elections the move as poss of a new cyber strategy the white house says will allow the government to protect the nation state now with all the headlines we're back with more news on al-jazeera off the inside story there stay with. us swear and. what's driving the number of terrorist attacks the u.s. state department used the force due to the near defeat of such shows of the same time americans against iran as the leading state sponsor of continuing attacks so what are the so-called global war on terror this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program. a four by almost a quarter in the number of attacks by armed groups worldwide last year that's one of the conclusions of the u.s. state department's latest and it was survey of global terrorism but iran won't welcome another of the surveys or highlights the americans singling out the iranians as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism the iranians are accused of intensifying many conflicts especially in afghanistan. iraq lebanon and yemen and continued backing for militias such as hezbollah the us government says

hezbollah fighters base in lebanon have gone from strength to strength emboldened by their battlefield experience in syria and the americans accuse iran of undermining legitimate governments and american interests in the middle east the report details a worsening of war in afghanistan and coordinated attacks by the taliban and its affiliated hakani network someone launched from pakistan which provoked the us to recently cut three hundred million dollars in security eight let's take a look at the report other findings the u.s. state department says there were about eight thousand five hundred what it caused terrorist attacks around the world last year the task killed eighteen thousand seven hundred people there americans attribute the twenty five percent year on year four in the number of deaths to victories against eisel and improved security in iraq despite that i said remains active and code attacks in twenty countries last

year more than half of all attacks by armed groups including i said al qaeda and the taliban were in just five countries afghanistan india iraq pakistan and the philippines. the fifteen month long santillan dispute with qatar isn't helping cooperation in the gulf by the u.s. is trying to encourage discussion of iran's influence in the arab world the white house supported a high level meeting of military officers from the gulf cooperation council in kuwait this month but qatar has been under blockade since june two thousand and seventeen qatari leaders did i cause ations of funding terrorism and to close a relationship with iran qatar is the only g.c.c. member to have signed by a lot of agreement with the united states to combat terrorist financing.

let's bring in our panelists joining us from doha it will him for a hat associate professor of conflict resolution the highest it's used for graduate studies into holland hammett more so a professor of political science at the university of tehran and from washington d.c. hillary mann leverett former u.s. state department official and c.e.o. of the political risk consultancy strata welcome to the program blame whether port talks about the decline in attacks and casualties. from terrorist groups is that an indication that groups for example like i said until clyde to have lost the fight. well first of all the report talks about induction and number of attacks by. by isis by about twenty three percent compared to last year so it's very obvious that the move of isis from. dakar has impacted the

numbers of attacks launched by the byte by isis this year however this leaves us with two major questions one is that with these numbers are sustainable with that there are continuing they're going to continue because that what could happen is that the isis is after the removal from from was an unlucky they're probably you know really presuming themselves like what happened in al qaida with al qaida back in two thousand. two thousand and three. that they move all over. afghanistan was followed by some sort of quietness in terms of activities but litter actually we see we saw that more of a car that he positioning itself and resuming its actors and the other important media think that we have to keep in mind is that removing an organization. the governance a structure of an organization front to sit is more than adequate there's not in

any way in the end that the end of the phenomenon and yet i'm talking about terrorism as a phenomenon that has been actually in the region for a long time so if i think isis is something violent extremism is totally separate thing ok so in my view i don't think this suggests any major conclusions for the phenomenon itself and it doesn't mean that while isis could have probably lost the battle but violent is keystream ism will continue with the iranian mission of the united nations so that basically the the the statement of the survey the annual report by the state department ignores the fact that iran has played a crucial role in the fight against isis but typically in places like iraq and and and syria do the iranians feel somehow they're been singled out for a political reason. yes i mean this is

a contradiction in the report on the one hand the report says that the number of attacks of decreased by twenty three percent compared to last year because of eyesores defeat yet we have to ask who has been the primary player in defeating i saw you on has played a major role in helping the iraqi and syrian government in defeating i saw in the iran has lost several thousand soldiers in this regard in comparison the united states did was not willing to put boots on the ground they only conducted air campaigns and we have to remember that the air campaigns actually came very late in the game actually a two thousand and sixteen odio leaked by john kerry who was then the secretary of state revealed that the u.s. had actually allowed eisel to grow in order to put pressure on assad so i think the united states is actually in no position to accuse iran of terrorism in the region

hillary this is a complex landscape i'm in could have been why did defeated in places like syria and iraq but they're being pretty much active in places like the yemen or also north africa and subsaharan africa so the funders of the report itself could be misleading to the international audience in a way or another a yes and i mean the the entire reason the united states has these terrorism reports is a political one these reports started in one nine hundred seventy nine with iran as a charter member of this what we call these states sponsors of terrorism and the reason was was that president carter back in the in the one nine hundred seventy s. started to focus more on human rights in countries and had mandated state department to produce reports on human rights in countries those focused uncomfortably on american allies particularly on israel and saudi arabia there are a lot of their friends their lobbyist. and washington needed to have an answer to

that and that they pushed for these terrorism reports and since one thousand nine hundred nine these terrorism reports have focused yes on some incidents of terrorism around the world where i think most analysts objectively would refer to terrorism but they have also focus very much in a political way on those groups and countries the united states doesn't like and that ranges not just from a country like iran but also to the nelson mandela's a.n.c. in south africa for example they were blasted in these terrorism reports early on and some of the political parties in iraq that the united states works with today like the tao a party was a was a was a listed organization for terrorism so there is very much a political motivation which muddies the word waters in terms of what's actually how king. in terms of incidents and and and and steps for events prevent terrorism terrorism spence abraham. was talking about the political reasons behind the

and it will be pulled did it come to you as a surprise when if one was singled out in there with force. state leading space sponsor of terrorism in the world well as a regional analyst and politics of the region he has there was not in any way surprising to me because i thought that i agree with my colleague from washington that their philosophy and purpose of this report is highly highly politicized and it's used in a in an extremely selective way and in particular never mentions israel as my colleague also said. so iran in terms of my understanding of the u.s. foreign policy since that. since the riyadh summit back in may two thousand and seventeen where the whole alliance you know was forged between the trump administration saudi arabia u.a.e.

and to a large extent israel the center of this alliance was iran and how to counter iran and how to put an end to the iranians influence an expression of this here in the region so if you are full of the u.s. policy from that moment until now with it's the cancellation of the nuclear deal with the. harsh sanctions that were imposed recently on iran so this one just one additional step in that overall policy in order to increase the pressure on iran to single out iran is that because it's keep in mind on the issue of iran here because here we're talking about two different definitions with that is terrorism as ice a lot of guy there on or something was by but the united states what it's for fit into here isn't thems of. relationship support it is.

ok hamad. i mean to some of the reports but today when it comes to iran it talks about. two things about the new global reach of iran basically iran as a destabilizing force in places like. and also bringing to its terrorist activities the resources of a state this is exactly the wording in the report is this an indication of that we might seem war confrontation between the americans and the iranians in the short term. when we talk about destabilizing the region we have to remember that this whole mess was created after the united states illegally invaded iraq in two thousand and three in the instability actually the spread in the region and wherever the americans have gone to in the past two decades have turned into disasters afghanistan libya iraq except for now with regards to iran

iran actually publicly declares that it does support hezbollah however iran does not see hezbollah as a terrorist organization hezbollah does not carry terrorist attacks in european capitals or in the united states it's a local resistance group fighting against israel and if we declare every force that is fighting israel as terrorists then yes it will be but that's not how iran sees it are regarding confrontation between iran and the united states unfortunately we are going down that path because every few days the trump administration is accusing iran of something new and i think this is part of a much larger campaign ok is trying to dehumanised the iranian people as well as been posing sanctions on them hillary the americans made a quite clear that they would like to ramp up sanctions against iran and they're trying to convince a major allies to follow suit i mean this report do you find it as an element that

could further. will pressure allies particularly to say you know what it's about time we follow the americas in this particular path yes absolutely though there is an important debate or perhaps even war going on within the trump administration between those that want to i mean i would say the key decision makers in the trunk are ministration are all very much either anti iran or iran hawks but in different and important ways someone for example like the national security advisor john bolton is looking to build a case with terrorism data like in this report to build a case for regime change to overthrow the government in iran that's what someone like national security advisor john bolton is looking at someone like secretary of state pump alle tho and perhaps even president trump himself is looking to build a case against iran including with terrorism data like in this report in order to put maximum pressure on iran to force iran to sign

a wide ranging broad treaty with the united states as is their approach with north korea because president trump and secretary pompei you don't really care that much about the the subtleties or the data involving terrorism our nuclear weapons or any of the other list of concerns united states puts out there so you have someone like secretary pompei oh maybe even defense secretary mattis and maybe even present trump himself against these these other players like secretary like national security advisor john bolton who want to overthrow the iranian government they are both using this data for their own for their own strategies and the there is not one settled strategy yet within the u.s. government it's very much a battle within the government whether to use this data to force iran into a negotiation for a deal with the united states like it's doing with north korea more to use this data to build a case to literally overthrow the iranian government. the key

regional players in the region some of them made it quite clear that they would like to. they support the americans with a push to counter what they described to be an iranian growing influence in the region is this a similar feeling among the key international players particularly the e.u. no of course not because we have seen the divergence and the positions of the international going to between the u.s. between the trumpet ministration and the europeans though at the same time we have to keep in mind that actually europe and you know some other countries have failed to come up with a strategy to count out of the american strategy in dealing with iran and all the attempts that were made we haven't seen any of that so i think this does not though the rest of the way thinking a different position on this issue i think that does not or is not minimizing the pressure coming from the united states and the escalation of the crisis that again

that the alliance that was forged after he had summoned and made two thousand and seventeen that is leading in this and continues to shape the politics of the region like to see how many some of the accusations leveled against iran in the report are similar to what we hear in the region particularly about iran people say many countries you know them they say basically iran is spreading radical ideology in the region iran is providing significant help so the whole thing is to undermine a legitimate government iran is trying to counter the sunni presence in the arab world with a new radical narrative.