one of the few journalists that were actually doing investigative black. post as we turn the cameras on the media and focus on how many were caught on the story demands the rights to those stories but then he never publishes those stories or listening pounced on al-jazeera after more than seven years of a never ending conflict in syria does one of the world's most famous war crimes prosecutors believe they'll ever be justice for the victims and also on the show is guards on the brink of war. more than two hundred dead in gaza this year alone three palestinian kids killed in an israeli air strike earlier this week rockets fired into israel from gaza and will the verge of another all out war that's our discussion but first the world

continues to fail syria with the international community unable to prevent crimes against humanity war criminals were prosecuted both in rwanda the former yugoslavia but what chance of that happening in syria and couldn't leader of the united states or the u.k. ever be brought in front of an international tribunal all of this week's headlines for war crimes chief prosecutor carla del ponte. thanks for joining me up front more than a year ago you resigned in protest from the independent international commission of inquiry on the syrian arab republic a special investigative committee set up by the u.n. you said that you were frustrated that you gave up that there is no justice for syria you said why is that and who do you think is to blame. first of all i confirm what you are saying yes i resigned in protest to be because the security council. is guilty on this situation because the security council did not take

a decision to put in place its regular doc or to be fair to the. money to criminal court. so. after six years in the commission. trying to obtain justice for the victims and it was not possible nobody's listening to us to the commission and then see the. total impunity when you said that the un commission was not backed by any political will for example which countries on the security council were you referring to which countries specifically lacked the political will that you were looking for or it's well known it is russia first of all to russia and china and russia are used as a victorian right so they stopped each resolution that want to put in place in international tribunal it was not possible it is still not possible because

russia is still putting an obstacle to each. decision to justice for the victims isn't there a bit of a contradiction there when we hear you talk about russia because right now you're saying russia is to blame but in twenty sixteen when the russians were intervening in syria bombing in syria tilting the war in favor of bashar al assad you praised that you said it was a good thing that russia should intervene because quote someone is attacking these terrorist groups what is your position on russia in the syrian war because you seem to be all over the place. you know you must make it be fed into between the military as it is the justice justice bowing to the media to the point of political point so if you see it russia now russian is probably trying to obtain a peace accord in syria as we as we know from the place but. military military aid was. not allow when

the. russian a was helping the regime of assad and it was their fighting against terrorism you have other reports of this commission that you can read is that the ration is the responsible for civilians death and that is and as a result our understand the point you make us think separate about they can intervene to fight terrorism and kill civilians at the same time i'm saying but you are someone who sitting on a un commission at that time do you regret making those comments because the at the moment you made those comments in february twenty sixth at that time amnesty was. for bombing civilian targets how can you investigate all crows while praising a party that's accused of war you know i disagree with you totally i disagree with you. because it is a war it always is going on seven years now and in this a very year or so you have

a different event even in that the jude from the parties who are fighting these is this war end but equally the commission of crimes crimes against humanity and war crimes so even i remember speaking as a former prosecutor i must telling you your total impunity in syria and that east and acceptable and the security council is guilty. of that. if i am speaking about a member of the commission because a commission is about relation of human rights and didn't not teach violation of human rights is a crime so you can you can describe in this city ports that we present the council of human rights we describe what happened in reality ok and that then you had a little time that russia has intervention was justified because finally someone is attacking these terrorist groups but as you know the ass of government has labeled

just about everyone who is on the side of the regime a terrorist were you worried about kind of language from you member of the commission would give a green light to syria and to russia to escalate their bombardment. no no no no no no nobody of rahm's a commission and not to me is even going to the ration to bombard absolutely not russian intervene intervene we set aside the regime against terror is go by tikrit . and that for me was absolutely positive on may sixth two thousand and thirteen following a chemical attack in syria outside of aleppo two months earlier you said we have no indication at all that the syrian government has used chemical weapons and that according to what we have a stablish so far it is at the moment opponents of the regime who are using sarin gas ever since you said that supporters of the assad government of used your quote to suggest it's the rebels who are carrying out all the chemical attacks not the assad government does that bother you and do you still stand by that statement. i

absolutely stay on that statement because that also you see it was at the beginning of the beginning of the use of chemical weapons so in one interview i said their first elements of evidence is that we have ethan's that they have dealt have used chemical weapons since then the commission established that the regime used chemical weapons but we were not able to investigate and we were not allowed to investigate unfortunately because until today you don't know exactly who all you always want to of chemical weapons so you said at the time you said we have no indication of my government you told them you said we have it is them by the lap of moment opponents of the regime who are using storing this time but then i will tell you where they disagree that comments at the time of the very day the u.n. said at the time we wish to clarify the commission has not reached any conclusive findings on the use of chemical weapons did you speak too soon because your own

u.n. colleagues disowned your remark at the time it's true that the my colleagues were not happy about that but i think that if you tell the truth the best the best attitude that you can have and i asked former prosecutor i know that so. at the beginning of the use of chemical weapons the only elements we had a evolve very dense aware that their belts use it since then we have many others that episode and two we could establish a commission could establish that the regime used chemical weapons in their belts he was a good weapons. murrin murrin if he's older than that they have belts but but what i want to tell you is that. that the international community it in but in but security council and the u.n. don't do nothing to establish exactly who are responsible for the use of chemical

weapons before serious. you were called the world's most powerful criminal lawyer you working as a prosecutor for the international tribunals on war crimes in the former yugoslavia in rwanda slobodan milosevic famously attacked you with the new gas stop i think he called you you said some of the worst criminals of the twentieth century to prison why was justice possible in rwanda and in the balkans but not in syria because the security council didn't want that because the security council. don't want to just. see the avoid to be teams because of former yugoslavia and there was the security council. unanimously decided to go constituted a mission that i bulent to that to deal with the crimes that way they committed war crimes and crimes again your money and genocide but unfortunately it is a political decision from the security council while out an entire nation an institution a tribe you all know a dog to obtain just deployed to beat teams. the weak point that it is

a political decision you will but the but those decisions are made not just by governments are made by prosecutors you once expressed a willingness to press charges against nato personnel for alleged war crimes in one nine hundred ninety nine in december ninety nine when you told the guardian you were up for that nato had broken the geneva conventions then six months later you change your mind you did one hundred percent u. turn and said major didn't do anything wrong you're not going to investigate them why did you do that. we open an investigation when we have concrete element of evidence this and we had one element i remember very well it was a bombardment from an american pilot on civilians convoy and did the pilot say i see you have c.b.d. and and even see the order to bombard and. one hundred twenty civilians were killed we all put in an investigation. but it was not possible

to conduct this investigation in this investigation to the end that the leads and why. not but this is what you said in june two thousand there is no basis for opening an investigation into any of the allegations although some mistakes were made by nato i'm very satisfied that there was no deliberate targeting obviously was about you said although some mistakes were made by nato i'm very satisfied that it was not deliberate targeting of civilians no human rights groups don't agree with. i don't know which. you were referring to the war in general and you said not i'm quoting i am color i'm quoting you you said all let me know no one in general i am not speaking about the war in general you are reserve you are really nine thousand you said i'm very satisfied that there was no deliberate targeting of civilians by no two during the bombing campaign but human rights groups disagree with you you disagreed with you six months earlier these agree what to you are saying you are not correct in what you are the fairing that i am speaking about ok

let me ask you now that since you disagree with your quote do you believe that nato only made mistakes during its bombing campaign of kosovo and there were no potential war crimes worth investigating what's your position you told me i have one on one investigation i open just one investigation about the responsibility of nato committing crimes but i could not i could not enter this investigation and issuing any died because it was not possible to collect. all this they've been using to cooperate with the tribunal. because it is not the only although in cases that we did not ended our investigation because i was not able to collect enough to be dangerous to issue an indictment that is the task of that procedure so to be clear then they may have committed war crimes it's just you were not able to investigate it fully it's not that they're innocent of war crimes it's

that you were prevented from investigated before way that's a. exactly ok exactly exactly last question directly do you think it's possible that a president of the united states or a prime minister of the u.k. could ever be brought in front of a war crimes tribunal or is it a pipe dream is that a fantasy tale regularly foreseeable under the international law is possible but in practice in practical it's not possible because that told you international justice is possible only if the political will is in existence but we must fight to obtain justice for all the victims of the war crimes crimes against humanity by the highly responsible political and military responsible position of these crimes but. of course is the ideal situation nice away from from now only now i must see carla del ponte oh thanks for joining me on that front. ok.

gaza is imploding and we remain on the brink of another potentially devastating conflict the words of the un special envoy to the middle east this past week has seen even more violent and escalations with rockets fired from gaza into israel and an israeli airstrike killing three palestinian children in gaza since the great not to return protests began earlier this year israeli security forces have killed more than two hundred people in gaza and wounded more than eighteen thousand so is another full scale israeli attack on the strip inevitable joining me to discuss this a double macintyre a former jerusalem correspondent for the independent and author of the book gaza preparing for dawn i'm not a palestinian humanitarian aid worker based in gaza thank you both for joining me up front let me start with you do you believe that another war in gaza is imminent because prime minister benjamin netanyahu claims he's trying to avoid one unfortunately the situation in gaza that keeps on becoming more and more of. the

fear of the people. is always to feel. out. there we must say that. almost every room. at risk of such escalation. disproportionate to the action of the israelis after. but because there's a lot of. discussion that people are not fully or even privately aware of that are in the picture it's just becoming more and more complicated you can analyze our critic our critic. anything . yet again plagued by violence things look like they're escalating is this just depressing news out of gaza as we've seen week in week out year in year out for the

last few years or is this a tipping point well i think there's not a sign saying it's a very very fragile and dangerous situation i mean i think the most positive thing that one can say about it is that it's it seems like neither hamas nor is really want to right now if it can be avoided. and the egyptians more war because they're worried that it will play back into the north if it happens so. gazans face this really terribly difficult situation which is not just was saying you know one minute you're hearing that as a positive development because of the israelis of qatar to send in some few there seems to be a slight muting of the violence and then it blows up again. on the on the protests themselves what is the end game is there an end game is there an understanding you have out there in gaza the west what's going to happen next from the palestinian side from the protesters side. the problem is people are very desperate those who

go to the border are young people who have unfortunately nothing to lose and they want to do something they want to do something to change their lives i mean we have been for years and years and blockade we have no answer to anything we have been for a decade trying to do peace. and there is no answer and again there are no potential even. light at the end of the tongue are. these raids called their frequent attacks on gaza quote moaning the law. what kind of strategy is that if you can even call it a strategy well i think it's right that particularly right wing commentators politicians in the zero do. develop this concept which was absolutely should mean and then my view indefensible one which was that the way to pacify garza was every few years to go in in huge force as they did in two

thousand and two thousand and twelve and again in two thousand and fourteen and that will somehow keep quiet now i think even some people in israel particularly in the military are beginning to wake up to the fact that for their own security reasons as much as anything else that may not be the best strategy but then on the other hand israel is coming up with a facing an election where there's a lot of right wing pressure to mow the grass and then one can only hope that that pressure is resisted. nigel is a part of the problem though for the people of gaza that the leadership and the political conditions on the ground in gaza are so dire right now allows the israelis to say the problems in gaza are not caused by their caused by misrule they're caused by hamas they're caused by corruption it's nothing to do with us if

gaza was a liberal democracy everything would be fine but it's all hamas is fault. of course i mean that's part of the complication of of the of the picture here is the palestinian divide and we know that for a fact and it is harming the people of gaza and palestinians in general and the palestinian cause so. yes inside that are not troops but israel controls everything . that people cannot simply leave they cannot have their. basic health needs and that's not because of hamas that's because of israel now of course taking it to the next level between hamas and fattah that's a big problem and the palestinians are fed up but not till you're right to say that it's not the fault of hamas that there's a lack of health care or or the blockade but on the other hand human rights watch has a report out recently which pointed out the boats in the west bank and in gaza the palestinian factions hamas and the p.a. have been carrying out abuse torture deprivation of rights how do people in gaza

feel about the fact that they've got these really is oppressing them from outside and in many ways have got home are suppressing them from inside. yeah unfortunately no one can deny that and unfortunately nobody is surprised by. such findings of raf such reports by both sides realize that. are not be accountable to their people and they are not they're not helping as as they should be and these violations are being fight against by the civil society in both areas but there is a lot lot. of resistance from these factions. absolutely and it's all political the israelis always say that all the problems in gaza are the fault of hamas which is obviously absurd but in your experience in your view you were in gaza very recently you've written this book about. how much has hamas made things worse on the ground in gaza i don't just mean in material terms but i mean their

very presence and the way they run the place has provided the interaction with excuse to maybe look away and say well you know the classic both sides are to blame yes well look there's no doubt as niger was saying you mentioned human rights watch report i have some stuff in my book about being at times pretty repressive really and there's no question and you know there are a couple you organization in that sense however after they won elections in two thousand and six which were attested by all international observers to be free and fair elections that it seems to me should have been that seems to me and i should say an increasing number of diplomats who are involved. privately now should have engaged us and that was a terrible mistake rather than one hundred because of a little grain of look at precisely just on the u.s. role donald trump gerrard. are best buddies with netanyahu and co surely

sadly there can't be any hope for gaza or the situation on the ground while trump is in office basically giving an american green light to anything that netanyahu wants to do we know that if the. is another full scale war in gaza the americans aren't going to lift a finger not that they did before but definitely not now now i think that's right for war i mean actually the rather conflicting signals of garza coming out of the administration i mean on the one hand we keep hearing rather turn to rising cushion and dream buying are working on some kind of rehabilitation plan for guards very much half the story of what's needed but that president abbas incidence this because he doesn't want a separate deal between the international community in israel on the one hand and hamas on the other against what is actually doing practically is cutting aid to the palestinians by precedented and in particular in an effort to take the refugee issue off the table is cutting aid aid to honor a mass disastrous or potentially disastrous in

a place where over half the population are in fact refugees. we focus a lot on the role of the americans in the west in backing israel but what about your arab neighbors what about egypt which has helped israel in force this blockade of gaza or the u.a.e. which this week hosted israeli minister miri rego do you feel abandoned by your arab neighbors. absolutely i feel abandoned but you know what i also feel that finally this is the reality that we have to see it and we have to face it. egypt and the closure of the border the way how they treat people at the border is extremely inhumane and it's extremely unnecessary even. the situation with egypt's involvement in resolving is of course out of their political interest and they must be part of this part of any deal. and so no i mean we are not considering

this part of the. solidarity if you will so this is how this has been changing dramatically. for the people of gaza what is the priority is it struggling to survive on a daily basis or is it still a sense of ending the occupation two state solution peace process what are the priorities right now for people on the ground moving. you know the problem now is that yes there are the daily challenges of course and it's affecting more and more more people than ever so the majority are busy with really securing their daily basic basic needs but in the bigger picture even if you want to speak to people who have who are suffering on daily basis. and they really have the ability to think a little bit about the bigger picture they don't have any trust in any solution i think. what now people are they're really kidding fearing is another political solution that can completely ignored their lives

again of the people more than before more than previous even previous peace agreements that's what people journalistically expect is that more denial of their rights. don't last question to you you've written a book on gaza you spent time in gaza you reported from gaza. do you think people in the west even in government not just members of the public recognize how dire the situation on the ground is in gaza and has been for many years no i don't and i think one of the tragedies of gods or actually is that if there's a or then. you know it becomes a big media story even when there are other things going on in the world and then. it dies as a story and the suffering doesn't stop and the factors that are leading up to the next or are very widely ignored by the media and i think that's

a huge problem. well we'll have to leave it there thank you both for joining me on the show from way back next week. on november sixth the united states will vote will president donald trump gain or lose growth we'll be live in the white house here on capitol hill as the results come in join us for special coverage of the u.s. election on al jazeera. in the united states the religious right is on the mom we were always hunting for the guy who would take our script and read it their goal is to take control of one of the political parties and they've effectively done that full lines examines the trumpet ministration special relationship with the religious right what do you get out of it the presidency and

what evangelical support means for the future of the country. on al-jazeera. this is al jazeera and live from studio fourteen here at al-jazeera headquarters in doha i'm come out santa maria welcome to the news grid who ordered the hit on jamal khashoggi took his president to one says publicly he doesn't think it was king solomon but still says the order came from the highest levels of the saudi government itself are demanding saudi officials reveal the location of the french body also on the grid a return to iran on the.