would be just that third our special representative for afghanistan reconciliations . just got back from his trip to afghanistan the u.a.e. and cutter ambassador khalilzad first and last stop was kabul where he met with president ghani chief executive abdulla and other afghan stakeholders facilitate a peace process between the governor afghanistan and the taliban during his visit to kabul and bastard met with men and women active in afghan civil society peace efforts members of the media and other governmental and non-governmental organizations in every one of his meetings ambassador stressed that all afghans must have a say in creating a sustainable peace for afghanistan we will continue to work with all interested parties to support facilitate an inclusive peace process forth our special representative for north korea steve begin his meeting today with this republic of korea counterpart to further strengthen our close coordination and efforts to achieve our shared goal of the final fully verify denuclearization as agreed to by

chairman kim these are important discussions today with the republic of korea they are discussing ongoing diplomatic efforts are sustained implementation of u.n. sanctions and the into korean korean cooperation and finally i just left a meeting with turkish foreign minister shover shalit today i welcome the positive momentum in our relationship following the release of pastor brunson and urged reopening additional channels to a jewish address issues of mutual concern we are still gravely concerned about turkey's continue unjust attention of u.s. local employees staff and citizens including nasa scientists circ on go game we also discuss the showcase and the need to work together to deescalate conflict in syria support the reinvigoration of the un led peace process and achieve a peaceful lasting solution to the syrian conflict. with that i'm happy to take a few questions.

secretary one of the things that the president points to in his statement is one hundred ten billion dollar arms initiative but by the state department's own record in october only fourteen point five billion has come through when do you expect to see the rest of the money from that i'm saying that. some of these contracts the defense contracts in particular are complex like the contract negotiations where working diligently on other major of those we actually hope that number will end up being even greater i could tell you when those negotiations will conclude but we are very hopeful that each of those commitments that the kingdom of saudi arabia made to the united states to purchase equipment will be completed in a timely fashion. and this is the. movie people with the illusion of with some. saudi arabia will be affected by the killing of g. and they'll can you differentiate between the kingdom and the culprits.

so it's a mean nasty world out there. the middle east in particular there are important american interests to keep the american people safe to protect americans not only americans who are here but americans who are traveling and working doing business in the middle east it is the president's obligation indeed the state department's duty as well to ensure that we have up policies that further the america america's national security so as the president said today the united states will continue to have a relationship with the kingdom of saudi arabia they're important partner of ours we will we will do that with the kingdom of saudi arabia its people that is that is the commitment that the president made today. it's that straightforward. this along the way this is a long historic commitment and one that is absolutely vital to america's national security and we are determined to ensure that we continue to make sure that we take

care of the american people in all of this repeated decisions we make about who with whom we work around the world. on that and then a question on iran so does the america first agenda putting u.s. business interests ahead of human rights. and then on iran have any specific actions specific sanctions to pressure iran to release the american citizens who are held there and try taking your second question first yes. we are engaged. every day literally every day in working to return every u.s. citizen who is either wrongfully detained or hostage somewhere around the world that certainly includes. bob levinson and all those that are being held by the iranian regime we're determined to get them back. as president trump is has made very clear we don't we're not going to pay a price for their return but we're prepared to work with all those who can assist

us in getting those americans returned to their families and returned to our country your other question. it is best answered by talking about what we have already done there has been an enormous effort with respect to fact finding with pertaining to the death the murder of democracy a lot of us resources been devoted to determining the facts to the best of our ability to determine precisely what happened there the united states took a very strong response we have sanctioned seventeen individuals in connection with that investigation we are we are at the same time committed to making sure that we place america's national security interests and all the actions that take place in the context of doing the right thing to make sure that america. it continues to thrive and grow and when we do that the world is better off for too and the middle east is better off as well.

i just wanted to ask what's the message he's going to be sending as far as what the u.s. government would like to see south korean government do as far as for naming their inner korean efforts and the denuclearization efforts. so i think there's complete agreement between the south koreans and us with respect to how this is should proceed we now have a working group that formalizes those processes so that we can be sure that we don't talk past each other that that we don't take an action or the south koreans don't take an action that on the other is unaware of or hasn't had a chance to comment on or provide their thoughts and that's the purpose of the working group that's being led on our side by stephen because we we have made clear to the republic of korea that we do want to make sure that. the peace on the peninsula and the denuclearization of north korea art are lagging behind the

increase in the amount of in a relationship between the two koreas we view them as tandem as moving forward together we if we view them as important parallel processes and that working group is designed to make sure they continue to remain that way. you mention you're gathering all these talks is the president's statement today mean that x. i mean segment is over and have you seen the assessment he is expected to get. i can't i can't comment on intelligence matters a direct you to the to the d.n.i. director coats or to the cia to talk about particular intelligence issues facts will obviously still continue to come to light i'm confident that it's it's the way the world works. pursue further action against whoever even if it does show we have been we have been i think it was with respect to how we have treated the dataset that we have been able to get when america has the information it needs it will of course do the right thing to protect american interests and we can we have

done so every time how can i trust the saudis after so much this information has been the worse of the problem is this i tell you this that. i was anxious to get to my pump aoe the at a news conference he said that he had discussed the case with the turkish. foreign minister he then restated the position outlined by president trump that there had already been a very strong response that u.s. and sanctions seventeen individuals and he said there are important security interests at the u.s. will continue to have a relationship with the kingdom of saudi arabia and it's bring in she had her tanzi who's live for us in washington d.c. so we've had the statement from president trump and now there's some news conference with pompei o and apparently it is that national security that that is ahead of any further response. it's nakedly all a citizen that in some ways perhaps you could say that the trumpet ministration is being far more transparent about how they deal with issues like the mother of

a dissident journalist and other administrations after all we often hear barack obama or other presidents before him brooke torricelli being terribly strong against saudi arabia or against israel who have a but i'm just giving them basically whatever they wanted in the end only at the end of barack obama's. time in office did he start acting against saudi arabia or any revenge the forceful manner here donald trump might bump the administration being quite open transparent actually telling us pretty much what we always always knew that in the end they are going to jeopardize weapons sales they are going to jeopardize geostrategic priorities just because one man was killed and they don't even get to dress it up that only going to be rhetorical e filled with flourishes about human rights and the need for freedom of press and protection they just say look this is how it works it's a mean enough city world american interests need to be protected by compare sent along historic vital commitment or a relationship with saudi arabia is essential to national security american

interests will always come first that was an old trump statement that's what might compare just said that was also lost on the matter of the. that one of the reporters suggested that the figure instead of it being one hundred ten million in sales so far on any been fourteen and a half billion and what do you make of his response to that question. yeah i mean. these are complicated deals he said if i was i just richard i happen to have that report in front of me actually a report this came out from the center for international policy a think tank in washington which said that the reporter mentioned that the actual value of u.s. almost sells to riyadh since trump took office is forty two and a half billion dollars so clearly not the norm was four hundred fifty billion dollars some and even that fourteen in the whole of billion some is when you take into account and that is of office and acceptance and so on nothing's been signed on a dotted line these are just so these are still possibilities in the future and still

to be worked out might compare they're able to say well look it's all it's all rather complicated and in fact this new report suggests that as opposed to the hundreds of thousands of jobs that all trumps always talking about the most perhaps maybe twenty thousand jobs might be created by as a result of the saudi weapons deals really it's a tiny fraction of the u.s. workforce and in fact as a result the u.s. doesn't quite look a lot of leverage over saudi arabia perhaps but clearly that's that's not part of the narrative that we now have from donald trump like bombay which they're sticking to and frankly it's quite obvious they don't care that or care whether people can see that the holes in the entire in the entire story share tons of thank you very much indeed well as mentioned just u.s. president donald trump released a statement defending washington's alliance with riyadh saying the saudis are vital for the economy and the fight against iran he said the saudi crown prince could have known about plans to madrid. but that he's not going to take any more measures against saudi arabia over the journalists killing. state department official and

said a cia report had called it blindingly obvious the crown prince mohammed bin soundman ordered. well white house correspondent can be how cute is live for us in washington d.c. so we have a slide in the statement from from trump it could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event as he put it but the decision is not to take much any further isnt it. yeah there are a couple things there as you pointed out that state department official saying that it's blindingly obvious that the crown prince the saudi crown prince will have been solemn solomon ordered the killing of shows he's the one the calls the shots and then we have the statement from donald trump saying quote we may never know the facts this is not going to sit well with the intelligence community in the united states the fact that the u.s. president is casting doubt on the conclusions of the intelligence agency of the cia director gina household with whom he met with we know that she when met with her

counterparts as well in turkey and then brief the president and then the other key point of the president's statement which we should point out was seven paragraphs long looked to be authored by the president had a bundle use of the exclamation point something we see often in his twitter feed the other key point that he makes in all of this is that. really the united states is taking this position because saudi arabia the u.s. is calculated is an important ally as it confronts iran essentially the president goes on to say in his statement that he does not condone the murder of but essentially that is what he is doing turning a blind eye to human rights violations of gross human rights violations the intent to murder a saudi dissident essentially in favor of confronting a rod and as we heard mike pump aoe speaking just a few moments ago essentially what the president is saying is that the interests of economics comes before the american values and human rights and kimberly he also

said that congress was essentially free to go as you put it in a different direction if they wanted to how not actually is it that congress really will make a difference on this and take it properly in a different direction. i think the likelihood is about one hundred percent the u.s. congress was already angry at the sort of slow moving heel dragging approach this administration has taken with regard to the death of. they had already put in place two pieces of legislation to do a couple of things number one halt military sales for offensive purposes and to stop permanently the refusal of military planes of the assistance of the u.s. military to help the saudi led coalition in that conflict in yemen that members of congress have not been happy with the humanitarian disaster with the high number of casualties and the fact that many of those civilians killed were killed by by bombs

dropped that have the step made in america on the side this has been bothering them for some time the death of his about his shows he has only made it worse now this report by the president this statement that has been issued is going to infuriate not just democratic critics but also members of his own republican party who very much like senator lindsey graham a prominent republican have pointed the finger at haven't been solomon is is calling him unstable there is no doubt that he was responsible for this and so what we're going to see is i think just an intensifying of this effort to not only take action against saudi arabia proper house pressure this white house to do more than what it's done and we should very quickly point out what it's done to this point is revoke the visas of twenty one individual saudi nationals and sanction seventeen individuals none of those individuals were the highest levels of the

saudi government as the president promised and this is what is going to upset so many members of congress and we should point out also the american public. will likely conclude that this president has chosen instead of american values american economic values and that's not going to sit well with the voting public committee have to thank you very much indeed. in the studio by our senior political analyst melanie shara thanks for coming in so is this a decision by the u.s. president regardless of what congress has to say about it will the u.s. president decision affect how the rest of the world decides to continue with this question. affair and what to do next well certainly it would have a lot of influence after all the united states is the supreme power in the middle east if you will it is saudi arabia's closest ally and usually the saudis will do well just with america but the fact that the germans have already boycotted saudi arabia in terms of military hardware. i think probably more europeans to do the

same although the french hesitated in the beginning we will see what they will do next. i think where america goes now you would expect a lot of the others to be intimidated in the process but that does not end where this thing is going yes as you said congress will still have a role to play i think what the secretary of state tried to do was basically turned the page he didn't even want to answer questions about this issue he just wanted to turn the page and basically he didn't even talk about what the state department talked about all this time which is the investigation is open we will find out more about what happened there are even exploring that and what about the role of turkey in this because they they've been the ones who've been through the leaks and and so on continuing to keep this issue on the front pages and to being discussed and compare had that meeting with the detriments to begin say well actually what they talked about he said that mentioned they talked about say in

what terms and so do we know what he is pressing for now have they given up on on any further we don't know but i think there are two possible scenarios scenario number one is that the united states agrees with turkey that this is not exactly a good situation that the united states and turkey find themselves because of the saudi crime in istanbul and yet they are not going to humiliate saudi arabia at least the united states is not going to anytime in the near future but turkey and the united states might work together along with the with the saudis to find transitional interim agreements among the three that eventually will pave the way for the ouster or been saddam and the other possibility is that the united states has told turkey thanks but no thanks and we will go it alone with saudi arabia and our ally israel because we have

a primary enemy in the middle east which is iran now the one that struck me is that and they did say the relationship is with the saudi. kingdom so they haven't mentioned that it's with the crown prince is there is that the latitude where they consent say it some future date or at least behind the scenes between santorum and say what you have a little reshuffle and then we'll continue to be friends i mean there was a suggestion in a report which is today that members of saudi arabia's ruling family are are moving to try and sideline the crown prince what could make of all that i found the reuters reported bit. you know not wonderful not not not not great not was written i don't know whoever written the order of war did not does not know a lot about their work in the saudi royal family but be that as it may there's certainly. an ease in saudi arabia up but the future of the family and the stability of the kingdom and yes there must be all sorts of questions asked debated within the royal family about where do we go next because the crown prince has put

us in deep trouble and saudi arabia now is weaker is is under pressure more than ever before in its recent history that's one too that i think in the end of the day it's clear that the american president did not render the crown prince innocent but he did not condone either he said well he probably has something to do with it but he did not condemn him and yet he did not render him innocent so i think that leaves a bit of a space second as you said i think it was very clear that the idea of we we have state to state relations not with a crown prince not with a specific leader that's also important it leaves a bit of a door open for the future not for tomorrow and third i think again with congress he did leave another door open saying look if you have other ideas if you want to take a different path towards resolving this issue come to me and as long as your proposals do not contradict the vital interests and security of the united states are

considered them so i think there's a bit of an opening but in the over all loren this was for many observers for probably all of the other observer a very disappointing statement. thank you very much. now afghanistan has declared a day of national mourning not at least fifty people were killed in a suicide attack in the capital kabul an interior ministry spokesman says more than eighty others were wounded in the assault a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a wedding hall during a gathering of muslim religious scholars and a leading to mark the birthday of the prophet mohammed no group has claimed responsibility for the blast they got through fucked up mother i heard the explosion just take my cousin out of there was seriously wounded but when i got here i realized that i was wounded as well and i am here i wanted to enter the hotel to participate in the ceremony but i got a call from a relative and he told me that there was

a blast inside the hotel and the his children were wounded now and looking after my friends who've been injured in the blast the hospitals aren't allowing anyone any. in yemen fighting is once again escalating close to the port city of her data despite united nations calls for a cease fire government forces launched new airstrikes on monday evening as they attempt to take the strategic port from hooty rebels government officials say both sides will attend talks in sweden on november the twenty ninth robin to do is just across the red sea in djibouti. residents of the day they are describing fighting overnight in this city the most intense in days most of the fighting hop and around the seven july neighborhood about four kilometers from the airport who. was only defending their positions on hold the official we spoke to this morning said that we will be seeing collage just like the support of the fighting as well as intense fighting in different parts of the city because both parties want to

reach the talks to be held in sweden before the end of the year on a position of strength it's also more clear how much of the fighting is happening now in the city will affect the possibility of holding all stocks but the u.n. special envoy martin griffith is confident saying that he had been promised by both that they will hand the hawks both who with these so called action on their allies on the ground whop important thing some aspects of a cease fire with the whole thing saying that they were going to stop brawl and ballistic missile up togs but so far it doesn't seem to have become a fool to cease fire and the guns have not gone silent in yemen just yet. religious society of friends known as the quakers says it's going to boycott companies that profit from israeli occupation of palestinian land is the first u.k.

christian church to take such a step meanwhile the accommodation booking website b. and b. is also taking action plans to remove listings of properties in illegal settlements in the occupied west bank stephanie decker a force. it's a rare victory for human rights groups who've been lobbying to stop commercial rentals in the illegal israeli settlements for years air b.n. b. is sent an important message to the rest of the business community that it really isn't possible to do business in or with settlements without contributing to inherent serious violations of international humanitarian law and the human rights of palestinians however it was acquiescing to a policy in which palestinians idea holders are not allowed to enter settlements soley because of who they are and it appears to be the only case in the world for which air b.n. b. hosts are mandated by law to discriminate based on national origin u.s. based accommodation booking website air b.n. b.

issued the announcement the day before human rights watch was due to issue a report on bed and breakfast in the settlements specifically case studying the activities of air b.n. b. and booking dot com in a statement on line air b.n. b. says when we applied our decision making framework we concluded that we should remove listings in israeli settlements in the occupied west bank that are at the core of the dispute between israelis and palestinians palestinian say these settlements are one of the main obstacles to any future peace talks they are illegal under international law and their physical presence or an across the occupied west bank make the prospect of a cohesive palestinian state far more difficult. one israeli minister has called for air b.n. b. to be banned in israel following the announcement in the illegal settlement of a throughout the mayor had this to say the decision made by the administration of air b.n. b. to out these properties into dance america is extremely upsetting it's giving in to

extreme people who don't have any intention in promoting peace but driving people bringing people further away from one another it's not going to promote peace it's going to promote the semitic decisions made by such an organisation palestinians have welcomed the announcement an announcement that we're told no one expected this of course we very much welcome this decision and we believe that this decision is very very important. we who. serve and company will do the same as soon as possible for now air b.n. b. says it will remove the listings from its site soon the announcement won't change much for palestinians on the ground but rights groups say it's an important way in which highlights the issue of illegal settlement expansion and of who has access to land which remains at the very heart of this conflict stephanie decker al-jazeera in the occupied west bank. there are growing calls for

a leading member of south africa's cabinet to resign the economic freedom fighters party is demonstrating in johannesburg while public enterprise minister pravin gordhan testifies before a committee called on who was finance minister under former president jacob zuma has been accused of enabling corruption at the highest level but he insists he was buried under his rule a committee is part of president cyril from opposers anticorruption page. italy's far right government has ordered the seizure of the migrant rescue ship the aquarius accusing it of illegally dumping toxic waste of a vessel which was chartered by doctors without borders is currently stuck at port in the french city of must say a charity denies any wrongdoing and says italy is trying to criminalize humanitarian missions to talk about the reports. italian magistrates say this video shows potentially toxic waste being offloaded from the aquarius rescue ship in the

sicilian port of catan you're welcome and can be seen sorting through bags of medical trash finding syringes and throwing away clothes the magistrates accuse one of the charities that runs the ship doctors without borders of having dumped twenty four tons of waste on past missions allegations the charity denies. it has been used to draw being criminalized exists they say our work arabs people smugglers were given special codes of conduct or lessons to say take it away from us this is just another way to stop us from doing our work from the aquarius began operations two years ago it's rescued thirty thousand people on the often treacherous sea crossing between libya and europe but since october it's been stuck in the french belt of mass say it needs a new registration to sail off to panama withdrew its license al-jazeera fisted the ship shortly after it docked it was being cleaned at the time doctors without

borders say that italian authorities have frozen the charity's italian bank accounts and ordered that the aquarius ship be seized. italy's interior minister met vini says that italians are fed up with bearing the brunt of europe's migrant crisis in june he prevented the aquarius from docking in italian ports in a tweet on tuesday he said the ship aquarius has been seized i've done well to block the ngo ships not only have i shut off traffic in illegal immigrants but also it seems in toxic waste. more than fifteen thousand people have drowned in the central mediterranean since twenty thirteen there have been no rescue boats in the area for more than three months charities warned that unless the aquarius can continue its vital work many more lives will be needlessly lost natasha butler al-jazeera paris. representatives from easter island are in london seeking the return of a statue brought to the u.k.

one hundred fifty years ago a carving which has a name meaning lost or stolen friend was taken from the pacific island in eight hundred sixty eight by a british explorer it's one of more than nine hundred statues made by indigenous people the giant heads are known as moyo which means ancestors could a man do you can catch up at any time with a website you know a lot of you watch us online to do so you can click on the live mike on al-jazeera dot com. one of the top stories when i was there donald trump says the saudi crown prince could have known about plans to manage him out hush algy but that he's not going to take any more measures against saudi arabia over the journalists killing a u.s. president has reached a statement defending washington's alliance with riyadh saying the saudis are vital for the economy and the fight against iran u.s.

after state of state might pompei or says american safety comes first in such matters it's lead the world out there the middle east in particular. there are important american interests to keep the american people safe to protect americans not only americans who are here but americans who are traveling and working doing business in the middle east it is the president's obligation indeed the state department a duty as well to ensure that we had our policies that further the american america's national security so as the president said today the united states will continue to have a relationship with the kingdom of saudi arabia their important partner of ours we will we will do that with the kingdom of saudi arabia its people that is that is the commitment that the president made today. afghanistan has declared a day of national mourning after at least fifty people were killed in a suicide attack in the capital kabul

a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a wedding hope during a gathering of muslim religious scholars eighty people were injured no group has claimed responsibility yet the fighting has escalated in the yemeni city of her data despite repeated calls from the un for a ceasefire saudi and iraqi coalition forces launched further asterix on monday as they attempt to retake the strategic port from hoofy rebels. britain's religious society of friends known as the quakers says it's good to boycott companies that profit from israeli occupation of palestinian land accommodation booking website is also taking action it plans to remove listings of properties in illegal settlements in the occupied west bank italy's foreign government has ordered the seizure of the migrant rescue ship the aquarius accusing it of illegally dumping toxic waste a vessel was chartered by doctors without borders says italy is trying to criminalize humanitarian missions there's a top stories do stay with us on the stream is up next.

ok and you're in the stream why is the chinese government separating. families. and today we meet people who say they've been unable to contact detained relatives as china is accused of cracking down on muslim communities have questions for i guess the short. chat and we will include them in our conversation but first here is al-jazeera as a ground reporting from the capital of china leisure. time here

believes be in a camp if you return. he says chinese states.