twelve square kilometer area around the convention center where the summit is being held ukraine has banned russian men between the ages of sixteen and sixty from entering the country for a month president petro poroshenko says the buy will help stop a land invasion by private armies ukraine impose martial law in a number of provinces for thirty days after russia ukraine ships and twenty four sailors on sunday. syrian state media say thirty people have been killed and u.s. led coalition air strikes targeting. most of the victims in the town of said to be women and children on thursday nearly twenty people and some fighters were killed in a coalition strike on a prison in the same area iraq today with all the top stories this hour more news coming up a bit later on in about twenty five minutes time i'll see you then coming up next on al-jazeera it's up front.

almost four years into a war that led to the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe can a peace deal ever be reached in yemen this week's headline of the foreign minister of the who the rebel led government has shall musharraf. i'm mad the house and also on the show almost thirty years ago from this book yama said we'd arrive at the end of history he wasn't quite right about that and now he's back with a new thesis which says identity politics is undermining liberal democracy i'll ask him why but first the un has called the civil war in yemen the worst manmade

humanitarian crisis of our time most place the blame for it on the saudi led coalition which has bombed and blockaded yemen for more than three years now but the who the rebels who seized control of part of the country in twenty fourteen and forced the president to flee have also been accused of violating international law so what's their responsibility for the crisis in yemen this week headliner foreign minister of that who feel led government. sheriff thanks for joining me up front can i begin by asking you what is your official title. of the national salvation government which is between. congress. and you except though don't you that the rest of the world doesn't consider you to be the foreign minister they consider you to be part of a regime that lacks international legitimacy no one recognizes your national salvation government. yes i do understand this but i do to present my

country i do physics eighty five percent of the population who are living with us but dealing with us i think this is enough for me. anyone who would like to deal with this part of the world will deal with the defacto government stop list years on and you're right about the defacto government all of those eighty five percent of the people didn't vote for you do you accept that abdurrahman so hard he is the legitimate president of yemen under international. as this base for. their international law but according to their wishes the constitution of the republic of yemen he has resigned and the new arrangements for these we will have our own election on our own range arrangements to have a new president just to be clear u.n. security council resolution two two one six says he is the only legitimate

president of yemen whether you like him or not you talk about peace you all side of the conflict the national salvation government of yemen which of course includes the who these failed to attend the geneva peace talks that were scheduled in september will you also be refusing to attend the upcoming un peace talks in sweden to try and end this horrific civil war to try and end this saudi led bombing campaign though we have announced that we are going to look for these. consultations in the call on what happened because geneva was the obstacles with obstacles was. the other side our people were ready to go myself but the night before they go they were intending to go let's talk details muhammad ali al who thea senior official recently wrote an op ed for the washington post newspaper claiming that if the

saudi air strikes stopped there would be peace in yemen it sounds kind of simplistic vague even what actually are you proposing from your side to end the war we know what the saudis are doing but what is your side proposing to end this war. let me be very clear. when we asked for stopping by the saudis. have any expressed wish for peace the same things they mention that you guys stop your planes from coming to our airspace and bombing our people and killing them we will not send any of this palace to me science this would be just a gesture to go ahead with other of these arrangements it's not simplistic thought this out is a long time to say stop the potus think myside ok withdraw from the borders we can raise something now we tell them it's enough is enough let's go for this stop those planes from coming and killing our population it's undeniably true that the saudi

led coalition has killed most of the civilians in this war and bears greatest responsibility for the humanitarian crisis that's unfolding and may also have committed war crimes and i asked the saudi ambassador to the united nations on the show about what we've covered the saudi role in this war extensively on up from but the fact is that your side of the conflict there who feel led side has also been accused by the un by amnesty international by human rights watch of serious human rights abuses including blocking foreign aid torturing detainees hostage taking using child soldiers shelling civilian areas that's a pretty damning pretty horrific indictment of your quote unquote government isn't it i would not call an indictment of our government or our authorities during the wars any war things happen and as i said we are open and transparent we would like to see these things correct and in mr wings it is a that we are one hundred percent thinks happened during the war so again we are

trying our best to limit any incidents that is coming from our side but you are talking about planes that are throwing hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs on civilians if you speak up. to us the national salvation of our military we are trying our best to limit any incidence of killing or as he said. but human rights groups don't agree with you you say things happen as if it's some sort of accident or natural disaster when amnesty human rights watch the un have documented over many months not over days or weeks over a consistent pattern over many months of who the forces indiscriminately firing explosive munitions into residential areas into markets into houses into civilian areas how can you justify that though that's a violation of the laws of war. i mean let me tell you something i'm not coming here to testify as i said any this doings or any kind of an action that is hurting

our population we're ready to talk about it investigated and check it the one who did a mistake we are going to punish them but you are talking about a small fraction very small fraction of the killing that happened in our country if we get if we get ten percent of that the saudis and their coalition is responsible for ninety percent of the killing in yemen i accept that the saudi coalition is responsible for the majority of civilian deaths that doesn't excuse the civilian deaths at the hands of who the forces that doesn't excuse torture by the who the forces that doesn't excuse shelling of civilian areas do you accept that point ok let me hear you say something we are ready to receive those human rights groups to look to what's happening what how did it happen and how we can correct the course of the war against which we avoid our population and not hit them or as you said

throw some rockets to them but again i say we are defending our country and not fighting our people. and what about the rockets fired into saudi arabia one hundred rockets according to some reports into saudi arabia into riyadh some of which of indiscriminately targeted residential areas killed saudi citizens killed an egyptian laborer how is it not a war crime to target civilian areas in a neighboring country no matter what they're doing to you let me correct it to you it's one hundred ninety two rockets and if you more not hundred took so you're proud of the rockets you fired into saudi arabia oh yes we defend our country if you would go to the start of this war the first two year we did not fire anything we just were waiting to stop this crazy war then we did not find any response from the world so we started defending our country by not shooting some rockets to that country no know you. or that you meant that about some saudis who were hit or that egyptian citizen what's the number give it to me and i tell you that they killed

fifty thousand person in our country that injured more than that number and that minister we've all heard about him on this show up to romania so you know whether. that is a result of one comparing two wrongs don't make a right minister i'm not defending the saudi killing of civilians in yemen i'm asking you how you defend the killing of saudi civilians it's a simple question do you are you ok with killing saudi civilians yes or no let's not no no we don't consent to that we don't consent to killing any civilians it might happen by mistake but we don't intend to go to saudis because they are not enemies r. and b. is their military let's end it ladies and if you have some rockets to shoot those planes you would have done it but we don't have them ok and one of the main reasons this war continues to rage on is because it's not just a yemeni civil war it's become a proxy war between saudi arabia and iran and you're on the iranian side i want you to write the iranians back there who think and your national salvation government it's a fact isn't it. ok speaking on behalf of the national salvation government we have

not dealing with you and i myself requested the iranians some time to provide us with anti aircraft missile that's they didn't give it to us i tell you this cut me science we have them ten twenty years ago and we've modified something in them to defend our self everything in our country has been destroyed by the saudis so when we come and shoot one or ten or twenty besides to saudi arabia to show them we can't defend our country who are worth it a little bit but i think if it were it they should worry about those planes ok people are there actually we are trying to defend yemen and we will use our weapons if this war does not stop we would like to have peace so let's go to peace this is our a little minister said do you deny reports that suggest iran has sent not just missiles but military advisors to yemen to advise your forces do you deny claims from iran

backed hizbullah commanders that they've been helping you norge those rockets into saudi arabia. as of the foreign minister of the national salvation government i deny that my government is dealing with iran whatsoever whatsoever there isn't there are no iranian military advisors on the ground in yemen and i'm telling you of the for him in a safe is it a lot of places a visit a lot of our commanders and i don't mean his advisors of the minister of defense of any places i mean and if this is that i visit so those who are saying this like nikki haley and like the others in the us that tell us where they are and they should tell us how they did found about them his but our commander named abu abbas told foreign affairs magazine that hizbullah is already in yemen quote who do you think finds missiles into saudi arabia it's not there who things in there sandals it was he said is he lying. ok if this guy is liable and responsible

for what he has stated that as i say as a foreign minister of the national salvation government we have nothing about that on the have the minister of defense meeting with us at regular meetings we did not talk about that's ok one of the other big problems in yemen is not just outside intervention but that everyone in yemen seems to switch sides all the time your former boss the late president ali abdullah saleh and the government you were part of fort six was against the who these between two thousand and four and two thousand and eleven then they teamed up with the who peace to fight the saudis and then a year ago he ditched the who he is calling the reckless and the late president saleh got killed by them do you worry that if you disagree with your coalition partners the who these as well they'll turn on you to. let me tell you something serving this government for the republic of yemen that's what it parties so i'm serving my country and defending my country and i do this all the time so when it comes of

what happened last year we did not have all the facts it's not about the details of what happened but again as. we have the coalition with our brothers from the who the audience out of law and will continue that until this comes and then we will know all the details so if you approve of your brothers they're killing your former boss your former leader ali abdullah saleh. no this is the church party and some events happen and we will not eventually want to help them develop not know what happened our party it's not us that's for the withdrawal so we are continuing with this national salvation government for the sake of the other people not for this parties and one last question. yemen used to be divided between north and south it's divided right now because of this ongoing war is the only chance for peace is the only long term solution to the conflict in yemen to make that division

formal to bring back partition. my opinion is that boston. first lets your special envoy then let's look at. what is in front of us. stop the war let's look a. let the people move a little talk after we solve this issue of what's going on now then we can look to any other major issues. anyone who wants to face the reigning us should go to the strait of urban's look up to. any other base. if i think of the. sheriff thanks for joining me on up front. what comes after the end of history back in one thousand nine hundred nine when the berlin wall and fall in the end of the soviet union was near us political

scientists francis fukuyama argued that the success of western liberal democracy suggested that humanity had arrived at the close of a great ideological struggle but nearly thirty years later democracy is under assault across the globe with the rise of authoritarian liberal and nationalist governments in his new book identity the demand for dignity in the politics of resentment francis fukuyama criticizes what he says is a traditional left right spectrum of politics giving way to one defined by identity francis fukuyama thanks for joining me up front in your new book identity you argue that so-called identity politics is one of the chief threats to liberal democracies today how do you define identity politics and how is what you all saying any different to what conservatives have been complaining about for years well identity is based on this feeling that i have this inner self that's not being adequately recognized and what i want more than resources are actually recognition and respect and that's what drives groups to enter into politics because they feel as members

of groups particularly they've been marginalized that they're not getting respect and they want. from the political system and liberal democracy is based on individuals not group memberships and you know these there's some very thoughtful parts of the book and then there's bits where you make some sweeping statement you say black clothes right is fighting for equality and basic rights are you still extremist group terrorist group whatever you want to call it has a very genocidal approach to the rest of the world isn't fighting for equality and justice clearly but then you seem to love them together in this critique of identity both of you literally put them together on the same page you know well morally obviously they're not equivalent at all i think what's the same is actually the psychology because if you look at the psychology of many people that sign up for isis they believe that muslims around the world are being disrespected to kill you know disregarded in that they need agency in that their membership in this group is what's going to give them both community you know fellowship with other

muslims they're going to be able to support that group now of course the way they do it is you know is terrible and it's you know to say that. as much as a different manifestations of the same phenomenon is a little bit manifestations of a similar psychological phenomenon the only way i'm saying that these groups are comparable is in that psychological phenomenon whereby you know that demand for dignity is very deeply rooted in all of us it may be more justified in some cases than in others but there is a common you know framework in which we this happens one of the other important arguments that you raise in the book is about class you talk about the importance of challenging inequality and many would say that there's an intersection of politics into race and class you can't treat these things on their own and sometimes solving one problem doesn't solve the other for example if we say actually we should focus on class not identity issues race issues how do you deal with a recent study which found that black boys raised in the us even in the wealthiest

families living in the nicest neighborhoods are still less likely to earn an adult who'd. white boys with similar backgrounds and they're more likely to become poor or then to stay wealthy now in that scenario dealing with an income is not enough you have to do with racism but i didn't sort of a nation that they are enduring so everybody is subject to that kind of discrimination but i think there's also a ton of empirical data out there that actually shows that class defined by your level of education basically whether you've got a higher education or just a high school education or less is really the single thing that's the most determinative of your life opportunities and i say that and yet as i say it cuts across. across that you say that the starting from the from the equality of opportunity project a group of researchers that you'll call that stanford harvard and the census bureau they found that black men raised in the top one percent by millionaires was likely to be incarcerated as white men raised in households earning thirty six thousand dollars a year and you can't say that. there's plenty of data showing that education is

really what's important in determining outcomes now access to education is one of the big disadvantage is that black people in the united states have and so that's you know that is something that is determined by race but i do think that you know if you look at the overall phenomenon of inequality in the united states a lot of that is in the white population because the white population has gone in these two opposite directions as well well educated white people have done extremely well poorly educated white people have fallen off the social cliff in many respects so i want to push back on the education point because it does feel a little bit utopian if you take from what you also talk about in the book you say for example if the french liberal is there labor laws that will help minority communities who feel marginalized left out of the economy and yet all of the surveys show that for example in france if your name is mohammed your full time is less likely to be invited back for a job interview even with the same c.v.

same resume as your christian white catholic counterpart. education doesn't solve the problem that's a or. race issue that requires quote unquote identity politics i say that you know all of these specific forms of discrimination are bad there's a perfectly good reason for pushing back against these specific forms of discrimination but i also think that you need to balance that with a sense of citizenship and a sense of broader political community if you're going to sustain a democracy do you know agree that the real threat from identity politics in the united states to western societies all comes not from the left's supposed obsession with ethnic minorities or transgender rights but from a president of the united states who was unable to white nationalism neo nazi that's why i wrote the book i mean i think that's why we're in the book but there's a lot of it feels like you're trying to bend over backwards to do this kind of right but i am trying to write here i don't see it in her trying to explain you know the rise of the right and i think that there is a kind of tone deafness. you know from people on the left to actually what bothers

people and what has made a lot of people vote for these populist candidates not just in the united states but in europe as well some of it is just racism and so forth but a lot of it is driven by other things that leads really have not paid a lot of attention to a you know fairly broad swath of america that constitutes you know when you think about the you know the ninety nine percent a lot of those people are in there and i think that if you don't figure out what is bothering them you're not going to solve the underlying problem that is driving the polarization in the united states but i'm asking you would you accept that it's asymmetric. so i think that social justice issues are largely you know held by the you know the left wing groups but i do think that there's also a few things on the road in addition to the racism and bigotry just about yourself

what about you how would you define your own identity or the grandson of japanese immigrants to the united states well you know whenever i'm asked that. this was true ever since i was a child. i'm an american i mean i never thought of myself as an asian american or a japanese american and i always thought you know part of the reason that it's great to be in america is that i don't have to think that way when you see for example asian americans wanting to a group identity wanted to be better represented in public life or popular culture you have the recent hit movie crazy rich asians which is top the box office the first all asian. that's been celebrated by a great deal of asian markets is it wrong to celebrate that black americans or look at black panther and say finally a movie with a black black director is not something to celebrate or is that something you think is dangerous or wrong i'm think it's dangerous or wrong i mean i don't you know particularly celebrated but you don't care that. people who look like you should be able to get represented something it's not really a movie about america

a lot of rich chinese in singapore you know i mean they're connected to america but you know it's a phenomenon about the world like there is about a fictional country it's not about the story about it's about who you see on the screen the writers the direct to the actors who you have as role models but you know i think that's important to you know in this age of identity and i think i've had a pretty interesting successful life and it never depended on me seeing a lot of asian role models out there. you know i never thought that that was important in shaping my own career whatever i did i thought that you recognize your probably quite distinctive in a minority and that most people do well some kind of role models you know i mean and also asians are different from african-americans or they're different from you know other women are going to do it is the whole point which is there's a way. to get a better representation well you know but i'm you know i just think that representation by itself oftentimes conflicts with other kinds of social values

that are important like right now there's this big fight going on in the new york public school system about who gets at. to these elite public high schools and in that case representation you know the representation argument acts directly against the interests of asian americans because they're way over represented in those schools because they do better on tests and so forth and so i think you know there's a lot of competing goods here and if you're single focus is on representation and it's you know it's going to conflict with some of those other values you almost famous for your essay in the phrase the end of history what you called quote the end point of mankind's ideological evolution in the universal is asian of western liberal democracy as the final form of human government do you have any regrets about that line about looking back now well no you know i wrote that in the middle of what's called the third wave of democratization where the world went from having about thirty five seats to over one hundred democracies so there's

a lot of movement in that direction over the last ten years we've been moving in the opposite direction not dramatically but you know in important ways the rise of populism rise of china and so forth and so obviously it's a different era you know we're not converging like we seem to be in the one nine hundred ninety s. on liberal democracy but you know in the long run how durable that counter trend is it's really not clear i think that democracy still has a lot of support around the world and you see this you know constantly showing up in funny places like armenia or malaysia you're you are fundamentally an optimist about the future well you know i think that you need a balanced view i think that people tend to get carried away by current events and right now there's i think a little bit of excessive pessimism about global democracy because i think democracy has more going for it than you know a lot of people would recognize right now. we'll have to leave it there thanks for

joining me on that front that's up from will be back next week. thirty five years we've had many proud moments around the world and in the sky and now starting from october twenty ninth church's share alliance will be checking off from the new aviation center of the world for

a new journey. for. me and. hello i'm maryam namazie and london just a quick roundup of the top stories now the g. twenty summit of the world's top economies is underway in argentina it's supposed to be about trade and climate change but the oakwood presence of saudi crown prince vomit and sound man has a shot at the event off the killing of jamal khashoggi. reports now from buenos aires. the world's most powerful leaders gathered what a sight is argentina's president. greeted each one of them that he went over to us we have the obligation to show the world the globe.