thousand lebanese and palestinians were killed and nearly fifty thousand wounded. amid the mayhem the commodore hotel became the de facto ministry of information. lebanese photo journalist ramzi hyder was at the commodore during the israeli invasion. but. in the early days of the israeli invasion of lebanon use of stock pond large amounts of fuel food and cash millions of dollars he said enough for the hotel residents and stand for the months to come. also lent journalists

money. money. flows better. life for the commodore based journalists jeering the invasion was tough. west beirut was under siege with constant israeli air raids and reportedly indiscriminate shelling. but they told the real story. i think the siege of us it was a big eye opener for many correspondents who only in the israeli story building.

and they were able firsthand when they went out to see the suffering of lebanese and palestinians and they really went after the story very very hard very hard and harshly and well. i think at that stage though if the commodore hadn't been there the israeli invasion would not have been so well reported and you can fact the commodore in a way for this and the people in it and the use of i think the the israelis had at that stage in the early eighty's the worst press they've ever had before or since. the seventy day israeli siege of beirut was lifted on the twenty first of all because one nine hundred eighty two and the p.l.o. pulled out of lebanon. there were immediate presidential elections and the leader of the right wing christian phalangist but sheer gemayel who had supported the israeli incursion became the president elect of lebanon. but gemayel

never took office he was assassinated twenty three days later. for the following three days the sixteenth seventeenth and eighteenth of september one thousand nine hundred two christian militias supported by israel took part in a massacre at the palestinian refugee camps of sub or and shatila. when news of the massacre reached the commodore hotel on the eighteenth dozens of local and foreign journalists headed straight to the southern beirut suburb. robert fisk was one of the first to enter the palestinian camps. i've never before had to walk on carpets of dead bodies in my life and the smell was appalling and we went on the saturday morning when the could type the financials were still there murders were still still in the camp. was a good idea and one of the necessary are who was the subject of the them come or go

. remember. who are you going as they are what. or how kind of us all of. us long ago lived or. was the subject at either the about what we were about because the some of us often in a country set out the national public. the sabra and shatila massacres so over two thousand palestinian and lebanese civilians killed i started writing and writing and writing. unfortunately the times didn't come out on sunday so i had to wait for the next day's paper. but i got all the story going to the. news of the eighteenth of september massacres shocked the world and the international coverage angered the israelis and the story that those organizations. the same day they arrested use of no zone and took into their base

at the sin george hotel. the journalist became a chatroom marry the french to the french organized a petition. signed petition to get down to the israeli commandos demanding that the use of lazaro be released yes i wasn't surprised he was arrested because they realize this was a communications center and they didn't want it to operate i think the purpose of arresting yourself was to close down the comment of. eight years into the fighting on the night of the thirtieth of august nine hundred eighty three the commodore took a direct hit shattering its eastern side. of the month shutting it. us of what was at the what at the all what the what if is the means of of the thing at this hour the huffington. or butler the value of a lot of books. new and inexperienced reporters were sometimes unable to handle

beirut. and use of office sometimes doubled as a psychiatric unit. as the israeli withdrawal continued into nine hundred eighty three lebanese militias immediately filled that vacuum and vied for control region by region. the commodore had continued as an international news home field below worked as a cameraman for c.b.c. and took these photos of life inside the hotel at that time. but in one nine hundred eighty full a new development in the conflict upset that life even more. kidnapping. the commodore had so i think was beginning to lose its attraction as

a journalistic enterprise around the time of the mid one nine hundred eighty s. around the time of the kidnapping. i think the fear of kidnapping started around eighty four. i was an attempted kidnapping on me in madame curie street very close to the comedy. i said the member that was the first time i started getting really frightened and then of course not long afterwards terry anderson was kidnapped longest held hostage with seven years and then we all realized we were in trouble. terry anderson was the senior associated press correspondent on the sixteenth of january nine hundred eighty five he was kidnapped on his way to the commodore hotel . three years into his detention his kidnappers released this photo of him wearing a commodore hotel t. shirt designed by yousef for his journalist guests. anderson was the first journalist to be kidnapped in beirut that would be the last to be released in

one thousand nine hundred ninety one. several different groups carried out the hostage taking but the most prominent was islamic jihad. but i wouldn't advise. foreigners to stay here at the moment while the situation is so good in november one thousand nine hundred five that the special envoy to the british archbishop of canterbury terry waite arrived in lebannon to negotiate hostage releases he stayed at the riviera hotel but often went to the commodore to meet journalists. on the twenty first of november fighting known as the battle of the flag between different leftwing allied lebanese militias controlling west beirut reach the commodore hotel. terry waite was trapped inside with dozens of local and foreign journalists including ramsey haidar.

but. there. runs a hide of photographs of these images of journalists pulling the man's body out of sniper range then moving it into the back of a car. that image encapsulates the horror of events outside the commodore hotel. that night terry waite stayed at the

commodore and these rare pictures show him making phone calls in the hotel lobby negotiations for the release of hostages had so far failed and the kidnapping continued. on the sixteenth of march nine hundred eighty six the british journalist john mccarthy arrived in beirut as w t n bureau chief it was his first assignment to a war zone. he checked into the commodore opposite w t ends office is excited to be staying at the now legendary hotel i think that had a rather a mental view of what the commodore would be like. i have heard from other colleagues who've been there and stayed there and was very aware that it was a famous hotel where all the great journalists stayed. so when i got there i was

surprised because it was nearly empty. the street fighting and fear of kidnap drove many foreigners out of west beirut to the christian east side or out of lebanon to neighboring cyprus. so i was told you must be careful if you know you'll be a target possibly for one of these kidnapped groups so stay close to the office. in the howard district and stay close to the hotel the commodore. by april nine hundred eighty six thirty foreign nationals had been kidnapped in lebanon it didn't occur to john mcafee that he might be next it seemed like an era for this photo for the foreign journalists working there it was coming to an end it was closing in around around me but also it felt as if the hotel was sort of closing down to. mccarthy was then ordered by his w t

n bosses in london to leave beirut immediately. on the seventeenth of april nine hundred eighty six he checked out of the commodore and headed for the airport. but within minutes armed men intercepted his car grabbed him and took him away. john mccarthy would be the last foreign journalist to stay at the commodore. so it's extraordinary i started off from work that morning in six leaving this rather ground if dilapidated suite at the commodore hotel and then the next room i was in was underground in a tiny filthy dirty prison cell basically as a hostage and i was to remain a hostage for the next five and a quarter years. nine months after mccarthy's abduction on the seventeenth of january nine hundred eighty seven hostage negotiator terry waite was also kidnapped

. he was last seen on the beirut corniche surrounded by government from the druze progressive socialist party who were acting as his bodyguards in my last year of captivity i was held with the two americans terry anderson and tom sutherland and also with the. englishman terry waite who'd gone out to lebanon to try and negotiate our release a few years earlier but himself being kidnapped it's very strange that there we were in a cell with the guy who'd tried to rescue us and he'd ended up being a hostage to. within hours of terry waite abduction a fierce battle ensued in west beirut two hundred people died in the five days fighting. and the commodore was almost completely destroyed by fire. and there was another kidnap the victim this time koko the parrot. hotel manager our maid should borrow checked on the stand and damage the next day. he

contacted the owner use of mazhar who was abroad to reassure him the star for ok but that the hotel was so damaged it was now uninhabitable. or they wind. up with a. power the setting arlen. in two thousand and two a new investor bought the commodore it was completely refurbished and revived as a five star luxury hotel in the heart of beirut. american journalist nicholas touch wrote perhaps best summed it up when he wrote during the israeli siege of beirut in

a city of survivors the commodore hotel has proven itself to be a survivor with a touch of class. there is no conflict which is simple goodies versus baddies it's always more complicated than that. and i'd add one more thing find a good safe to tell. when the shots came from the holiday and we heard cracks we heard some noise. this was no no sniper alley was on in the most dangerous intersections of sight able. you didn't come in through the front entrance that was what happened to the people who were shot they came into the wrong entrance the nightly pyrotechnics of the funny trying to bring cameramen should just get the hell out of here sorry

a vow holiday and war hotels on al-jazeera. like. what you have a good e.g. a real mean a lot for the future of yemen. it will mean a lot for the yemeni people will see concrete results in their daily lives yemen's warring sides reach a deal of talks in sweden after the un agrees to play

a leading role in the port city of today that. the u.s. senate debates ending support for the saudi u.a.e. coalition in yemen ahead of a likely vote. on hasn't seek and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. a sudden rise in violence in the occupied west bank after israeli raids and palestinian attacks plus . the best arrangement travel body to replace the u.k. and see us for us to a great deal and get this deal into line. theresa may is holding a last ditch talks with the e.u. leaders to rescue the troubled plan to leave the bloc. alone it could be a breakthrough in ending the four year long war in yemen un backed talks in sweden we train representatives from the two sides have agreed on some of the most

pressing issues tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions more are on the brink of famine there the u.n. secretary general antonio good tenet says there is now a clear route to ending the conflict you have reached an agreement on the day the port city which will see a move will really prime months of forces from the port and the since the and the establishment of a girl no date of governorate wide ceasefires. the u.n. leading role in the ports and this will facilitate humanitarian access of the floor routes to the civilian population and it will improve the living conditions for millions of yemenis so as you just heard the deal centers on two cities that have seen some of the worst violence a cease fire has been announced in the crucial port city of her day there the u.n. says it will eventually take some level of control there has also been what they're

calling a mutual understanding to ease the fighting in the southern city of tire is that follows a prisoner exchange deal and an agreement to meet again at the end of january a u.n. special envoy to yemen martin griffiths says he's hopeful about an agreement on the reopening of santa airport i don't think it would be right to give you a specific line of the kind of things we would like to see on the port but it's clear that it's public knowledge that the starting point on the airport is opening it up to commercial flights maybe domestic first and that the u.n. wants to see that airport open to soon as possible. as agreed by the parties and i would like to think that over the next week maybe less we might find an agreement. or diplomatic editor james bays joins us now from the united nations in new york said james

a number of issues that they've agreed on there but it's notable it's notable for what it contains and what it doesn't contain. you know as you just heard there the special envoy talking about port that's one of the bits they wanted in the deal and haven't got yet and there are other parts of the deal this is actually the full text of it that are a little vague in their language not very specific and i think that's because they couldn't reach a specific agreement having said all of that among diplomats here in new york looking at this where at the very high end of expectations before these talks started i was being told well if they don't break down that's an achievement in itself if they reach an agreement on detainees then that's very good news even though that has been something they've been talking about for weeks now even before the talks started they've done both of those and they've reached an interim agreement on other things as well including

a cease fire for her data and i think the other thing worth noting here is that you saw that handshake and you saw those smiles well this is the delegation and the yemeni government delegation the diplomats here in new york before the talks started thought we're probably not even going to meet face to face and yet there they are smiling and shaking hands and as as far as those other thorny issues like the like airport and what's going to be done with that i suppose it's time will tell and will depend on on how things go with what they've agreed on. absolutely i think they need to come to those later on and there will be more discussion on a political agreement because clearly they're dealing with some of the flashpoints on the ground right down like her data they're not dealing with how to govern yemen as a whole and how they would share power between the and the many government going forward

that's the big stuff and that's all to come for now the international community i think is trying to lock in what they have achieved and that's why you saw the secretary general of the united nations travel to the talks to give them his endorsement also there of course the swedish foreign minister the host the talks will strum and in fact the u.k. foreign secretary arrived at the last minute for the talks as well jeremy hunt the u.k. important because at the security council here in new york the u.k. is what's known as the penholder they write or tend to lead on any resolution on the subject of yemen and there is talk of a new resolution before the security council to take what has been achieved in stockholm and indorse it with the security council make it binding international law as a security council resolution it's also worth telling you that martin gryphus the special envoy who led those negotiations he will be briefing the security council

on friday to tell them exactly what has been achieved so far so that's a meeting of the u.n. security council which has been added to the agenda on friday here in new york all right we'll wait to see what happens out of that james bays live for us there in the united states. yemen's foreign minister says the agreements are only binding if both parties stick to the terms. oh good can look into two agreements signed upon and shared u.s. effort that has been taken thirty slee release in the prison those and those who have been forcibly abducted and the other agreement is that what they are the. agreements however we are a human that the other party will with the ruin the will release the prisoners the spokesman for the the delegation says they want guarantees on the ground and. a lot we are ready to implement the peace agreement and give the un

a logistic role in running sana airport and who data port but we need more guarantees because the other side keeps sabotaging everything we didn't get anything major in sweden but there were some good developments there is no military solution in yemen and still we can reach an agreement if the other side agrees to a political solution yemen's war is also the focus of the u.s. senate as it votes on whether to end american military support for the saudi m. iraq coalition on wednesday senators voted sixty to thirty nine to consider the measure the senate's also looking at a separate resolution condemning the killing of journalist. while a number of republican support the resolution many more still oppose it. but i think what's happening mr to show you is an outrage. i don't need a smoking gun i don't need intelligence briefings to tell me that the crown prince is responsible if you know anything about saudi arabia if you know anything about

how their government works and if you know anything about the crown prince you know that there's no way that seventeen guys close to him get on an airplane fly do with third country chop a guy up in a consulate dispose of the body and fly back and he didn't know anything about it it's just not real it's also consistent with a pattern of behavior by the crown prince i do not believe dealing with it requires us to shatter the saudi us alliance and the saudi military by any objective measure is guilty of war crimes is long past time for us to say enough international outrage over this issue is good building steadily as the number of civilian carriage to the. one the world's poorest countries swoon into the thousands as a result of saudi arabia is integrated to an ongoing aerial bombardment we've all seen the photographs of the dead and the dying. children are really

walking skeletons the nothing but skin and bones. close a look at the united states' involvement in the war in yemen now it's been supporting the saudi and iraqi coalition in yemen since twenty fifteen until recently much of it was in-flight refueling for saudi jets they both agreed to end that last month the u.s. still cooperates with the coalition on intelligence and is the top arms supplier to saudi arabia and the u.a.e. it says its offices advise on potential targets to minimize civilian casualties but saudi strikes have killed thousands of civilians including dozens of children on a school bus in south the province in orchestra. john fredericks is a syndicated radio talk show host in the us he was chairman of the trump the president's campaign campaign's virginia unit he joins me now in the studio welcome so let me let me start off first civil with this upcoming vote in the senate what

do you think is going to is going to happen now and what what's your view on it well first of all what effect sideshow this is in a display of cowardice by the members of the u.s. senate both sides of the aisle of the this is a bipartisan complete lack of any profile in courage this war has and has been going on for three years president obama got us in to backing the saudi emirates coalition in yemen in the first place he had to make a deal with the saudis back their war against the booth these because he made a deal with iran this is been going on for three years think about this seventeen million people starving to death children eating. leaves off trees tens of thousands killed and now all of a sudden because of jamal khashoggi now that they can get on c.n.n.

and other news networks now all of a sudden they're feigning outrage where were these senators thirty six months ago where was lindsey graham where was bachmann and this not one time did they bring this up did they question it now they do because they have cover and you know what that cover is showed all right you bring up another number of things we can get into there you said earlier that this was. a feckless position by. senators there are many people who saying that president trump and his secretary of state are the ones who have been affecting us on. by not taking a stronger position on the on the murder because the evidence to to to to those who have has been presented to say is overwhelming that it's not that hasn't been a smoking gun but the.