entering the european million and one of the small one of the fourteen individuals targeted is a man with a diary. ruling party presidential candidacy because. they should not happen and remember that he was in syria milissa between december two thousand and sixteen and twenty seven. protests against the action of all the people were killed mostly by the truth yusuf says that he was in charge of the back line here being targeted sanctions by the government saying that this really was a ploy by the international community and that's why i think back to when i'm back i had been expelled but then again when you look at the model shows ari has them a lot of people a little creepy saying that i mean not only is that. a pocket of the president they say this is not popular they say that he is

a puppet of the president and should be and i cut to the president on sunday then that means that the president has. just concluded this country. through him. right. there in kinshasa. now it's been another roller coaster day for the u.s. markets with stocks falling sharply on thursday the dow jones dropped more than four hundred points on its opening that's a day off the rallies. largest ever one day point was the markets have been volatile over the last few days when stocks suffered their worst weekly full in a decade and continuing government shutdown under trade war between china and the u.s. all being blamed. iraqi m.p.'s have condemned u.s. president don't charmes unannounced trip to their country he visited the last said air base on wednesday in defended his recent decision to withdraw u.s.

forces from syria while also emphasizing there were no plans to pull out of iraq politicians in baghdad say only parliament has the right to decide if u.s. forces remain imran khan has more from baghdad the u.s. president's visit to iraq was just three hours long but it has had an impact here in baghdad now there was supposed to be a meeting or a phone call between the iraqi prime minister. and president donald trump that didn't happen because they couldn't agree on the parameters of that meeting what was supposed to be discussed within that meeting president the u.s. president donald trump made a commitment to his troops. basically and he said that they would remain in the country however he hasn't actually discussed that with his iraqi counterpart so far the iraqis are actually right now debating on what the future role should be within iraq itself there is a commanding control base here there is

a forward operating bases here and they've been using them as part of their campaign in syria however they're now withdrawing from syria and this concerns iraq ease because they feel that there are still pockets of both in the west of iraq and in syria itself and if there's no u.s. presence there then that may mean that may well mean that those pockets of ice will fight as can regroup and that might become a problem for iraq however the real concern here is one of politics there doesn't seem to be any play strategy coming from the u.s. president other than withdraw withdraw but not withdraw out of iraq itself and like i say the iraqis debating what kind of future role the u.s. may well have here in this country. all right still ahead on edge is it a health care meltdown in greece our shortage of staff and equipment is crippling the system and. the u.s. city of baltimore offering cash for om spa will it solve the problem of gun

violence. and we've had a lot of heavy snow in parts of turkey recently this is what it looks like at the moment plenty of wintery weather around these pictures all from ankara showing a bit of a winter wonderland really that area of wet weather hasn't quite finished with us just yet it's still been bringing some heavy rain over the east coast of the mediterranean and is grantley edging its way eastward so mixture of rain and snow here as we head through the day on friday and on saturday that will continue its journey eastwards behind it it will be a bit cooler than it has been so a maximum temperature in baghdad just a fifteen degrees enforcing we'll get to around nineteen now here in doha away to the south of all of that so don't expect any wet weather but the winds will be

picking up during friday not too bad on saturday so it's like it will be quite a breezy day so temperatures topping just around twenty three or twenty four but feeling cool thanks to that wind there's a good deal of cloud to the south of us that will be over the u.a.e. and oman there as we head through the next day i'll say i've been to the source the south and there's plenty of hope weather hair in that hot weather is sparking of quite a few thunderstorms so particularly over the northern parts of south africa it could be pretty miserable here over the next few days very humid very hot with a few thunderstorms that roll the way eastwards jo'burg may casualty as we may in devon. as this year troll the threats if you go see a show comes to an end. we examine what the top stories might be. judged to be very good results. in the new year.

joining us. as we take a look ahead to twenty nineteen. on al-jazeera. and again you're watching al-jazeera reminder of our top stories this hour a saudi royal decree signed by king sandman has replaced key government ministers foreign minister information minister and head of the national guard have all been replaced councils for more government oversight of also create. police in the democratic republic of congo fired tear gas of protesters in opposition areas

excluded from sunday's presidential election voting in the eastern areas is being postponed until march commission is blaming rebel attacks and the a bowl of virus for the latest. u.s. president donald trump defended his decision to withdraw forces from syria on a surprise visit to a base in iraq he said he had no plans though to pull out troops from iraq. another no go zone near an erupting volcano in indonesia has been widened and the alert level raised experts fear another eruption will cause a second tsunami at least four hundred thirty people killed one of five metre high wave flooded coastal communities on saturday well mcbride reports. the new exclusion zone around the volcano means no one is allowed to approach within five kilometers but the greater concern is for the people living along the coasts on either side of the sunda strait. they've again being warned to stay back between

five hundred meters and one kilometer from the shoreline while commercial planes have been ordered to avoid the area all kind of cash is a mix euro and gas and it's classic rock fragments and minerals and all kind of glass and it's very very scratchy or can et so the dangers of that going up into the atmosphere so planes if there is not a large rips in the ash hina the planes are flying back not just to be a hazard well airlines the increased warning level comes as a blow to the thousands of people displaced by the tsunami of wanting to return home many seeking shelter on higher ground where even a few metres above sea level officer a greater sense of security. schools and community centers in the town of level one have been turned into makeshift homes giving a feeling of semipermanent. most of these people rely upon the sea for their livelihoods they are by god and. they are mostly fishermen they can go to sea

because their boats are gone so they can make a living. and many don't know if the houses they fled from are still standing we haven't been back to see the condition of our homes because we are still a freight. cracka towers latest eruptions will do nothing to ease those fears rob mcbride al-jazeera north west java indonesia. the united arab emirates has reopened its embassy in the syrian capital damascus after seven years the u.a.e. was one of several regional states that had backed groups fighting the government forces of president bashar last said the government has recovered the bulk of syrian land that was fought over since the war began in the early eighty years ago . the displaced syrians in several refugee camps are dealing with heavy flooding in the north of the country it happened after rain storms that triggered flooding of the afrin river high water levels last week cut off roads between several camps

with water reaching around one and a half meters a few g.'s also dealing with freezing winter temperatures the united nations a cease fire monitors have hosted the first face to face talks in yemen which we know who the rebels and pro-government forces both sides both sides accuse each other of breaking the nine day old cease fire in the main port of her data rob matheson reports. patiently hoping for peace the people of the yemeni city of hard data are putting their faith in a fragile truce as nearby a meeting is held between forces loyal to president abdurrahman sore party and who feel. the conflict is now in its fourth year more than sixty thousand people have been killed in the fighting and the other man a man a man somebody said the man you're born in two thousand and one thousand we want to see peace love and brotherhood among all yemenis we also hope for prosperity we are

counting on god and on our politicians we don't want more war. the united nations is coordinating the talks it's armored vehicles carrying members of the yemeni government have only been able to get through after rebel fighters cleared mines from the road leading to where the meeting was to be held. the whole fees in the yemeni government which is backed by a coalition led by saudi arabia and the u.a.e. blame each other for repeatedly breaking a cease fire which has been in place in her data since december the eighteenth the city is a key port on the route for yemen's much needed supplies of medicines food and fuel millions are said to be close to starvation it's estimated as many as eighty five thousand children have died from malnutrition of the last. next year we hope the city will enjoy the peace and security we also hope that services such as transportation an oil will be available. delegates of wednesday's

meeting are said to have agreed on a process for withdrawing pro-government troops from her data and handing control to a local committee they're also reported to have agreed to stop fighting in and around the city the u.n. representative for monitoring the cease fire retired dutch general patrick come out says the meeting on wednesday has made progress but until the gun battles and the bombings and peace in her data still hangs in the balance rob matheson. raney fruit vegetables and poultry will no longer be available in palestinian shops the palestinian authority is stopping all israeli imports that's after israel's agriculture minister ordered a similar ban on imports from the occupied west bank and despite israeli warnings the palestinian economy would not be able to withstand a blow. surgical supplies running out operations postponed and severe staff

shortages doctors in greece have issued a warning about the chaos in some public hospitals johnson reports from the town of patra. it takes several pieces of equipment to install an intravenous line in the patient needles taps catheters and rubber gloves must be sterile and discarded after use these are the cheapest of materials for one of the simplest of procedures there are no apparent shortages here at the outpatient clinics of st and brass hospital in part that are but staff say appearances are misleading. through we had a budget a sixty to sixty five million euro crisis today out what it is fifteen to eighteen million of this creates enormous problems. the hospital is also short staffed this doctor says there are just two nurses for the outpatient clinics serving the city of two hundred thousand seat a c. medicine and most days this room is full of stretchers with a queue of more outside shouting and pushing to get in and they come from towns all

over the region it can be a stick we can barely walk in where shortages have shut down clinics in smaller regional hospitals so same town there is also takes in patients from the broader region of more than a million people with hospital one hundred twelve hundred before the financial crisis of two thousand and eight it is now down to thirteen hundred fifty and at least fifty doctors are urgently needed these personnel and materials reflect the broader cuts in government health and just the past three years it has fallen from seven billion dollars to four point two billion that means greece is spending less than ten percent of its budget on health care the european union averages over fifteen percent it's driven many who can afford it into private health care he went only here for financial reasons of course national health doctors and. perience the private sector doctors burke says from the moment you arrive here you're tied up

for hours patients get wary there are lots of people in line here the dedication of the doctors and nurses who remain in the public sector has been rewarded with a forty percent pay cuts during the crisis and no government has tightened health spending more than that controlled by the city's a party which has made a point of producing even higher surpluses than creditors demand with which to repay the country's debt next year's budget contains a further reduction in salaries for hospital staff a move which will anger many jobs are open. now early election results from madagascar show former president under way roger leno has won more than fifty five percent of the votes roger leno was up against another former president marc ravalomanana not he has already denounced what he calls massive fraud in the december nineteenth vote and demanded an intern demanded an investigation the constitutional court has nine days to declare a final result. police in the u.s.

city of baltimore have launched a guns a cash campaign aimed at getting weapons off the streets they're hoping to cut gun violence in a city where more than three hundred people have been killed in each of the past four years but with gun ownership so widespread in america it is argued campaigns like this on nothing more than p.r. stunts john henry reports ok what about if they start to get us over there in one of america's deadliest cities police are trying to even beyond. to reduce the number of weapons they face on the streets of baltimore they're buying them one hundred dollars for revolver and five hundred for a fully automated firearm no questions asked. i think i need to get rid of i think just great idea gets some guns off the street the problem. there is little appetite on capitol hill to change gun laws the national rifle association has opposed any effort to curb gun rights and remains the most powerful

lobbying group in america so police here are taking weapons off the street one of the few ways they can. one donor dropped off this rocket launcher with more than three hundred murders this year baltimore is one of the most violent cities in the united states and police say they hope with each weapon they take in just a little bit safer so the program is about getting guns off the streets of baltimore today is day number three of the program on the first day we took in five hundred seventy eight guns the second day five hundred eleven and we're only about an hour into the vent to day and there's already a pretty long line inside with people turning in god's brazil managed to take more than a million guns off the street with gun buyback from two thousand and three to two thousand and nine but with four hundred million guns in the u.s. more than one for every person the effect here is at best limited to. a very small number of gaza turned in fifty one hundred two hundred guns you might have cities

like los angeles when you get a lot like two thousand but they're still small relative to the number of guns in the united states but at the end of the day i think most research suggests that it's actually simply p.r. for some bad p.r. guy like. me down. there by now while we can we keep ourselves safe we don't trust the police department with about one hundred thousand shootings each year nearly a third of them fatal in more than three hundred mass shootings across the u.s. in two thousand and eighteen in little chance of new gun restrictions police here say they are doing what they can john hendren al-jazeera baltimore. this is al jazeera it's got a round up of the top stories a saudi royal decree signed by king sandman has overhauled top government posts the foreign minister information minister and head

of the national guard have all been replaced councils for more government oversight have also been recreated the protests have fled in the democratic republic of congo off to several opposition areas where excluded from sunday's presidential election police fired tear gas in beni but tembo and goma earlier the electoral commission suspended the vote in eastern areas and to launch it said it was concerned about violence and ebola sunday's election is already two years of age you iraqi m.p.'s have condemned president chomps unannounced trip to their country he even said they allowed that air base on wednesday defending his recent decision again to withdraw u.s. forces from syria while he also emphasized there were no plans to pull out of iraq . one year ago i gave our generals six more months in syria a cigar i gather. and it turns out it was really a year and a half ago i said go get em we need six months go get it and they said give us

another six months i said go get them. then they said go can we have one more like period of six months as of now. now. i said i gave you a lot of six months and now we're doing it a different way. it's been another roller coaster day for some for u.s. markets with stocks falling sharply on thursday the dow jones dropped more than four hundred points on its opening that's a day after a rally that saw it reach its not just ever one day point rise government shutdown and a trade war between china and the u.s. are being blamed on israeli fruit vegetables and poultry will no longer be available in palestinian shops the palestinian authority is stopping all israeli imports that's after israel's agriculture minister ordered a similar ban on imports from the occupied west bank and despite israeli warnings the palestinian economy would not be able to withstand the blow those

are the headlines europe today we're back in half an hour right now it's inside story. in a surprise visit to u.s. troops in there at all president trump stands by his order to pull american soldiers out of syria while critics warn against a hasty withdrawal it's reported afghanistan could be next what is trump strategy and how will the region fare with his decisions this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program i'm. donald trump made an unannounced visit to u.s. troops in iraq the day after christmas he had been criticized for not going to a conflict zone in the two years since becoming president the trip only lasted three hours and he didn't meet any of the docs leadership but he used the opportunity to defend his decision to withdraw american soldiers from syria our presence in syria was not open ended and was never intended to be permanent. eight years ago. we went there for three months and we never left but what a job you have done what they have done i made it clear from the beginning that our mission in syria was to strip isis of its military strongholds we're

not nation building rebuilding syria will require a political solution. and it's a solution that should be paid for by its very rich neighboring countries not the united states let them pay for it and they will they will in fact saudi arabia yesterday you probably read stepped up to the plate and has already made a commitment of substantial funds for development and president aragon of turkey has also agreed to take out any remnants of isis and we'll be working with them but trump's claim over saudi funding has been debunked by a saudi embassy official in washington and a spokesperson for the u.s. national security council the kingdom has not made any new financial pledge for syria since august but let's have a look at how many u.s. troops are in some of these countries american forces arrived in syria in two thousand and fifteen recently there were two thousand there and there are five

thousand who remain in iraq the initial deployment happened in two thousand and three and fourteen thousand are based in afghanistan and america's longest running war which began in two thousand and one. all right let's bring in our panel joining us from baghdad eileen ashmead professor of political history at city university from sanibel island in florida on skype peter galbraith former united states ambassador and former deputy united nations envoy to afghanistan and in london. assistant professor of international relations at the university of nottingham welcome to the program alia nash me i want to start with you there was supposed to be a meeting taking place between president trump and there at the prime minister that didn't happen the reports are that it was because the parameters of the meeting could not be agreed to what kind of

a message does that sindh to at off the leadership. no the thing that the term he carry many message in his visits one of the messages to the iraqi government. this message mean he didn't respect he didn't have any respect for that government or that stuff and he. called the iraqi government when he reach to the base of an exit and after that they call him to the . up to maddie to come to that base to the military base to meet him in that place in order that. he will in that time he was out of baghdad he cannot leave and that time they give him just one hour of this i think it's ready insulting for the iraqi government and in order that. the iraqi prime minister up to now the heat if used to meet him because he can't be turned in that base because he called him to come

to baghdad just a few minutes see a few can't. my procedures at the not allowed to be to come and order that that meeting was finished and they didn't meet and that peter galbraith enough to fish was must have also been shocked by president trump's decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria and afghanistan was one of the objectives of this trip also to boost the iraqi government's confidence in the u.s. . it's hard to believe that that's the case given particularly the fact the managements were made with the iraqi government to have meetings and that incidentally is different from what president obama did when he went to iraq and two thousand and nine or the various trips that president bush made even when the u.s. was the occupation authority he met with the. iraqi political leaders to his trip once and about iraq it wasn't syria it was about one person donald trump

he's been accused of being a coward. for not having visited the troops in combat. not having respect at the service spend on the progress that a first year is the answer for why the fight canceling a trip to fellow woods the scene of a very major battle because it was raining and this also appeared although the trip must have been planted the depths of the same day as the new york tried story appeared page one story. making clear that the reason he got a draft deferments from vietnam was because they provided trips that the phones for was in fact attended sponsor a real estate developer and got a sweetheart deal so this lets us donald trump responding to criticism about being a coward it has very little to do with iraq or iraqi policy and of course with the characteristic lack of diplomatic skill that has characterized.

this trip comes at a time of increased tensions between president trump and top military leadership in the u.s. is this trip going to do anything to alleviate that. i'm not sure that this particular trip is going to change the relationship between president trump and his military leadership because the relationship has already been affected by his decision to withdraw troops from syria. general mattis he's secretary of defense has resigned on the basis this particular trip i think will probably enhanced if anything some of his support within the military there is a difference i detect having served under u.s. military command between the political if you like level of leadership in the

pentagon and the troops on the ground the troops on the ground. fight very bravely but recognize that what they do best provides very short term solutions they recognize the complexity of the situation and they realize i think that there is no long term effective strategy that i think. is something that mr trump. the political rhetoric has chimed with greatly he has always said that we don't have an effective strategy in afghanistan and in iraq and that we should withdraw from these countries and i think the syrian decision plays into that and all of this i think chimes at the lower levels of military command who recognize that if you like some truth in what he's saying alan nash me mr trump told reporters that the u.s.

might base american commandos on the border in iraq to launch raids and other missions into syria going forward if that was needed now is this something that the u.s. would need to get permission from the iraqi government to do in and what do are up the officials think about this statement. no i think this is what he said yesterday he said we are still in iraq because you know there is many forces arises yesterday and last weeks when mr. say. it's a decision to withdraw the medical the door from syria in order that many many politicians in washington say this is a bad message for the extremists and he coming to iraq to prove against that he say we will stay in iraq and we stay in the middle east and we will make

a very wide to basically like that base it will be ready for any intervention in syria and until controlling the middle east even he say about iran and that in order that i think that declaring that they thought a chattel and that in the history of the streets of iraq and the iraqi people and they're talking about how about that declaration because you know the backed sign between iraq and united states in two thousand and nine that one term said we will not leave any bases in iraq in order that they i think we did some change in that back to what was signed but you have a government an american government and not that i think as many votes many votes as isis now in the electorate occupied by man to collect and to me it's about change and about his declaration about to build and when the american forces what are drawn from see that coming in iraq you say the thing that is now in iraq it's

more than seven thousand and that it can and that's based but the beginning when they fighting in eighteen and two thousand and fourteen say we will send the only five hundred soldiers officials but now it's more the seven thousand i things many things will have been next week i will disagree nation peter got. it was widely known of course that president trump had wanted to withdraw troops from afghanistan for some time now he eventually came around to the thinking that had been espoused by secretary of defense or outgoing secretary of defense jim mattis i want you to take a listen to something that president trump said in two thousand and seventeen a hasty withdraw would create a vacuum that terrorists including isis and al qaeda would instantly fill just as happened before september eleventh and as we know in two

thousand and eleven america hastily. and mistakenly withdrew from iraq as a result our hard won gains slipped back into the hands of terrorist enemies our soldiers watched as cities they had fought for and bled to liberate and one were occupied by a terrorist group called isis the vacuum we created by leaving too soon gave safe haven for isis to spread to grow recruit and launch attacks we cannot repeat in afghanistan the mistake our leaders made in iraq peter and how does one go about reconciling what president trump said then in two thousand and seventeen with his strategy now withdrawing troops from syria and afghanistan it's hard to reconcile and i think what one has to understand is

the speech he delivered in twenty seventeen was written for him but by his it by serious. but it really didn't reflect his sound sentiments what one has to know about syria is that a week before he announces the decision to withdraw his presidential envoy brett mcgurk brett mcgurk is announcing that we're going to be staying for a long time is envoy for syria basser james jeffries the set that we would be there . and as long as that rand was president and the longest assaut most of our so there was a just then an enormous confusion about the policy. and trumpet and this in the case of the withdrawal from afghanistan and syria was simply operating on his instincts rather than any strategy now he he has been a long time critic of us sending forces abroad and you know he says the

u.s. is being played for suckers and i think that that. this really reflects that. president trump said during his trip that he believes a lot of people are going to come around to his way of thinking on his decision with regard to syria is there is any evidence to indicate that more people are actually coming around to his way of thinking on that. well i think there is no objective evidence unless you want to do a very detailed analysis of twitter and so on and that's of course the. very problematic issue there's a great deal of support for from his followers for for this the argument they put forward is very persuasive in that there has never really been a clear strategy in any of these conflicts and i think that. the failure of that strategy rests not just with mr trump but to his previous administrations and

the previous incumbents in the pentagon are all the strategies that have actually been packaged in strategies of tended to be operational activities designed to suppress. any. opposition militarily rather than actually deliver a win which can be recognized as a victory by all sides not just domestically but internationally and in and certainly in by the the adversaries in the particular countries so mr trump for whatever reason does have i think a great deal of support both publicly but also factually there is no winning strategy in any of these countries sadly and he is absolutely right that when he reads out as ambassador now adult very things pointed out

he was reading out a statement that a rapid withdrawal could lead a power vacuum but even a slow withdrawal would result in exactly the same thing and i think what mr trump is done is run out of patience with those who have written these statements for him that they haven't produced a plan which is reasonably sure. short term which provides that gradual withdrawal so i think he's instincts are probably going to be borne out by history and i think he will possibly get a great deal of support from the american public as a result of this peter galbraith what do you think do you think that he will get president trump will get a great deal of support from the american public for doing this. no. partly because the american involvement in these places is very small and so this is not a big political issue but he certainly has been criticized for the

way for the withdrawal from syria including by his own party because what he's done is he supported an ally the centrally the syrian kurds. in a conflict where they were the ground troops and the americans provided advisors and the air force of a they went far beyond areas that had any kurdish population at the urging of the united states and then at the moment which victory was very close to you now says the pullout of the troops and makes this decision a call with turkish president aired a wide. and a half there are a lot says that he's going to go in and of course his target arab wants target is not the remnants of isis it is the syrian kurds and in fact the purpose of the call was to get aired was not to go in and it had just the opposite impact and the

message there is that the united states is not a reliable ally that at least under this administration you can't trust the united states and that's a message that will be taken aboard not just by the syrian kurds but by the afghan government perhaps by the kurdistan well already by the kurdistan regional government there rack which was double crossed by the americans and twenty seventeen by the iraqi government. of course the iranians who are the big winners here. both from trump's decisions in iraq last year and this year in syria they're very pleased because they see that you know is that they they don't need to do anything to undermine the united states because trump is doing it himself on a national there has been criticism. that has come from some members of parliament about president trump's visit so where is the overall relationship right now

between the u.s. and iraq and as far as ordinary off the citizens what is the sentiment there as far as having u.s. troops remain in iraq. no i think you know what's happened yesterday and the curation of the statement of mr trump i think the speech of iraqi people now and old the majority of the iraqi people now they refuse. to interfere and that and celtic for the iraqi government then all the iraqi people and they're looking for the future of what is the future and do what what will doing that when he went in and american forces withdraw from syria what doing in iraq and you know the supporting for the entire community just for all the digits on the satellites then why they'd include is increasing that it's a sober pfizer's and the fighters or the soldiers in that space we don't need to even end and in the center of the. fighting between the iraqi troops and ice owns.

american it's more the former for just four thousand soldiers now why they why they increase them this is the iraqi people now they talk about the future it's death change for their medicare in the global policy strategy g. and in them and that is and is that against iran because he mentioned that when his speech he that's also had to be monitoring iran and syria to interfere anyway because you know they have a government and the iraqi people refuse to make iraqi as a base to attacked any place is just i suppose in order that the iraqi people they they know they pushing goad they in the cli's that are pushing through to the iraqi government to say something about what's happening and to say to the iraqi where does that. all but what's happening yesterday and last weeks there's nothing for it

in our community out there that i think. in the future just a few days in the future they had a history that's and you know the iranian side. i'd have many allies in the streets of iraq then they will move them there are allies of the city there and we say you may remember the protesters and the street against what's happening just a bit about the new policy of america in iraq abdullah survey want to turn from it to afghanistan you know america's greatest leverage there in negotiating with the taliban is the fact that they have troops there so there's a look now like president trump has met one of the primary demands of the taliban before you know negotiations progress well if he does pull out troops then yes he will have but the divans and then some negotiated settlement could probably take place but of course one of the problems with meeting the demand of withdrawal is that about fifteen years ago the taliban declared victory for them as being

the withdrawal of troops so by missing that demand he is actually knowledge and from the the from the point of the taliban that there have been victorious in this conflict and that has some very significant political and military repercussions beyond this particular conflict. but i think that one of the things that we should consider here is to separate the personality of mr trump of course has attracted a great deal of criticism sometimes legitimately in many cases legitimately from the american institutions be they defense foreign policy and so on for and being a bit of a maverick that may well be true but the fact is that the policies the strategic culture that the u.s.

has been involved in has not led to success the culture of regime change the culture of proxies and the. it's a myth that we stand by our proxies it's never actually been real the us is is a realist foreign policy it has use proxies in afghanistan and dumped them when its purpose has been met is done the same thing in syria and this is a message that i think needs to be understood because proxy warfare regime change all of these things are no longer possible they then there has been virtually no success as a result of these policies the repercussions the long term repercussions of these interventions is huge it huge in terms of terrorism. i says and the like but it's also huge in terms of politics in europe with huge

a number of displaced people seeking asylum and causing a very significant change in the political landscape in europe and possibly in the longer term also impact in north america so i think there are some very big issues here are not just isolated interventions in iraq in afghanistan and syria they're all need to be taken in the context of u.s. political and security culture and i think time is now come for the u.s. to reexamine it and change it to avoid the failures it's facing because failures only breed failures they do not lead to success and whether mr trump is making the right decisions the wrong decisions is not the point it is the strategy and the political culture that needs to change our way we have run out of time so we are going to have to leave it there thanks to our guests allie and nash

me peter galbraith and after ashraf and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further disk. go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story from am homage i'm joined on the whole team here by for now. thanks not to mention lines to some friends because behind something

a million have tax plans because nice taxpayers never go away is a new one bone every single day it is an urgent national necessity that it has officially requested rationing of the support mechanism we created together because i happen to live in greece somehow i'm a sinner i'm a bad person. that's machine on al-jazeera. colleague much much hussein is now being held in pretrial detention for two years what is his crime. why hasn't he been tried yet why hasn't justice been applied in this case is he detained because he said china lust as journalism become a crime have moles become a tool to silence weiss's of truth we will continue our news coverage with professionalism and impartiality our work will remain credible and accurate but journalism is not a crime incarcerating journalists is not acceptable we demand the immediate release

of our colleague mahmoud to say and all journalists detained in a gyptian jails free mahmoud's and all his colleagues we stand for press freedom. this is al jazeera. and i'm has i'm sick of this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next sixty minutes saudi arabia's foreign minister i the eligibility is demoted part of

a major government reshuffle. police fired tear gas in the democratic republic of congo of the opposition supporters protest a partial delay of the presidential election. market volatility another wild ride for u.s. stocks wall street drops nearly four hundred points. in sports sammy and footballers hit with another racism controversy. the senegalese defender quality could have ali is targeted with racist abuse by in samoan fans. a lot of there's been a surprise a government reshuffle in saudi arabia announced in the name of king salmen the minister of media has been changed as has the head of the national guard but most of the attention has focused on the decision to moat added there as foreign

minister is been replaced by a former finance minister who was locked up by the crown prince mohammed bin sandman just last year also job body reports. as will bear a former advisor to the late king abdullah a former ambassador to the united states and now former foreign minister he was only the second saudi to be appointed foreign minister outside the royal family. during the gulf cooperation summit of regional leaders earlier this month bear again defended the suspected involvement of the saudi crown prince mohammed bin some on in the murder of egypt with regards to issuing an arrest warrant we don't extradite our citizens i believe turkeys constitution prohibits the extradition of turkish citizens as the motion follows months of questions controversy and denials about the killing of the saudi journalists and the saudi embassy in the sample and

widespread condemnation of the. them including the u.s. congressional resolution which said mohammed bin someone was responsible for the killing of his critic while donald trump repeatedly maintained his support for the crown prince senators called for an end to u.s. support for the war in yemen. zubair was appointed foreign minister by king solomon in two thousand and fifteen a month after saudi arabia went to war in yemen air strikes were launched with the aim of quickly crippling hoofy fighters backed by iran instead the war has dragged on for almost four years killing at least sixty thousand yemenis millions face starvation in what's called the world's worst humanitarian crisis she bears final months as minister have been marked by turmoil within the g.c.c. including saudi led air sea and land blockade of qatar for the past eighteen months it's unclear if you bears fall from grace in riyadh is a way to make him scapegoat for saudi policies attracting global condemnation or

perhaps the latest attempt to take the heat of the crown prince the king is now taking a step back with pride he last saw instead of. who wasn't in the first days the first choice or for the king anyway because he was very close to king couple of the king of saudi arabia rather than to king so much so now by having brought him loss of who was an old school he's a veteran he served as a minister of finance for twenty years from one nine hundred ninety six until two thousand and sixteen so now he's having come as a foreign minister in order to give the message that we are back to the foreign policy jubera successor is a loss of a former finance minister he was one of the many saudi power brokers arrested in last year's purge his imprisonment in the ritz carlton hotel in riyadh was part of what the crown prince called his crackdown on corruption now saudi arabia's new

foreign minister will inherit not only the controversy that continues to dog his capture the crown prince but the crisis over the war in yemen that has also proven difficult to end so far dore such a party al-jazeera. senior political analyst marwan bashara joins me on set now to unpack some of this so what do you think is behind this and why now well clearly saudi arabia both in terms of its image and credibility is in bad need of rehabilitation and clearly saudi relations with the rest of the world not only with the west has been quite deteriorating because of the murder of my husband she of course there were a whole other set of blunders including the manufacturing of prices with. the fed about blunders of the war in yemen creating famine destruction and so on so forth again we also had the humiliation of another prime minister to that of lebanon

so all in all so the arabia has not been doing well with the murder of. it basically revealed the mindset that is basically criminal we haven't seen anything like this we've seen murder we've seen crime we've seen war crimes but we haven't seen something so archaic and so bloody and so and such a blunder as we've seen over the last several weeks in terms of the more that of a journalist. so this is an attempt at three habitation the problem with it is that the person who needs to be rehabilitated mohammed and so man is the one who is carrying those changes in order to present a different image of himself and of the kingdom overseas so why we say that this is all royal decree by the king of saudi arabia in fact we all know that the person today in charge of the defense. internal security the economy

as well as culture is the crown prince so the crown prince that is responsible for the killing in istanbul and for all the blunders over the last three years is trying to present a different kind of image to the west will it succeed of course it remains to be seen if there is a true. intention at changing the mindset in saudi arabia and whether or not the that the crown prince is repentant or not i don't think he is so if this is all about mohammed bin some man trying to appease his critics is advantage of bad really the de appropriate for guy for this i mean how far will will look will this go towards. dealing with his damaged reputation well look i mean this is now i'm just going overboard in my analysis to say the following if i didn't was simply discharged thank you you did an honorable job for us the last three years go ahead and do whatever you want

become a businessman or become whatever it is then it would have been understood that you know it's sort of a shuffle but for him to be demoted the way he was demoted i think that's more of the same mindset. that we've seen creating all sorts of blunders because when it's used humor alleviates your own foreign minister by demoting him under a different minister in the same ministry you are actually not sending a message that you are open that you are tolerant that you learned a lesson if anything this is a punishment died a jew bear for not being brilliant enough to defend the indefensible because a murderer like the murderer of c.n.n. carried out in istanbul cannot be defended it should be apologized for so yes maybe it should come out to the open and said look we really screwed up big time and we've got to change the way we do business instead they do more of the same

business by humiliating their own foreign minister for not being able to put a pretty face on an ugly picture and as far as his replacement who was the former foreign minister is that a way of addressing foreign investment and all of that yes being a former finance minister to be put in a foreign ministry is basically i think is the beginning of an attempt to tell the west look we hear you about the economy we hear you about doing business with literary are going to do business in a different way and i think it's very important because look mohamed bin salmond tried to base his entire project. especially with a blunder in yemen and in the gulf on saying i want to reform the economy i want he didn't exactly put it this way i want to reform but certainly he wants to do a different sort of way of doing business in the kingdom and with us the world and then your fear remember he invited the whole world to this new on the project and.

you know liberalizing the society creating intertainment minutes three and so on so forth and were to say we want to do business in different ways to do so he puts. a brave who as you said was a former finance minister who has also starred in places like davos the world economic forum he was also had the good hand in preparation for the so would be a role in g. twenty so he's a man with business connections with economic connections in various parts of the world with finance ministers with the business community i think that's important for the regime in order to renormalizing already have. rehabilitate its relations with the business community outside when it succeeds or not my fear is that the international business committee doesn't give a damn about the human rights investment business community that does not give much of a damn about democracy institutional building and all of that so will this be enough

for them to say ok you know as long as you're giving us these positive signals we will i'm sure get to give you a perspective on this as always as you know senior political analysts model in the shop and. now rosalynn jordan is live for say in washington so rosen there's been a lot of criticism of saudi arabia in the past few months as we've been saying over the handling of the. case including out of the u.s. congress is this a sign in the u.s. the way the u.s. will see that the saudis are trying to get their house in order and will it be enough to fend off the criticism coming from the international community. how them it's likely not to be enough to fend off the criticism because all of these changes in the cabinet are seen as a way of trying to was shore up the authority of mohammed bin saddam on the saudi crown prince the both the senate in the house have expressed their views

both in informally and in the senate's case there are a couple of key votes that they believe that mohammed bin solomon was in fact behind the murder of jamal on october second and that they believe that he is basically exerting his defacto rule of saudi arabia in a very heavy headed way to say the least there are bipartisan concerns about his respect for human rights about his ability to rule the country fairly there are concerns about the pressure on political activists and on journalists among others and so it's not going to be enough plus let's also not forget the bear the now former foreign minister of saudi arabia is someone who is extremely well known here in washington he had been here some form or fashion for the last twenty years and so there are many on capitol hill and in the think tank i'm in.