sunday was controversial so controversial that the u.k. had to put another territory into the mix st kilda the archipelago increased the british crowds claimed by one hundred sixty thousand square kilometers st kilda has been deserted ever since its thirty six remaining inhabitants left almost a century ago but humans lived there once and they could live there again at least theoretically. what does the u.k. want with all this water. what do you mean by owning a piece of the ocean. the idea of the ocean has changed over time. mums from the pros to show how goods in their cult talk of his mum saw the world and what they flew into an ocean is very much sure what was important to them and also.

before fourteen ninety two before columbus's journey to the americas the ocean as a broad portion of the world's surface as a major space that figured into our sense of the globe really wasn't there in the middle ages the world was thought to be a single large landmass a veritable mega continent without ocean. so the ocean really plays no role at all except to show a limit the ocean shows the limit of society and shows the limits of actually of god's kingdom of the kingdom on earth out to the east beyond the ocean clay eden lay that the promised land lay heaven beyond that there was really nothing baptist . for most of human history the oceans were projection screens for the imagination

of an unexplored and irrepressible loved a mighty barrier a place of terror. despite its dangers the ocean became more and more important over the centuries. as global trade developed merchant fleet is transformed to the oceans into vast shipping lanes people from tulsa centuries would never have dreamed of laying claim to the ocean for them it was a blue. it's formed with dangers and obstacles that needed to be overcome a sailor's journey to foreign lands. and of course the two dimensional bit is ironic because the ocean is so material a three dimensional you know we you step into the ocean you sink yet in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries something happened that changed our idea of the

ocean for ever the seabed became a place of exploration in eight hundred fifty eight as the transatlantic cable was being late engineers noticed variation in the oceans could this be evidence of undersea mountains the first scientific study of the ocean floor was undertaken by the german survey vessel meteo in one thousand nine hundred twenty five scientists today likened the expedition to columbus's first voyage which began the exploration of a towering incognita a previously unknown land over the next few decades a picture of the undersea cosmos gradually emerged suddenly kind of developed this new awareness of the seabed of the underneath of course this itself is also kind of a fantasized idealisation of the ocean because you're imagining that you can see through the water column the water is missing from here the fish are missing

a subtle way the topography of the seabed is quite literally brought to the surface . the discovery of the sea bed radically changed our idea of the ocean the ocean was no longer just water it was first and foremost a land mass a fost expands the belongs to no one but that could perhaps be seen just. this man had a groundbreaking idea. a president of the united states harry truman a man who then blew into a war reeking of any other man on earth. harry truman asserted his country's influence with the north claiming this ocean was a territory to retreat under water that could be the next to spot of the united states. enormous quantities of oil found in the gold for mexico but the oil lay

beyond the three miles island in which coastal states could exercise their song rights truman wanted more home he wanted new terms sorry for the united states the superpower needed more more oil urgently oil reserves on the mainland no longer sufficed. our dependence on these minerals and raw material is so fresh and our supply so uncertain that we are moving as rapidly as we can and by every means that ingenuity and divide to expand facilities to step up production find new sources of elop substitute and bring in increased supplies from foreign sources. after to second world war in one hundred forty five then us president truman issued a proclamation. declaring that the natural resources

in the. seabed and subsoil belong to the united states of america. in convincing the world that the american president not only had no will but also the right to incorporate undersea territory truman used an argument that built on the recent discovery some areas of the seabed oceanic of the continental. the us had to have this kind of basis of a jew logical link between its land mass and the land mass submerge and lead to its territory and be an idea of the geological continental shelf is the basis which the us saw as. a legal basis as well. they had to finally

and the bases that they found most convincing was of course science. but the. odds of being at c.n.n. not so cursed by ever do you think was there should be there mirror she again let the entry if in yet was like this name here. in this ng that's me i'll bite again. the argument that the continent continues on made up the core of truman's justification this was more convincing because the historical events that legitimized this theory which by far into history. simply

fall. in entire do if keep this. time in the yard and true jumps. over the korean talent left by medion me mom. will feed your cat is a geophysicist at the alfred vega to institute in play my husband alfred vega noticed that the coastlines of north and south america seems to fit together with those of us and africa like pieces of a possible fun indeed carnegie lookee in differ on found on one of the dark horse dusty couldn't i much as some. pianist. in record scientists today believe there was once a supercontinent that at some point began to drift apart in the early twentieth century this idea seemed completely preposterous. this being water

sanitary. it. could turn. out to damage that kind of supervise and. this is on the continent on them in the atmosphere to nothing we only out there that's africa the american doctors and indian. muslim if i'm going. to cure the present. indian. it's here. to cost us as a con invite not. that. these are but i hear that's where the quote entire. went on here has only climbed the delegates has a. what ideas are up or can do that condemned. for me on this issue have to be done article sausan of the field of. gas

but. the idea that this submerged land mass is really a prolongation of your land territory you know it's who can argue that this would not be partly right territory. the more people became aware of large quantities of oil and gas in the ocean floor the more coastal states tried to claim it for themselves they called for an international law based on the geological definition of a continental shelf yet many states resisted the earth's history has not favored each country equally to brushless learned how to answer by can share. financier mind us as we but fear not limit our plight for. africa. particularly made up part of dozens i didn't want in modern context group or a picturesque land. to balance out the geological differences that emerged over

hundreds of millions of years the nations of the world abandoned the geological definition of a continental shelf in favor of a legal definition that applies to all coastal states uniformly the godless of its undersea geology every country is granted a continental shelf extending two hundred nautical miles to see its exclusive economic zone. so these did they be of these two hundred as a magic number became acceptable to many states at the conference but the broad margin states did not accept this because of course they were as far as they're concerned they would come up as a loser it's not just the us and it also other states such as canada russia is also one of those states so they were not willing to give this up. ultimately states with a wide continental shelf prevailed and

a clueless with momentous consequences was quietly appended to the law of the sea convention the cruise in question is article seventy six it says that the state can lay claim to his geological continental shelf in addition to his legal continental shelf provided in the state can supply data demonstrating the show's outer limits within ten years. the time limit triggered a veritable run on the world's oceans and the largest land allocation in world history. for the first time in the history of humanity a land grab occurred based not only more on traditional forms of color but rather on geological findings. scientists have a special role in the case of the ocean because the physical difference isn't as

obvious it's not as experienced if you're on an island detention oh you're on an island you can experience where land meets water i have no idea where the seabed ends you know where the continental shelf fans and you know nobody does from every day observation. so i would like to explain now actually article seventy six of the convention to see actually works and it's all about natural. laws so we have. actually learned continues under water or something like this everything is decided by the point where the continental gradient drops off but the foot of the continental slope this spot is used to calculate to show how to. limits the state can choose between two formulas it can extend its borders sixty nautical miles hundred kilometers from

this point see woods can be more dangerous however to use the settlement fixedness will because the settlements on the mainland the state has a territorial claim to this pot of the sea bed the thicker the layer of sediment the better according to the thickness will the continental shelf extends until the point where the thickness of sediment amounts to one percent of the distance from the foot of the slope. because no one in the chest understand data only thing can determine how far the state so when winds extend over the ocean hence a commission of x. that was found to deal with the global community recognizes the stakes and has so far in bullet has evolved one. zero non-si beside thousands

why mickey yeah it's not so good because it was a poem assume or aim envision omission of it limits of the sheriff as posey dba records out is as is g.'s e is g. to join you bob heaped then join sed head busy show fever. and be truly involved. in the. cole hinz helped build this commission yes now he is among its fiercest critics. g. home in their home is sure no one know that paper for ben c.n.n. live our stop they should read sua yeah it's bad one farm on that our right mocked. argent united president and all the asian is that mr

snow. the twenty one geologist of the continental shelf commission would consider building d.c. to the united nations plaza filming here is for peter none of the members may speak for the company to inspire excellence precisely because of the fact that their decisions can change maritime elimination it's. easy. to put their spin on that confidentiality educated or better i have seen d c s or cited as oh very wrong have you noticed that joe. it dan the debt even needs. this two thousand and two in there does. weight of confidentiality pfaff on the nights great but does i just sheesh rising in the house.

short films of the book and inspiration. has no story of three young women challenging the world around them. al-jazeera selects. the blow up in the united states i learned that the first amendment is really key to being a freedom the challenge is going to be. men and women to the resources that are available but it's an al-jazeera story is that we just don't tell you what the subject of the story wants you to know the government is not going to do the one thing the demonstrators want to apologize for what al-jazeera does we ask the

questions so that we can get closer to the truth. five families fight to survive in twenty first century america i live off my credit cards mine i don't make enough money the last couple months it's been minimum balances can only keep their heads above water in a tough economic climate companies have had to lay off thousands of workers if he wants to go to school he'll be for his classes and books and he can do that on the down hard. on al jazeera. and al gore in tyler with a reminder of the main headlines on his era us president donald trump is visiting the border with mexico to drum up support for his proposed border wall he's been

holding talks with officials at a border patrol facility in mccallum texas trump wants more than five billion dollars to start constructing the wall but is not in a standoff with u.s. democrats who refuse to fund it on wednesday he stormed out of a meeting with democratic leaders at the white house calling it a waste of time i'm honored to be in a gallon texas. with the heroes of border patrol and they are heroes you know you her have so much border patrol ice and law enforcement generally you take so much heat you take so much abuse from people that don't know what they're talking about i want to just say that you have a friend with this administration and you have a friend with me nobody does a better job. the un's envoy to yemen has called on warring factions to maintain a fragile ceasefire that's after at least five people were killed by a hoofy drone strike on a yemeni government a military parade. to c.

one hundred fifty billion see only a week in his army. in attack in large provinces threatening un led peace efforts to end the four year war the rebels and the saudi led pro-government coalition had agreed to halt fighting around the vital port city of her data the war has brought millions to the brink of famine special election violence says killed four people in the democratic republic of congo position candidate felix security has been declared the winner but many others are disputing the outcome france's foreign minister says the results don't tally with what we've seen on the ground you know secular state might pompei or has vowed to expel the iranians from syria you speaking at the american university in cairo and also took aim at former president barack obama and he blamed for the rise of eisel outlined president trump's approach to the middle east the venezuelan president nicolas

maduro has been sworn in for a second term in office but dozens of countries boycotted the inauguration ceremony . as overseeing an economic collapse in the latin american state fronting the region's worst ever migration crisis but your top stories ocean's monopoly continues next are the news after your after that bye for now. the commission of experts was founded in new york where the global community recognizes states and their suffering borders as pows idiotic and zachary's s d z institute's your new biography. for the first time in the history of humanity a land grab occurred based not only more on traditional forms of power but rather on geological findings. of the experts who tipped the scales in loring's about maritime territories a notoriously unforthcoming one members agreed to speak about the commission on the

condition the team meters not in new york but in which city informs. personally i've always felt that we could do an effort to actually be more transparent and to communicate more. so my name is walter roost i'm a marine physicist work at it from air france and i'm a member of the un commission on the limits of the continental shelf. well the first thing i should say is that they're not the work of the commission yes it's true it's quite. three that very confidential fashion and the main reason behind that from the beginning while the reasons one is that we're dealing with sovereign rights of states secondly many of the states submit data

that are actually confidential data derives from petroleum industry francis so and those data they have to be treated with a very high level of confidentiality there are powerful interests behind the state's petitions seabed data have enormous economic significance this information contains important clues for where natural resources might be located industries and states are not inclined to share this information which can be worth billions i think what we did what i could say is that as members of the commission i think we consider ourselves really scientific and technical experts but we also. cautions of the fact that our recommendations or decisions that we make have huge impact both politically economically. and so on

so is it possible to distinguish those two. for geologists in the commission to have the job of evaluating continental shelf data submitted by countries officially the commission only makes recommendations but since their conclusions are not cooperated by anyone else they have de facto or pfoa t. to decide which nations get which territories. five nations that border the arctic ocean are in a bid to extend their software rights in the direction of the north pole denmark canada us norway and russia each wants as much territories possible the area is best. managing to contain ten percent of the world's oil was.

due to fire who. had sushi. if. for. us we're doing is is hince has put down. russians. who. understood how to take advantage of the new. in two thousand and two it was one of the first countries to submit a claim to the continental shelf commission the russians asserting to no less than the entire essential arctic an area of one point five million square kilometers including the north pole coal hinz was known as the man who shot down lushes claim on account of insufficient scientific evidence employed

a trick that many states are using to push through their claims even often there which. is and is a country and. this is ideal for boat. or d.l.c. este. ron. i'm a fresh one of. the game me because. missions. in the race to control the world's oceans data is key if a claim that nations can have just collect more information this effectively allows countries to circumvent the commission's ten year deadline governments can submit new reports until their claims who approved each additional geological submission

brings with it fresh room for interpretation the name of the game is if you want to have the best answer for your time boundaries. and or the best answer for your extended continental shelf you go out and collect the best modern day data possible to go in use for your final application for law the seed to ensure that the answer is the best that it can be. russia has since submitted it refines to data to the continental shelf commission but canada and denmark want to know home to. how can other countries with the same scientific arguments claim the same territory . is an ocean and water is a continent it is

a question of respect if the commission evaluates the scientific data and makes a decision in the for or against a state's claim once a claim is approved it is binding and cannot be with us. i don't know i mean we have no. if we replace all members of the commission hypothetically we have twenty one new members and we would give them the same case it would be get the same result of i can be quite certain we will not get exactly the same result so i i don't believe that the commission can be a hundred percent right because one hundred percent right does not exist in natural sciences we're talking about in the preaching based all relatively sparse data. the commission is a clip of experts selected by the channel the same the united nations of the twenty

one members on the commission nineteen come from countries that have other cite for territorial expansion to national interests plane decisions of its members what is certain is that the recommendations. tested. and. the first plans of the commission yorn have tried to control our plan is actually worked as harm in that vein i did my. bank can for the acquittal yet i'm glad to have a problem short. nobody. wiking some well there were two candidates to make from malta.

and all i can say is that john mccain won so we ended up in kingston. michael love puts his international seabed to. say it is a type of executive council of the ocean floor they supervise with the states on able to get their hands on with continental shelf claims the i.s.a.'s official motto is that the deep sea bed is the common heritage of mankind they believe that the ocean belongs to everyone the common heritage concept includes. a number of basic ideas the first idea is that it's an area over which no single state can claim sovereignty. and it has to be administered for the benefit of all mankind. the seabed all fourteen years the tosca distributing witches that are not in the sovereign areas of national states

if a country or company makes a profit from mining minerals the i s a ensures that poor countries and countries without coastal borders receive a share. when founding the i s a states agreed to make environmental regulations as strict as possible for deep sea mining in international waters because no one knows its effect on the merits of the ecosystem . so the i.r. say has no standing in the continental shelf commission it's not an observer to the commission it has no right to object to a recommendation of the commission. the commission's recommendations go only to the coastal state that is making the submission and not to anybody else.

the ocean compass ever three hundred sixty million square kilometers. of the earth's surface. over forty percent of this area has been assigned to legal continental shelves. claims on expanded continental shelves make up another ten percent of the ocean. it is now projected that around fifty seven percent of the oceans will eventually be under the control of the coastal states. in the year two thousand and that's the latest set of figures that we have the international seabed authority which is based in jamaica they came up with an estimate as they saw that governments were starting to work through this more recent component for a lot of the sea for the extended continental shelf they have a figure just just below twelve thousand us trillion dollars is

the in-situ estimate of seabed resources in the expanded continental shelves. estimates about the quantity of natural resources buried in the seabed are highly speculative but if the figure of twelve thousand trillion u.s. dollars is right it would be enough to every person on earth a check for one and a half million dollars. for this is one of the country's leading the charge to claim a piece of the pie luck card nothing has a leg over many other states at colonial past. worries so. please leave. blues. in a realm of more don't you like say are hopefully she will do

or do you do. not want to feel at least one of. the. only. one out. of the. thanks to its colonial past france administers islands in almost every ocean of the world now it stands to gain substantial maritime territory in each. currently françois' eleven claims pending at the continental shelf commission. says it is until. it is.

written he did not put in says is. definitely on. the on the dos he did was this is such an. france has claimed territories amounting to some twelve million square kilometers around twenty times the size of continental farms if the claims are true it will become the world's second largest maritime nation its sovereign wide stretching over an area of the ocean almost as large as the entire arctic less yasith also there. are a little him all this limo and bulldog. thus a good. leader of our political. idiot and a good model

a better man all because i do security during it don't drive or. duplicate. the predict. which is going to switch don't you know. clearly. that you're not that or last disease diprivan is. dig off or send decision. that stood up at an os that there's the down to the point. that the want you shall see it is.

called for seventy. dollars. for. the sort of grew to want their machine are better may i mean. don't walk away fish that doesn't mean a tick shut it is a. different place up or shut you. up warning is a false or. false is not best. served up or didn't see four sets up a. crib. islands were presenting a crucial trump card in the battle to control the world's oceans it's all about

geometry because islands are surrounded by water there's so for interest or you extends around them in a circle even if an island were just a small walk its merits or inside would be larger than germany. if a group of islands forms and. a common baseline around the entire cluster of violence is used to calculate the maritime territory. this man is japan's hope in the race to claim the won't oceans he cracks the genetic code of a life form the could help japan i'd say four hundred thousand square kilometers to its territory make a ami is a geoscientist in the university of tokyo he specializes in coal organisms that display characteristics of both animals and plants.

all. is forgiven thought that it. was ill step that we all. yet kayani has delved further into their biology into the secret of their reproduction and found a method for breeding them on a large scale. although i see that on the three of them all. at the bottom of it it's akin to get out of the often best second argument about thought there were numerous. mass produced coals sixty thousand tiny coal babies being artificially poor at a farm on a small island off the coast of okinawa but for walked her does. the.

book in a trollish ima is located seventeen hundred kilometers south of tokyo it is a small cold matter during high tide he clears the surface by a mere centimeters japan regards it as an island but the existence of a q notorious under threat. all six join it and i see him in ga and he just said. that they are the mascot of them all is one of but we are not a small civil system out there so you kenya us. japan has decided that kinda troy you must know the foundation its maritime area which presents a massive territorial expansion bringing with it so when whites over fish and other natural resources. the ornaments sickie to get. them. all.

there. and so you begin. your. nothings. in. all. this territory be lost if the. these coals being used to save the thousands of tons have been shipped to a to preserve that we found make it as launch as possible a pilot project on an island taiwan is studying what might one day look like things to. soon. could become we'll like the pilot project. which consists entirely of cars.

being welcomed by everyone whether it's demerits on claims of tensions with his powerful neighbor china. in phone island disputes with a whole array of countries. as states attempts to extend their maritime zones as far as possible many international conflicts have a listen. in the south china sea eight countries are fighting in full value to one hundred billion dollars. there is no part of the world that is safer than others in other words with fifty three percent of all maritime boundaries within the ease that unresolved we're seeing conflicts raising up to. driven predominantly by resource development for the off shore

typically will end up having a coastal frontage area that looks like this and let's say that we have a land boundary we're country a is sitting here and country b. is sitting here back in the seventy's when we were moving from oil and gas exploration on land to the marine area they may. i've negotiated a provisional boundary that sort of allowed them for country a to issue offshore oil and gas blocks and country b. and let's say in a so in a more recent scenario an extremely large discovery is made and let's say the neighboring country country b. then all of a sudden size we'd like to have some of that so they are starting to propose new boundaries as this initial line was not even a modern day accepted boundary line. have become contestants territories the world over everyone wants

a piece of the design new boundaries of being too old for to fighting no peace which is powerful industries on the move in the deep sea no one can predict the consequences of this industrialization of the world's pollution as. they are the consequences of a revolution that began years ago and has mostly gone on noticed the ocean is being defined you don't like the land. you also have to realize that the oceans are future so we need to have some way of. deciding who is responsible for walk and where and when. and so. at this point in time this is maybe not the ideal solution but this is this rouge and that was created with the convention. the world's oceans phone it's continents bill with

a cohesive ecological system a sensitive continuum in which wants happens to one area can affect the office. it is now up to the lowest nations whether they would take responsibility for their new knee a quiet maritime territories. hello there we've seen yet more heavy rain over parts of queensland it's mostly in the

northern half we've seen the showers in townsville will say be done to that area of cloud two so all they say really is at risk of seeing a few more very heavy thunder downfalls as we head through the next few days or so on friday there's the risk of seeing the odd shower in sydney but for adelaide it's going to be the heat look at that thirty nine degrees at least it doesn't last too long when the temperatures do drop significantly as we head into saturday but the west it's fine for us in perth on temperatures hovering around thirty two and over towards new zealand we've got a little bit of cloud just draped across the north island the south on into is looking fine though and for most of us this should be some dry weather for friday and some bright weather to oakland where we fairly well with a temperature of a around twenty five but the cloud gathers once more as we head into saturday so this time will be a bit grayer and maybe we'll see outbreak of rain from that ever further towards the north than here it's pretty cold for many of us at the moment getting to a maximum temperature of a around minus eleven it is for

a woman in beijing will be up at six or seven as we head into saturday for the east it will cloud a rain is pushing its way towards japan that will just scale across the fall southern parts as we head through the day on saturday. headlines warn the streets of melbourne australia are by. its citizens under threat by african gangs. but how real are displayed. when one east investigates are now the zero. zero. where ever you are.

capturing a moment in time. snapshots of other lives. other stories . providing a glimpse into someone else's world. inspiring documentaries from impassioned filmmakers. with nice documentaries to open your eyes on al-jazeera. this is al jazeera.

an hour and ten of this is the al-jazeera news hour live from london coming up. u.s. president donald trump arrives at the mexican border to drum up support for his controversial wall. opposition a different excuse acadia has declared a surprise winner in the democratic republic of congo's presidential election but his rivals says the results are rigged. a drone attack on a yemeni military parade threatens to derail peace efforts by the u.n. . and the same as in doha with all you supporting puting a turnaround for toil and just days ago they sext the coach after a heavy defeat at the asian cup now they're all smiles. u.s. president donald trump has visited the border with mexico to drum up support for

his proposed border wall he's been holding talks with officials at a border patrol facility in macallan texas trump is demanding more than five billion dollars for his planned barrier to the south it follows a meeting on wednesday with democrat leaders and he called a waste of time because they're still refusing to fund the wall resulting in a partial government shutdown i'm honored to be in my gallant texas with the heroes of border patrol and they are heroes you know you her have so much border patrol ice and law enforcement generally you take so much heat you take so much abuse from people that don't know what they're talking about i want to just say that you have a friend with this administration and you have a friend with me. nobody does a better job. than me how could joins us now from macallan texas how was the visit gone down to war did president tom have to say well the president

was met by protesters at the airport but he was also met by supporters who lined the streets with science supporting the wall so this is really becoming a dueling narrative if you will and this may be sort of the mass of photo op the opportunity for the president to kind of parade around some of the toys that are used in border security as we heard from the president there talking he was at a meeting with border patrol agents where they had an a r fifteen weapon as well as contraband like drugs that had been seized at some of these checkpoints but really what the president's trying to convey is that this is a humanitarian crisis one that given the women and children that are trying to cross the border that they are often the victims of those that are facilitating the crossings they have women tied up they have tape over their mouths electrical tape usually blue tape is

a call it is powerful stuff not good. and they have three four five of them in vans or three of them in back seats of cars and they just drive right and then you go through your points of entry they go right through and if we had. a barrier of any kind a powerful barrier whether it's steel and concrete if we had a barrier they wouldn't be able to make that turn and they wouldn't even bother trying so they can't go through the points with people so we would stop that cold. so the president is making the case that places like here in mccalla texas we should point out one of the busiest places for illegal crossings into the united states that there needs to be a better border wall one that cannot be penetrated and that's why he is adamant that he needs the five point seven billion to from congress to make this happen i want to quickly quickly show you just behind me here is kind of an example of why

people are able to get into the united states you can see it's a pretty low fence was that you could scale if you were able to get through razor wire and also scale up about four or five meters you could cross into the united states so that's why it makes it one of the busiest places this is why the president says there needs to be a steel made border wall this is why there is a partial government shutdown he is adamant he's going to press for this funding even as his democratic opponents say it's immoral it's not a symbol of the united states once the symbol of freedom in the statue of liberty is what welcome democrats not a steeler concrete wall but this is what the dueling narrative has become this is what the president's continuing to push for this is why he's in mccalla texas bring out all the props in order to make his case to me how kids thank you very much indeed here's a picture of state has vowed to confront it reigne an infant in the middle east and expel every last iranian boot from syria by comparing made the comments during

a keynote address at the american university in cairo in which he outlined the u.s. administration's policy for the region stratford has. the u.s. secretary of state might play was touring the middle east almost described as a mission focused on sure enough support among arab allies against iran. since withdrawing from the two thousand and fifteen iran nuclear deal last year the u.s. has increased pressure on teheran which accuses of being it destabilizing force in the region. many middle east experts say pushing iran into a corner is a dangerous move but in the egyptian capital cairo america's top diplomat didn't mince his words the nations of the middle east will never enjoy security achieve economic stability or advance the dreams of their people of iran's revolutionary regime persists on its current course america's economic sanctions against the regime are the strongest in history and will keep getting tougher until iran starts

behaving like a normal country. middle east follows confusion about donald trump's withdrawal of a around two thousand u.s. troops from northern syria. the president's announcement schult arab allies as well as u.s. political leaders and military commanders concerned that the battle against eisel in syria and the wider region is not over yet. tried to reassure them president trump has made the decision to bring our troops home from syria we always do and now is the time but this isn't a change of mission we were made committed to the complete dismantling of isis the isis threat and the ongoing fight against radical islamism in all of its forms. the u.s. withdrawal from syria is also having ramifications for american relations with nato ally turkey u.s. troops have been working with kurdish y.

peachey fighters who control a large area of northern syria close to the turkish border turkey considers the y. peachey a terrorist organization president received type order one said the suggestion on choose day by u.s. national security adviser john bolton but protecting the white p.g. as a precondition to the u.s. troop withdrawal plan was a serious mistake there was very little if anything from pompei or about the story israeli palestinian peace process very little on the saudi and amorality led war in yemen that has killed tens of thousands displaced millions with millions more threatened with famine and disease pressure increased on president trump from both democrat and republican senators to end support for the saudi involvement in yemen after the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi many suspect crown prince muhammad bin solomon ordered a saudi hit squad to fly to istanbul last october that the united states is the

main provider of saudi military assistance and support in the war in yemen so the the not united states is not an objective observer of the war of yemen it's an accomplice in the water of yemen. pompei was keen to lay much of the blame for what many describe as years of chaos in the middle east on former president barack obama's administration. president trump has reasserted america's control was a full suit good in this region he said we have rediscovered our voice. there are millions of people throughout this region who are grateful for the u.s. led coalition success in the battle against eisel but there will also be many nervous u.s. administration that blames the region's instability in the previous u.s. president and the wrong. strategy which is a. broad get to this is a senior fellow at the center for american progress he joins me now from washington

thanks for being with us why did it was such a strong emphasis on iran specifically in the my speech well it's not a surprise for the past year the trump administration has been moving the top u.s. focus on the middle east from. being in the fight against isis to an effort to counter iran so we've heard heated rhetoric like this for a while but we've not really seen any sort of strategy that i think will be effective against iran nor any compelling strategy for the region i think the speech today demonstrated that secretary pompei o and the trump administration simply don't care about the people of the region particularly their rights and the protection that they need from some of their regimes in the region and how does the how does that square with the desired to wish to pull out of syria that kind of wanting to get all the iranian boats out of syria but that wanting to pull the u.s. out of it. it doesn't i mean u.s.

policy in the middle east right now is a hot mess it doesn't make any sense and it's very convoluted and i think most of the leaders in the region have wisely calculated that the u.s. is not going to be a stable or reliable partner for the forseeable future so they're going to do what they need to do on their own and the simple fact that if you know the trump administration has a stated policy of trying to compete or counter iran but it's essentially passively appeased iran in places like syria and iraq then it just doesn't make any sense it's all empty words so what i mean you don't dare talk about so this is the real new beginning how different do you view that the u.s. is role in the region now compared with two years ago it's much more diminished and i think people in the middle east should understand that in america people simply just don't care anymore. and i think part of the reason why the trump

administration can get away with such an erratic incoherent presentation of its views on policy is that nobody's paying attention to it here in washington today which is quite empty the top news is the government shutdown people did not pay attention to my speech and i would guess that in many countries in the middle east they may have watched it but they don't put much stock in it because they see america in disarray and rudderless here at home and not with any clear policy in the region you know one of the areas that he didn't mention is was yemen and that had recently got some attention in at least in congress and it just it was all that he didn't talk about yemen no because again this administration has demonstrated that it doesn't really care about yemen i would say the obama administration also did not make it a top priority and even those who are critical in congress of the yemen war and saudi arabia in the.