they were both killed in the fighting ses he is lucky to have survived shy and reserved he tells us it was isis reveals that persuaded him to join the group. there was everything in those videos to attract me fighting shooting there were calling god's name but i didn't expect they could ever be so unjust which i saw them slaughtering others using children as in their battle many innocent died because of them after escaping from i saw spent a year in prison he was then allowed to join this rehabilitation center along with twenty five other former members of the group some of them foreign fighters. they were classes in religious beliefs and psychological counseling was mandatory. twelve months later he was given the chance to go back to school and be with his family but he'll be kept under surveillance. we continue to

check on these who complete the rehab we insist they continue their studies the best way to fight terrorism goes through fighting extremism. product as the head of a city council supports the rehabilitation project but when it comes to foreign fighters he thinks they should be treated differently. but they are not like the sons of syria they came here to kill our people and should be judged by international courts we have already taken off responsibility for their crimes. for the back of his father's shop howley is like many other teenage boys he likes playing football watching t.v. shows and planning his future one of my dreams is to be arabic teacher and build the house and get. through habitation all former are still far churches in syria has not been without controversy while the process has seen its access to return to which some into society and many others mostly form fighters have been rejected by

their countries must remain in prison in syria soon on because so little else is around north and syria. still ahead fionnuala just zero could the roman catholic church in the united states go bankrupt the multi-billion dollar compensation claims against priests are piling up. on jonah hill in hungary where homelessness is now a criminal offense as the government projects power over the powerless. hello baby this no surprise is more rain for the lebanon first syria for iraq to some degree you can see the massive cloud as you see it sort of curve to the wall of source of all this is you do most of the mediterranean and that's certainly

bringing rain across lebanon and syria during the rest of sunday into monday but it's really nice getting across or skipping across iraq the high ground in the northeast of iraq has certainly come across into the mountains of western iran that's where it all stops rains insistently there be snow in the hills flash flooding is a considerable risk and the snow i think would just pile up eventually skips eastwards new find some falls out of the sky in the funnels alaska and beyond and then the concentration will probably be maybe northern syria especially turkey that looks like windy and story with us of the would visit comes to mind but through the levant and further south it's not the case the cloud that exists here the focus of monday through saudi arabia and kuwait for you just that cloud to rain maybe for q wait i think the size probably not in the breeze will turn suddenly for a couple days it will be a dusty one but it should be a dry where the wet weather still there in madagascar tanzania zimbabwe and zambia with occasional showers further south and surprisingly.

russian filmmaker andre neck rosol travels across his homeland to discover what life is like under putin the russian economy is in question sanctions unstable oil prices fluctuating currents half of the country struggles to make ends meet in soviet times doctors were in charge now economists calculate everything we don't want to think what will happen when the bank takes away our flags. in search of putin's russia on al-jazeera.

deal with al-jazeera these are the top stories this hour the u.s. secretary of states called on countries in the gulf to end their dispute saying it's gone on too long during my visit to qatar on sunday he urged for unity before he left he also met the emir of qatar i mean been. and is expected to meet the saudi crown prince mohammed bin sultan in riyadh in the coming hours. the syrian army is preparing for an offensive by turkish forces on the kurdish rebel stronghold of. syria's government has deployed soldiers artillery and tanks to the suburbs of the city as he was forces get ready to leave her considers the kurdish y.p. which is backed by the u.s. to be a terrorist group. called the growing for a recount of votes in democratic republic of congo's disputed presidential election opposition leader martin for you to victory has been stolen from them is accusing the declared winner and his rival felix she scared of making a deal with the outgoing president joseph kabila also the influential regional body

known as sonic is adding to calls by catholic church leaders for an invest. occasion in two elections. we have states are phrases on shake because the people have decided and the wishes of the people will come true i am a man of face. covering events from. what people think of christians here in the catholic and the catholic church is a huge influence yes sometimes some of the bishops often speak out when many other people are afraid to do so the catholic church had about twenty thousand election observers on the ground and they say they come out as much of the country as they possibly could according to their own tally. the one with sixty one percent of the vote some people believe them some people don't but there are mixed feelings on the ground about the church's role in politics here in the. i think the church is important to. so it should be done to help and political problems affecting our

country according to me i don't think it's right for a child to get. people into static region feel that the setting election observer teams are sometimes biased towards the ruling party but some people think they quite credible and the one to the ground do quite a good job of putting on people the reason a body thought it was a reach and or they want a government of national unity formed here in the d.r. similar to what we saw in zimbabwe in two thousand and nine when robert mugabe was forced to share power with morgan tsvangirai and the two men were not friends they didn't see eye to eye they didn't get along but they were forced to work together and think into work for five years things were relatively stable in zimbabwe even economy started to show signs of recovery so they are hoping that that kind of model could be used here in the d.r. he but it all depends on the political players are they willing to work together

can we put aside the differences that is the big thing i think the next few days would be more reaction from the regional body and it was all eyes on that court they'll meet on monday with a lot of fun with it order a recount or just declare to the katie as the wisdom to let. the u.s. president's denying the latest allegations of his links with russia this time donald trump has been accused of keeping to himself the details of a meeting with president vladimir putin this was a report in the washington post which says trump didn't release any notes made by his interpreter after he met putin in hamburg and twenty seven seen trump reportedly instructed to translate and not to tell anyone in his administration and been discussed why not release the conversation that you had with president putin in house thinking along with some other stops that might involve them. in the whole lot of them well janine i would i don't care i mean i had a conversation like every president does you sit with the president to various countries i do it with all countries we had

a great conversation we were talking about israel and securing israel and lots of other things and it was a great conversation i'm not keeping anything under wraps i couldn't care less more on this one from washington now with rosalynn jordan. the u.s. president donald trump is rejecting allegations in a washington post story that he is trying to conceal or has been concealing information about his meetings with vladimir putin the russian president the post story which was released late on saturday says that in five instances the president did not allow any information about his closed door meetings with putin to be shared with other officials either on the national security council or at the state department and a fed parent lee officials in both the national security council and at the state department were quite concerned because they had no idea what obligations the president was entering the united states into along with discussions of obligations

coming from russia in short there are some questions now about what is the extent of the u.s. russian relationship because the u.s. president isn't giving his version of his discussions with his russian counterparts there's also the anger from some democrats that the president has not been acting in the united states best interest they're now calling for investigations but whether they can get quick investigations put together and bring in officials to question them about what they know or what they don't know about the president's meeting with mr putin is a big ask that's because there's trying to compel the president to give up on his demand for money to build a border wall between the united states and mexico as long as that political standoff continues some eight hundred thousand people who work for the federal

government aren't getting paid and about half of them aren't even being allowed to report to their offices so a lot of political pressure to try to figure out what donald trump has been doing in terms of foreign policy with russia but there is also pressure to try to reel. in the federal government and it's probably likely that reopening the government might happen sooner then tough investigations into the president's behavior still in the u.s. the catholic church is facing a crisis by financially and spiritually report found hundreds of priests in one state alone preyed on thousands of children over decades kristen salumi has been to pennsylvania to see how the church and indeed its victims are responding. in the diocese of harrisburg at the first in a series of meetings bishop ronald gaynor explains to catholics what's being done to stop clergy abuse and help victims including setting up a compensation fund i hope that this is the beginning as one step to the forward

for a better safer catholic church but it isn't enough for the forty sisters five of whom were abused in the diocese by the same priest they want all perpetrators and those who protect them to be held accountable in a court of law carolyn was still in diapers when her abuse started in her family's case there was evidence and the church paid a one million dollars settlement in exchange for not pressing charges or talking about the case last year when the pennsylvania attorney general released a state wide report on clergy abuse the forty's learned that the church had received another complaint against their abuser and done nothing that was a validation to me for us and that's what victims are seeking they're seeking that moment in court it wasn't just the four unease the report found credible evidence that statewide some three hundred priests had abused more than a thousand children and that the church had a pattern of covering it up the revelations have led to

a federal investigation and at least a dozen more states are now compiling their own reports in pennsylvania victims have been lobbying elected officials to suspend the statute of limitations in order cases and give victims two years to take the church in their abusers to court but. legislation has gone nowhere amid fears lawsuits would bankrupt the church in new york churches have already made more than two hundred million dollars in payouts camille bureaus oversees the awarding of funds for several dioceses and. these programs have afforded these victims an outlet a place to go an avenue to seek some sort of compensation and ignition of what happened but elected official mark razi who was raped by a priest at thirteen believes changing the statute is the only way to hold the church accountable this is about the hierarchy aiding and abetting known perpetrators of that allowed this to go on and that's why i'm bad is that this has

to stop courtney says she was heartened by what she heard at the meeting not from the bishop but from other catholics a lot of them are boys thing that you know they're going to withhold their their financial contributions raising the pressure on politicians as well as the church christian salumi al-jazeera harrisburg pennsylvania some news out of the out of venezuela and the leader of the opposition has been released soft of being briefly detained on grade though is the head of the opposition that congress which is disputing the legitimacy of president. he was sworn in last week for a second grader said he was prepared to assume the country's presidency on an interim basis and to call elections the greek governments in danger of collapse because of the name change agreement with neighboring macedonia prime minister alexis tsipras is calling for a vote of confidence in his coalition government after one of the parties quit and

the defense minister panel's comment resigned he's one of many great supposed to this agreement with macedonia to change its name is because greece has a province itself called macedonia and a parliament treat majority in athens is needed to ratify the agreement. the leader of the british opposition says he's going to table a motion of no confidence if the prime ministers break that deal is rejected by parliament m.p.'s will be voting on that on tuesday to raise a maze deal which the government agreed with the european union my own view is that i would rather get negotiated deal now if we can to stop the danger of a no deal an exit from the on the twenty ninth of march which would be catastrophic for industry catastrophic for trade and for the long term effects of that would be huge i think parliament did vote for an amendment to the finance bill this week which indicated its opposition to no deal isn't totally specific on it we will do everything we can to prevent and no deal x.

it. being homeless in hungary has become a criminal offense police are rounding up and finding people living on the streets others have gone into hiding making them even more vulnerable to the harsh winter weather reports in the capital. the sleek clean boulevards of budapest this is how an increasingly also tyrian government wants them to look no refugees or illegal immigrants and no no homeless people either we're just trying to enable our author of his to step up against something which we believe is against human nature the human dignity and we would like public spaces to get their meaning back and operate as they were intended it's not a decision the government took lightly the previous attempt was ruled a violation of human dignity by the constitutional court so the government changed the constitution itself all of which is heartbreaking to people like youngish torak lives in a caravan after he lost his home his job even his family when

a house fire and no insurance left him with crippling debt. i'm afraid of it i can't say better i'm afraid it could happen any time i wake up every morning scared that someone may not call my door and say we can take your stuff away go elsewhere the government did sists it's looking after the people being swept off the streets but we take care of them we provide shelter provisions and all the support that is required not a social workers but they believe that the shelter system is not an assault on this problem heather and the government still thinks about opening some new shutters but the numbers show that there are more than thirty thousand people even homeless in hungary at the moment there eleven thousand shattered places. cycling's through the city volunteers carrying food and blankets search for those who've not made it to a shelter for the night in

a railway station underpass where dozens once slept they find just three people. too many people in this in the shelters so there is a one hundred person and their way is there more than one hundred first in the shadows so it's a too crowded and overcrowding in the shelters so the volunteers means many homeless people have gone into hiding making them even more vulnerable to the elements. shelters like these this one is a private facility barely come close to meeting the needs of the homeless on the streets and while it's obviously a good idea to get people off the streets in below zero conditions like this and volunteers are doing what they can that's not the point behind the government's decision to criminalize homelessness in hungary one social worker described it as projecting power over the powerless i don't know how al-jazeera budapest.

the headlines on al-jazeera this hour the u.s. secretary of state has called on countries in the gulf to end their dispute saying it's gone on too long during my compares visit to cut there on sunday he urged unity before he left he met scott as a mere shell i mean how but i'll tell me and is expected to meet the saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman in riyadh later today we're all more powerful when we're working together when disputes are limited and when we have common challenges in the region and around the world. disputes between countries that have a shared objective or never never helpful they never they never permit you to have as robust a and powerful a response to common adversaries or common challenges. and we are looking forward to the outputs of this meeting to be the foundations for a stronger future face of relations between our two countries and we hope that further that political coordination continues on all issues of regional security of

interest to both our countries and other news the syrian army is preparing for an offensive by turkish forces on the kurdish rebel stronghold of man bitch syria's government has deployed soldiers artillery and tanks to the suburbs as u.s. forces get ready to leave. an influential african political bloc known as static is calling for a recount in the democratic republic of congo presidential election results been disputed by the opposition leader martin for you lou who is now challenging the result in court u.s. president is denying the latest allegations of his links with russia this time donald trump's been accused of keeping to himself the details of a meeting with the russian president vladimir putin as a reporter at the washington post which says trump didn't release any notes made by his interpreter after he met putin in hamburg in twenty seventeen and in venezuela the leader of the opposition has been released after being briefly detained. though

is the head of the opposition led congress which is disputing the legitimacy of president nicolas maduro the durham self was sworn in last week as president for a second term back with the news hour in about twenty five minutes here on al-jazeera up next inside story. an eighteen year old girl flees saudi arabia and granted asylum in canada she says she feared abuse at home what does this reveal about social reform in the kingdom and will it encourage other women to speak up or get out of the country this is the inside story.

and i welcome to the program i'm not clog. up the world's attention for defying a strict social code in saudi arabia she said she feared for her life if she was returned home she don't twitter campaign from her hotel room in thailand pleading for help united nations granted her refugee status in canada offered her asylum and you have a case may complicate already strained relations with saudi arabia kind of had previously angered riyadh by calling for the release of women's rights activists from saudi jails my kind has more now from toronto. the long and arduous journey from saudi arabia over the eighteen year old stiff through the arrival doors accompanied by the canadian foreign minister the size of the media contingent

a reflection of the massive public interest generated state you know that everyone . else. i'm hearing free media towns really wants needs to leave it seems arrive at a new phone but she's now the theory on how your intern and so she would prefer not to take questions today so please don't see therion crazy coming in through life and she is now going to go see her new home then rush. back through the doors to begin the first phase of her new life her wish to go to college and study architecture. the canadian decision to grant sanctuary is likely to worsen already fractured relations with saudi arabia back in nor has saudi arabia severed diplomatic ties following tonight a criticism of the kingdom's human rights policy then in october the murder of

jamal khashoggi saw an upsurge in demands for canada to council a multi-billion arms deal with saudi arabia this deal is now being reviewed the foreign minister though insists that the protection of human rights is more important than diplomatic relations or any trade deal with any c.r. . to. replace. this time when. we were involved in those conversations test. and tentative plan to bring even. an ounce to my friend you see i'm pretty blessed here and on fifty two percent playing. here it was this message from the hotel room in thailand that drop all couldn't century the power of social media confirmed and an example perhaps for others seeking their freedom. mike hanna al-jazeera toronto

. so before we get into our discussion let's examine what freedoms women actually have in saudi arabia that they can drive go to the cinema and watch football but they still cannot make crucial decisions without the consent of a male guardian so they can have a passport they called open a bank account or get divorced without the permission of their father brother uncle or their husband and they can't mix freely with men they can be arrested for eating at restaurants that don't have family areas most public buildings are segregated there are also restrictions in sports when saudi arabia sent female athletes to the olympics for the first time back in london two thousand and twelve and they had to be accompanied by a male guardian and cover their hair and women must wear a full length black or buy a robe in public designed to protect that modesty. all right let's bring in our guest some places say here in the studio is now

a. visiting fellow at the brookings doha center and from berlin you're initially skype is my mom. a saudi political refugee fled the country in two thousand and thirteen and also via skype from kind of the money professor of political science at the university of waterloo thank you everybody for joining us let's start right here in the studio with no hard it is an extraordinary story of our times really just kind of played out like a screenplay and almost seems to have ended happily does that what's your reaction to what's happened. well i mean i think that you know this was a very candid as offering of asylum for oprah was a very sort of smart political move on canada's part especially you know following the canadian saudi spat that sort of climaxed last august when sorry because relations with canada for calling for on saudi arabia to release dissidents and activists but canada can now say look we really mean it when we say that we have

a feminist human rights oriented foreign policy but you know wouldn't it be great if canada then institutionalized this kind of feminist so-called human rights policy and applied it to other women who also you know suffer from domestic abuse sexual harassment who suffer from war and and protect for instance those yemeni women millions of them who continue to you know starve be killed to get amputated in a war that canada has implicitly supported through its continued arms sales to saudi arabia it's a certainly good p.r. move let's get the view from kind of your money what's been the reaction to the news over the how it's been unfolding over the. it's been very positive i think you've seen an outpouring of public support for his case here in cannes and it certainly has now has said i've been a very good frankly p.r. move for the trudeau government allows it to say that it's now finally lock of being

a feminist floor and how to have this board policy agenda certainly i agree with his criticism of the trudeau government as well but the challenge i think for canada or frankly many countries is that we're dealing with the rise of nationalism populism there that made it very difficult for countries like canada to have this normal human rights centric type of foreign policy and so i mean kudos to the meetings for doing this is playing very well here at home and i would say it's probably getting camera the kind of attention and want as a defender of human rights but indeed i think there's so much room to grow and frankly the world just a little crazy so much talk rights violations the frankly carol just one small drop in the pond right where national politics is of course one thing individual rights quite another you just wonder how bad things have to be for somebody to have

to flee best family it's something that you did back in two thousand and thirteen tell us more about what goes on in saudi arabia that leads to this kind of thing. it is very important to among the people that woman so believe that when they escape in interviews they're not nice keeping an abusive father that was escaping tribal in a society where women can be subjected to honor killings they're also skipping the government but also in prison women who escape the room in a husband and father and this circle often used in certain you know what do women escapes the house she gets to prison and she can only leave the prison if the bill guardian himself comes and pick up and she returns to the news of the nation to begin to be of use of them against just

a circle so women really have no choice but to leave the country the saudi government made a statement earlier about the casein this is a family affair this is really not just an immediate this is an institutional discrimination against women when in saudi they're not only leaving from their families that wasn't even from government it is not in section is it possible to put a figure a percentage on on the number of women who are dissatisfied with the way things are inside although there are those who are happy to live under the way the regime is. they had been when we were absolutely satisfied with the new good mentionable women who are privileged here from apple last openminded ben believe who you know were educated and had the city to have an education leave the country travel the route of the union and absolute freedom but those who really do not represent the

majority we do with the average class let's say the public do not have this privilege women who belong to an average family do not have the same computer to meet is that a woman born incompetent or or a wolf and we knew it was a g.k. to the law and did not have the same rights so the the middle guardianship system is really mostly affect in the average saudi woman now it's the upper class women and that's why in the media after. they leave the country we see a lot of women will obviously from a very privileged but i'm criticizing so it is not new again the majority of even you know we are in the in by and forcing women to. follow the strict shillito laws in this kind of laws are really not forced on us for

employees and suddenly ok only in force which. one wonders how this is going down in saudi itself or what the reaction may have been a p.r. truck for. yeah i mean i think as an ira said to the from the saudi side at ciena that the argument is this is this is a family affair it should have been resolved internally i think you'll find not just in saudi arabia but in other muslim countries you'll find some reactions. you know saying well you know perhaps or have should have approached the family courts rather than export this kind of very. domestic matter too to the west and so you know i think that this is another sort of addition to to this long list of ongoing tensions between canada and saudi arabia and of course the you know that could increase criticism of the internet from the international community toward saudi arabia but i think that largely will see that the argument as this is this is very

much an internal affair but it's also extremely sensitive right because i understand you have renounced her islamic faith and so this could also be you know the argument from the saudi perspective and certainly from other muslim countries would probably be you know canada is interfering in our law and our religion then remind us what the laws are that you're not allowed to or to renounce your islamic faith basically it's it's it's it's prohibited right it's prohibited so if i could bring you in what do you think this could lead to simply of commentary on law and about how this is just the tip of the iceberg and we've alluded to that so far but could it lead to more women trying to leave the country is it going to lead to a clamp down within the country or on the on women. i think all of the above remember theater canada courts accepted the case because she was seen to be legitimately facing domestic violence not because of her gender that she was allowed in because she was facing domestic violence and of course in the case of

saudi arabia when your abuser is also your guardian you are in frankly illegal traffic very difficult then for women to proceed for a double whammy for many women by the country in terms of what this will mean for other women i will remember your husband not the first to attempt to leave the country and i don't think she'll be the last the question will be whether or not there will be others who will try to frankly follow her path and be energized by her stuff i think that's the case but remember here women will have to leave france in saudi arabia to get on a plane and by going to kuwait and then boarding a plane to drive through a so i think this is going to be very difficult and indeed i think the clampdown may come from the family from know from the use of families or others who feel that their daughter may indeed want to leave the country they need be more fearful about taking a vacation outside of saudi arabia so indeed i think there's going to be many

a knock on effect from this move and mamma you you left the country fled the country what happened off you got how did you get a lot of support from within. no not really but you know strangely enough the country in numbers that i became a refugee i have received norma's the e-mails and messages from saudi women one trying to escape the country so we did successfully half way through in dubai in the cart or in the review countries. and you know i spoke also with other side you women who lead the country and didn't reside been instrumental in a summit in the u.k. and in germany it is really not a new phenomena it's been happening for quite a while and the only difference is that those women have always done that sequence in the new didn't really use the media it was nigger complicity in the old skate as much as it happened with the case. but it's has been happening while i've not

spoken with so many women who escaped the country for the exact same reasons mostly you know it's not often you want to come in they think just listening to speak there about you know the numbers of saudi women who have fled for their protection i mean i think well it's obviously a good thing that you know they are protected and and no longer facing literally a. danger to their lives i think that this is also bad news in a way for saudi women who don't want to leave the country who want to be protected in their own country right and then of course you know we could sort of elaborate on this and talk about how women's women's rights activists inside or even other countries in the region are critz criticized for being too western right and so this whole narrative about women's rights as a western thing where you know and and so this is bad news for those women who want to pursue this struggle for women's rights in their own country the other thing i

wanted to add is. have rob's case as an individual case and she's also i mean of course she has you know as we know we've seen she has suffered. unspeakable abuse and so on in her and her family and her country but she had she was fortunate enough to be able to escape if that if i can say what she is you had a phone she could sing at her plane ticket and she she she was fortunate enough to know about twitter she was fortunate enough to tweet and have those tweets unchanged on holiday q eight and she was on holiday in kuwait millions literally millions of women don't have those privileges of that's what we can call them and yet they are also suffering multiple forms of oppression and so going back to my earlier point i think this is an it's high time for canada to really show how serious it is about institutionalizing sort of introducing more programs to help protect women from other parts of the world right there within society itself we have seen some reforms from the crown prince but that list that i read out of the

start of the show it goes to show that there's a lot more that needs to be done. absolutely and i think you know it's important point out that life for the average woman is so your view is getting better relatively speaking and there have been reforms and i think we need to sort of commend those reforms but the trends engine is that it's just not at the pace fast enough for where so many women want to be aware study women deserve i mean you know i appreciate the. point about you know this is not the case for also the women certainly of the class that i mentioned but let's not forget if you're so you are you know women are increasingly very educated they're becoming far more i think hyper connected to the world they do travel many of them do travel and so you know this is just not keeping in keeping with you know in modern twenty first century the sunday and so do we know that and i think that this is become you know a an important issue for the saudi government to spy on you recognize that if it

wants to achieve the dreams it has of the so-called vision twenty thirty and other ambitious you know social economic reforms that need to start recognizing that it needs to allow women to be poles that isn't before the law one hundred percent and not not the case of guardianship laws and i would want to add that you know in this ambitious twenty thirty vision plan you know it's a book creating an innovative creative society and if you want to do that you need to start recognizing that women are a part of that you cannot have a society that is dancing that is progressing that simply is just not there in terms of countries are able to make all the high indicators of sex success the economic social and other life without the full equality of women and so this is i think a national imperative and i hope that the saudi government takes on this there's not another p.r. bad yarmouk or that somehow this is just another stain on its reputation high need to just heal but instead say well this is about high congress to do something about

this domestically and very encouraged by the fact that not just women but men in saudi arabia or. it seems this is not working for a modern family and for a modern man and woman author well it's just not the case and so i think there's just room but we're chatting here and study but i hope that the government finally takes up one and a memory is not something that you think is likely to happen the way things are going. well look at the history of saudi arabia the ball was introduced to change into a new only gradually back in the sixty's when the saudi government finally and love women voted even to go to schools and pursue education a lot of them with interests you know. religious groups protested in saudi arabia against that so i believe specially after what's happened also in the eighty's surely i think the saudi arabian government do want to make a change in the sea society they do want to open up

a little bit and give women freedom but they're also afraid of the reaction of the religious sects prayed that they might create another woods he mad like movement in nothing much we need some sort of religious revolutionary movement even a lot of religious people would be very upset if women became in even very dependent and especially in this society like saudi arabia very tribal very conservative especially in the central part in places like eastern province and the western province you know eastern saudi women and women will live in the western part of say we've been really you know let's say a more open society and they have a lot more privileges and we live in or live in a scene or. i think i'm i haven't but maybe this case of might have shaken up the saudi government a little bit but i don't see that. right away they're probably going to be against

no change just like that in the bone which one of them has this is a change that has got to come from within or what role does the international community. well i think we've seen the role of the international community with the case of her her firm she knows she she drew attention from the u.n. and the u.n. it even h.c.r. stepped in and you know this was actually quite an easy case for the u.n. it was an individual case it wasn't you know millions of political asylum seekers and canada very willingly accepted roughs case i think that the international the international community needs to push governments even more than they already have been pushing to standardise or sort of institutionalize again this human rights oriented. policy but in particular to draw attention to those women and men who don't get as near as near as much attention as the syrians for example or the

saudis i mean i think saudi arabia right now is you know it's it's it's it's the state that everyone is talking about because of you know everything that has happened in the last few years but it's really important to remember that there are so many people so many other women in rough situation and worse who are not getting anywhere near enough attention as she has and of course a lot of a lot of nations out very close ties with saudi arabia and huge financial dealings worth billions of dollars not least the arms trade i mean i think this should also be a wakeup call for countries such as saudi arabia to think about you know do we want our citizens to flee and and you know continue to call us out from from the west and causes this headache or is it better to treat them better and and have them stay in the country and and contribute to the country i think this is also a wake up call for reforming the legal system in these countries ensuring that there is legal protection legal redress for women and other oppressed people and in those countries that you want to come in the. you know i mean i agree completely i

think there are many issues here that need to be pointing out i mean one thing remember here is not the vast majority of society suddenly being under the age of thirty and yes there is a religious establishment in clerics who will push against these kinds of reform but they're just simply not the majority in one so i think if you haven't been so many going to really i think energize the base of young people as he tries to do the grammys to recognize that this is actually going to be a popular. young saudis and i think you know the dinosaurs the religious dinosaurs just need to deal with it they're just simply frankly not the future of saudi arabia that's one thing the second thing i think is not you know the international community is they were frankly kind of feels like a mogul laced talking about human rights i mean you know we're talking about the twitter. that our board minister pointed out last summer that cause us to be frankly ostracized by the international community including many western countries

who you know profess to have you know liberal human rights agenda they were absolutely silent and quiet when it came to canada as a proposal with the saudis and i think it's because of the economic weight that saudi arabia as saudi arabia still the largest and. biggest importer of weapons in the world that means the worth of big business and so there is this counting saudi pressure because of the economic stakes play here but i think you know time it took a very brave move it may cost us some financial relations with the saudis but i would say that most meetings are frankly quite willing to pay those costs to be on the right side of history and i can't say that's the case for many countries around the world well it's been a pleasure talking to all of you we've run out of time but to great to get your perspectives on this important story thanks very much indeed thank you to our guests. here in the studio business my money and my job thank

you too for watching you can see. the program again any time by visiting our web site al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com ford slash a.j. inside story and of course you can also take the conversation on twitter handle is a.j. inside story from enid clark and the whole team here by five. capturing a moment in time. snapshots of other lives. other stories. providing

a glimpse into someone else's wild. inspiring documentaries from impassioned filmmakers. with nice documentaries to open your eyes on al-jazeera. and monday put it on. us and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to for the dry riverbed like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country have been truly unable to escape the war. i didn't know that corruption has reached a level like never happened before in our john kerry i count sajda.

to president of the united states. the power was in the data we will moderate the american people with the truth and nothing else discover the formula for winning the white house unfair game on al jazeera alpha this is the opportunity to understand the very the french were there before something happens and we don't live up to. this is al jazeera.

from doha everyone i'm come on santa maria and this is the news hour from al-jazeera. president and i both believe the ongoing dispute in the region has dragged on too long u.s. secretary of state called for an end to the blockade of qatar for the sake of regional security. and influential regional group backs calls for a vote recount in democratic republic of congo a handshake shrouded in secrecy a new report reveals how far president donald trump went to hide details of a meeting with vladimir putin and what's in a name change well apparently enough to threaten the future of the greek government . and i'm sorry how much with all the boards of qatar through to the knockout round of the asian cup in twenty twenty two world cup hosts beat north korea six now took their place in the last sixteen. u.s. secretary of state has just arrived in riyadh on the latest leg of his middle east

tour will be holding talks with the saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman on paper left qatar a few hours ago after calling on countries in the gulf to end their dispute saying it's gone on for far too long with all the details. mike bomb paling qatar with a message to the gulf countries and that dispute the political crisis in decades for the gulf cooperation council president. believe the ongoing dispute in the region has dragged on too long and the dispute benefits adversaries and harms our mutual interests the emir of qatar shaped i mean been hammered out fanny greeted bomb peo after discussions with qatar's foreign minister said mohamed been a little fanny both countries say they are keen to consolidate trade and military cooperation that includes expanding the largest u.s. military base in the middle east dade near the capital doha is home to the forward

operating base of u.s. central command. and then we have discussed all the issues of interest for our countries regional issues starting with the gulf cooperation council and the peace process in the middle east as well as the reconsolidation in afghanistan as well as other issues such as syria and counter-terrorism. landed in qatar from the united arab emirates after visiting egyptian and behave in his flying to sandy arabia which have all imposed their eighteen month long land and sea blockade on qatar the accused the title funding extremism allegations strongly dismissed by a qatari leader as america's top diplomat has also visited jordan and is due in a man and kuwait on his middle east tour it's being seen as an attempt to rally support among key players in the region to counterbalance the growing influence of

iran and i don't think that the administration plans for dealing with iran by virtue of trying to organize a larger coalition are going to work simply because most states do not agree with us in our policies canceling the joint comprehensive plan of action that would have prevented iran if implemented from ever attending a nuclear weapon. the u.s. is due to host a conference in poland next month to discuss ways to curb iran's activities in the region and ensure middle east stability the u.s. is keen of building a bridge an alliance to counter what it considers to be a growing iranian influence in the gulf but that may be impossible as long as the diplomatic crisis in the g.c.c. cont'd is. doha. once again mon bashar joining us our senior political analyst here at al-jazeera what was achieved today marwan was anything other than

a sort of some intentions i think clearly the united states and cut have turned a corner and i think the gulf crisis has that has turned the corner with it because if you remember last january when the qatari foreign minister met with his counterpart in washington we were six months into the crisis and there was a lot of anxiety as to what the future holds but during this past year qatar has economy has fared better than its neighbors its relations to the outside world has expanded it definitely broken solution and the relations with the united states have deepened on every possible level when that it is intelligence. commercial strategic security etc etc so you can say that both countries today with the signing of four agreements they have turned the page on the gulf crisis in as far as there by a lot there are issues of concern which means neither washington nor doha looks to

be. all riyadh's in order to judge how they're going to improve or move forward with their relations the bilateral relations are no longer dependent on the multilateral relations with the gulf countries but with my pump a are now in riyadh actually and having just come from the u.a.e. will he be putting pressure on them to back up what he's saying today that this crisis needs to end because let's face it saudi arabia's had a whole lot of other problems to worry about in the last couple of months you know sometimes what is said in public. probably will give you a good a good idea on what's going on in private and sometimes it is exactly the contrary meaning in diplomacy we know that sometimes countries nation's leaders will have to say something to the public while there was a whole. you know other things need to be discussed in private i think this is one of those things that we've learned for a while now that while washington supports riyadh and i would be publicly

but i think privately they're putting the pressures on them to end the crisis for a good number of reasons amongst them but they've got the middle eastern alliance also for it but as you and i were talking just earlier i think secretary pompei you in particular. as a cia director when this crisis broke. i mean he definitely and i was just looking at him discussing with the hamburg bin zayed and to model what the problem had been so man he probably looks them in the eye and says i was a director of the cia i know you have many facts of this crisis i know how you the fuse the misinformation into the cutting from. what we call the. information agency and news agency news agency as it were and we know how you plan to contain and do this and that gets caught or he was the

director of the cia so i'm sure he'd be looking him in the eyes and say look guys let's end this thing you need to climb down the tree you need if not apologize definitely left the bar go so we can get on with business so we're talking about the gulf crisis they've been talking about today trade will be discussed arms deals will be discussed you would think jamal khashoggi will be discussed you made the point earlier that there is one glaring emissions from this eight day eight country trip and that is. especially it's interesting because syria was discussed in a major way in the beginning of the trip with of course john bolton visiting the region and going to turkey israel and so on so forth. yemen is according to the united nations the biggest humanitarian catastrophe i mean that's not so nice and the tragedy of syria but yemen is an ongoing tragedy and saudi

arabia and the united arab emirates are involved with the complicity slash support of the united states so the united states here has a role more than just an outsider it's actually a complicit in the war in yemen and everyone knows or thinks war is not winnable this way so something that i give and now is as it goes into the third fourth year it. needs to end in a way that if it's not a win win at least for the yemenis it would be win win by simply ending and i think there's a room for that and there's a special room for that because if the united states is interested in continuing year on certainly not succeeding to do that and seriously maybe it can do that by ending the war in yemen a clear cut thing that front from the iranian influence mullen thank you as always . so walmart home buyers in riyadh he's expected as we were discussing to address a range of issues with many people spitting on line hoping human rights are brought

up bring them home it's been talking about. well iran and the wars in yemen and syria are expected to be discussed so is a backlash against the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi and this opinion piece in the new york times is a charting not so social media attention the sister of a women's rights activist jane who is currently in a saudi jail gives a detail account of assistance ordeal alia who's calling on pompei or to raise the plight of all activists in saudi jails she describes how a sister jane has spent months in prison without being charged with she says she's been beaten water boarded given electric shocks and threatened with rape now lou jane was arrested last may along with six other well known activists for what prosecutors describe as posing a threat to state security she is well known for her campaign to lift the ban on women driving in saudi arabia and that ban was lifted a month after her arrest in the new york times article has sister accuses royal

advisor sowed the tiny of law fing while he watched the torture being carried out she says on various occasions he threatened to rape and kill her then throw her body into the sewage system qahtani has been accused of orchestrating the killing of jamal khashoggi. well pressure is mounting on the u.s. secretary of state to do mall and can draw from human rights watch questions whether mike pompei a will seek the release of jailed saudi activists during his meeting with the crown prince mohammed bin salon annecy international has also tweeted directly saying at least twelve saudi human rights offenders most of them women have been detained without charge since may twenty eighth one prison and many others us sharing the hash tag free lou jane criticizing the saudi kingdom and one news that left because of what he calls oppression in the country and this was his message to the conference. and you put a lot of people in jail with them limbs only brazil atheists why do you talk to

those who call for women's freedom why do you subject them to rape and her spent what do you exactly want everyone is scared every now and then a saudi has left this country because if you i left my wife because of the oppression more and more of saudis will leave the kingdom because of you you will destroy the country the syrian army is preparing for an offensive by turkish forces on the kurdish rebel stronghold of monday age syria's government has deployed soldiers artillery and tanks to the northwest suburbs of the city as u.s. forces prepare to leave on korea considers the kurdish group the y p g to be a terrorist organization he spoke to in i'm sorry vladimir van valkenburgh a little bit earlier who is a journalist specializing in kurdish politics and he told us what he thinks it's unlikely turkey would strike if u.s. troops are still on the ground. as president himself said they don't want to arm you our soldiers.