the joints roles they have and the start of formats has brought them together again and again and again now they have differences of course they have differences in what they want to see happen in the syrian conflict and they have different interests relating to different parts of the syrian conflict right now now that the turks to one specific me wants to have some sort of buffer zone set up in the north to help protect the turkish border from the kurdish fighters that turkey has long said are terrorists now one thing that was being rumored was whether there was perhaps going to be some kind of deal that these two men could make essentially with vladimir putin saying ok you can have your buffer zone in the north if we were allowed to do what we want with it i couldn't see from what the two men were talking about here that they have reached any such deal when they were talking about the safe zone the buffer zone and said will yes the leaders of these two

countries russia and turkey are still deliberating the u.s. is showing its positive approach. with its intended pullouts with russia we don't have any disagreements this area is going to be claims that he still wants to do that but. the russians are saying yes we will help our turkish friends to ensure their security that's what putin said just now but the preferred russian way of doing that is by getting damascus and the kurdish groups to talk not necessarily to let the turks set up some sort of buffer zone or launch a big military campaign against the kurds and then of course we have it live as well as the other area that perhaps there was going to be some disagreements about whether russia might be able to do what it wants to do which is move into with clear rates of higher sorry alive and well and return it to government control well

we're saying that actually they are going to continue the work against what he called terrorists together so it does not seem at the moment as if turkey is stepping away from it lip. can i ask you about one other thing rory before we go to ma one and that is and this was mentioned over and over again constitutional committee the formation of it in fact if i check my notes president erdogan said it's very important its completion is urgent can you remind us all what is the constitutional committee why is it so. so there was a summit held in sochi. not so long ago whereby. russia and turkey and opposition groups and iran came together and the outcome was that there would be a constitutional committee formed of all stakeholders basically in across the syrian political firmament from government through to opposition that would be

responsible essentially for steering a new constitution its feeds into the un security council resolution twenty two fifty four and what many people hope is going to be ultimately the political solution for the syrian conflict but it was quite clear this has not been done yet this constitutional committee has not been formed now the russians have long been saying that essentially the folder for that lies with the opposition groups who can all come together. turkey who has basically been trying to persuade the opposition groups to do that is saying look we do need to keep on moving with this and this will be done but it hasn't been done yet ok rory chalons in moscow thank you just for now if you're just joining us this is the news hour on al-jazeera we've been watching a live news conference from the russian and turkish presidents as they discuss the

issues in syria in fact we're going to have a listen to something the russian president vladimir putin said as he emphasized the need for turkish support to help fight terrorism in syria. the ceasefire maintenance should damage their plates fighting terrorism but this what should they contain it we spoke about how the further developments can be influenced in syria by the intentions of the leadership of the united states of america to withdraw american troops from some parts of the country if such steps and such plans will be really implemented in reality it will become a positive step as a senior political analyst now under sharia has been listening along to this news conference what did you make of it all was it two men cooperating suman cooperating as much as they can under the situation. investor good we're putting

a. certainly you know positive but i get the sense that a bit also bored with each other and they have not reached an agreement you can imagine the very last year this book some eight hundred times together probably on the same issues and mitt about half a dozen times again speaking about the same issues and you can tell a bit of frustration although they're quite sober that there isn't enough progress going on and yet i would say. neither of them is actually in the rush at this point in time i think we both feel that the larger greater challenges have been taken care of and now for the russians it's a war of attrition of sorts against as about the other groups of course of those terrorists while also for the turkish president it is a war of attrition against the kurdish groups and others like the science of war

that it sees as terrorists and and threatens the turkish no security i think apparently they're committed to go on and coordinate and negotiate some more about these sort of issues but i get the sense also that president putin was slightly more diplomatic than his foreign minister who earlier spoke about fairly at an ad lib but president putin now spoke about. efforts appreciating those efforts in adelaide and yet saying but a lot more needs to be done so what next do you think the new i mean we've had various i use this term sort of loosely peace processes that have gone on for years now with these two men in the driver's seat what happens next though i did notice there was a mention of iran there as well talk about a possible tried after meeting with iran as well. well look we need to distinguish between two things there is what is immediate for both leaders which is the

situation in the north and in the syrian turkish border the so-called before so no security zone safe zones or so forth the fight against it or the fair fight against al qaida is about the messiah and dash of course in addition to the good the groups. there to start getting so that's in the immediate and that's what a lot of the disagreement is about and then there is the longer term which is about the future of syria and what you're about earlier the constitutional committee one constitution for syria and how and who would be handling the shaping of this of syria to come and if you noticed from the very last answer by president putin than getting a dossier from one of his aides looking into it and talking a bit sarcastically about the europeans because this is an issue still in the international community why the russian president wants the future of syria to be

shipped among. the trilateral party if you will turkey russia and iran europe and others including the syrian opposition still insist on geneva they say is fine and whether sochi is fine and well or whatever other places are fine a while but geneva where everything started back in two thousand and twelve and that on two thousand and thirteen and so on so forth that's where things need to be handled in an international forum where they united nation on behalf of the international community and the u.n. security council weighs in and pulls it out of the domination of russia and iran so i think on that question of the question of the longer term future of syria and the future of the shuttle i think there's disagreement with. we in russia and iran on the one hand and the west on the other one quick thought on

the two men themselves you made the point to they have spoken so many times before in that they might almost be a bit bored with the whole process but i did notice the way they spoke to each other about how important the two countries are to each other how you know the most tourists from russia or from in russia or from turkey and vice versa or in president one called in my dear friend president putin they are putting forward a very close relationship or an image of a close relationship here. absolutely and i think that's very interesting considering the process that's going on and as reminded us just a bit earlier it was in december two thousand and fifteen three years plus when the turks downed that those russian jets and since then of course we had a lot of tensions in the beginning moving into a much you know a great improvement after turkey up ologist for that downing of the syrian jets. clearly there's a lot going on on the bilateral relations clearly the cooperation as they stated it

on tourism culture trade and that sort of chicken the military of course is all going on including the russians building a nuclear reactor in turkey and turkey buying different missile system from russia etc etc you can also add to that that turkey is happy not ging the americans out of their way out of syria in order for them to be able to dictate what goes on in the northern part of syria and visit the kurds and of course president putin is happy about that as whether he just stated this in the press conference that america according to him is illegally in syria and i think. that president putin feels probably more comfortable with turkey than he does with iran as a partner in syria and i think he does see an important role for turkey for the shaping our of syria and for bridging with the west that is indispensable i

think for the rebuilding of syria on the long term expert analysis from our senior political analyst and bashar in london thank you and also of course for a chance in moscow for that. so there you have president only one from turkey he was alongside as we said the russian president vladimir putin as they try to map out a future for syria as we discuss there two men trying to show as much cooperation as possible but two very powerful leaders as well the two most important leaders you would say with regards to the syrian conflict trying to hold their ground. let's move on to a developing story in venezuela where the opposition leader has taken an oath swearing himself in as interim president and on top of that the u.s. president said in a statement he formally recognize it's great though as the country's new interim leader the oas the organization of american states is also approved now all of those political moves come as huge crowds are out on the streets in rival

demonstrations by both government loyalists and opposition supporters in venezuela this is two days after a failed mutiny in fact. by soldiers hoping to spark a movement to overthrow nicolas maduro but now you've got these huge crowds protests u.s. president might also expressed support for the opposition and the protesters in response to the dura accuse the u.s. of interference in order a vision of diplomatic relations with the united states lots happening. following things from an american bureau in. here to tell us about this oath of office how does it all fit together especially with this quote unquote legitimacy given to it by the u.s. and the oas. definitely a situation that generates a lot of tension in venezuela with thousands of people on the streets opposing the government. but also thousands of people on the streets supporting the president

polarized nation between both countries why they all gave a speech where he said that he was assuming the executive office as interim president that his first tax. was to call for free elections he's also citing article three hundred fifty off the constitution which allows the venezuelan people to rebel against federal security or body that violates democratic values in the country and that violates also human rights just before i gave his speech the supreme court in the country ordered a criminal investigation of him and the opposition controlled national assembly why you've already said that he's a gesture would have serious consequences there's been several threats against him saying that he could be detained if he gave this step but let's not forget that about a week ago he was already briefly detained by intelligence officers of course the fact that president donald trump acknowledges him as

a transitional president i'm probably something that will follow with other governments in the region empowers the opposition in the country what's certain that is happening in venezuela is that all of those people that were able to see opposing the government and many of them are desperate desperate for food for medicine for a deteriorating economic situation for the government this is that cool and cool they're saying that. a lot of which is the party that why it will be long so is a terrorist organizations that is trying to feed venezuela its streets with blood even if it doesn't power the opposition. i wonder how much it will mean to president as he was concerned he won the election he's the president and he's not a man who really takes a backward step. well that's like the collapse my little one of the elections in may last year even though there were a lot of statements made especially by the company that controls the voting

machines that fraud that was committed the opposition is saying that those elections were field with irregularities and that's what the united states is also saying in spite of this what we're seeing in venezuela right now is an unprecedented situation one where we're seeing an opposition that has the support of the united states and we're seeing a national government that has the support of russia and china we're seeing a country where the opposition has the support of the opposition and thousands of people on the streets and of economic powers but also and national government that has the support of the military and controls the institutions of the countries natural resources there's obviously not to an easy way of getting out of the current tension that exists in the country many are expecting that the government could move against the national assembly and why you know in the next few hours most of the analysts which we have spoken to say that they're still trying to understand what's going on and what could happen because of the tension that this

generates in a country that's already polarized and that has already seen lots of violence in the past years. as one of our viewers earlier was asking a question about the u.s. involvement and now that we have this statement from donald trump it becomes even more. relevant why the united states would want to take this position why they would want to involve themselves this much is it in as much that this is an opportunity that there is a strong opposition and it is a chance to actually make a dent in this regime in venezuela. well there's obviously a new precedent in the united states and that's donald trump who has a completely different tact if you would that the previous administration but for many many years the united states has already opposed many of the policies that the government of nicola's mother rest take and in the past years we have seen strong strong statements from the united states in the past this is not the first time the situation is different now donald trump brings

a whole different scenario not totally in venezuela but also in latin america with precedents like madi so might be in argentina also not only in brazil among other things but what makes the situation even worse for you know in this case is not the opposition i mean the opposition in the past years since back in two thousand and seventeen it has been divided it lacked a leader well now they have won but the big problem in venezuela right now is the economic situation that has forced the millions of people out of the country with people there with a minimum wage they can barely buy four packs of rice that's the biggest headache for the government and that's the biggest challenge they've been facing until now thank you for all of that. when a star is following the events going on in venezuela the live pictures that we've seen actually of these i mean this picture doesn't unfortunately show we had some hotshot sort of it showed the huge numbers like hundreds of thousands of people out protesting to be fair there are pro-government supporters out there as well this is

not entirely anti-government but i'd say the majority aren't government and for the have a little little listen to some of this. so that's good because an interesting lee look at this pictures live madrid spain protests against nicolas maduro as well live but as you know that looks like it's is on one of those. i mean this is turning now into a much bigger movement you would suspect and as we were discussing with given more legitimacy by the united states saying that it will now recognize the venezuelan opposition leader. as the interim president he taken and swearing himself in as interim president the united states and the oas the organization of american states say they are now with him. there is another side to the story of course inside

venezuela are other protests and then outside in colombia near the border. there with some of the people who have made it out of the country but you were telling us earlier in the newsgroup protests there as well. yes number of probably a few hundred venezuelan migrants who live here right on the other side of the border in colombia in this city. have marched all the way through the border with venezuela and this bridge that you see behind me. international bridge. all the way through the middle of the bridge where the venezuelan national guard we're standing that's when they started chanting freedom freedom down with my daughter they were also inviting the guards on the bridge to revolt against the

government everybody here seems quite excited with what's happening in venice where they believe this could be the start of the movement that will bring down. many of them also. have not been. here over. here in the country many are doing menial jobs. had a hard time here finding. work or doing what they were doing back there. are very grateful we're. here they've been able and. through. the signals breaking up just a little so i'm going to leave you there but thank you for that update from colombia here's what's coming up for you.

what has become the longest shutdown in american history. defeat from the jaws of victory she crashes. he says he supports sudan's unity and stability sudanese president omar al bashir and the president's visit comes during the longest anti government protests of this year's time in office he's facing nearly daily demonstrations calling for an end to his thirty year rule so the foreign minister this is the protests one to focus of

discussion for. that would be and it's important to point out that the visit by president bashir to qatar comes in a much wider and complex context than passing crises personally i've been a party in the organization of this visit from an early stage way before this crisis level and regardless of this i can tell anyone who is wondering about the timing of this visited it is not extraordinary for one to seek a dialogue with friends and brothers when there is a crisis or economic pressures to find solutions to these crises. shea oh he was at the office of cutters and media here in doha a little earlier. this is the first foreign trip to be made by president obama bashir since those protests that have erupted in his country escalated over the past few weeks the fact that he chose to visit qatar is telling and what to him have a strong history between them. sponsored and host of the darfur peace talks for example

it's invested or made billions of dollars worth of investments over the years and often there has been an alignment between qataris vision for the region when it comes to significant issues like for example palestine and that's of sudan as well speaking to our jazeera the sudanese foreign minister said that this was or he described the meeting between president bashir and sure i mean been from a as a brotherly meeting he said that they would discuss regional issues and that the protests in sudan were too small of a topic to be the focus of these bilateral discussions having said that however they are significance protests they are the longest protests that have taken place since she came to power roughly thirty years ago we are talking about more than forty people killed widespread condemnation from around the world as to how the security services and the sudanese government have treated those protesters but information as far as a mother but she was concerned he wants to show that he is still very much

a statesman still very much in control and he has no issue leaving the country to visit other world leaders assured he believes to come back with still in power so a significant trip in the sense that there is a lot to discuss between these two governments but i clipped both sides have been with regards to revealing as to what's they've agreed on if there's been any deals and how to move forward. because the protests go on in the term as we said pretty much for a month now he morgan has more on that. people in sudan are saying they will not stop demonstrating against president bashir until he actually steps down again that is something he has repeatedly said that he will not do until elections come in twenty twenty and even then there is a chance he might run again there's already a proposed change that is tabled in front of the parliament to try to amend the constitution so that bashir could run for another term but people are saying they don't want him to continue running for be under thirty years that he's already been

in power they say that during his term in office the country has been ruled with corruption and that they commonly has been in a downward spiral now the protest started on the nineteenth of december because of lack of bread in the city of ottawa but that quickly morphed into calls for the president to step down rights groups say at least forty people have been killed but the government is the feeling that figure they say the people who have been killed so far is at least twenty seven there are also concerns about activists being arrested in the protests the government has said that they've arrested eight hundred and sixteen people last week but then people are saying that opposition groups and other activists are saying that the number could be as high as over a thousand people many of them with their whereabouts unknown and their health conditions also unknown people are saying there will not continue they will not stop demonstrating they are more protests planned in the coming days tomorrow if there is a nationwide protest called by the sudanese professional association which has been spearheading the calls for the president to step down now and people are saying that they're very determined they're very keen to see their president step down it's not clear how far this would go but both sides are very determined the

president is determined to stay in power and people determined to see him go in zimbabwe there are more reports of soldiers beating protesters despite surveilled by president emerson money to investigate a security service crackdown on anti-government demonstrators earlier we heard from the leader of the opposition movement during the movement for democratic change nelson chamisa it was the president is just contradicting himself. where pretty but they did argue is very is that. seems to be indicating left but tending right is inconsistent he says that he's going to investigate but he can't investigate himself there are people who did what they did we're doing that in the name of mr and he must be able to then indicate that this is what is going to happen because he knows the people were duty the people who did what they did right now on the streets people are not in happiness people are not in peace there is

a lot of displacement of persons people are being dragged out of their homes people being beaten brutalized terrorized there's terror and fear all over and citizens are not in peace again having ammunition live ammunition again as ordinary citizens that is unacceptable and that goes against the tenets of democracy that's been reaction to the protests in zimbabwe coming from neighboring south africa region i'm hametz that. south african president also has called for sanctions on zimbabwe to be lifted they still have sanctions that many countries around the world have imposed on them we've been some of those have been calling on the world to relax the sanctions or lift the sanctions altogether so that zimbabwe can begin to operate in an economic manner with the capabilities that it has. they're currently facing serious serious economic challenges. and they can be assisted by the world

if sanctions are lifted or ramaphosa went on to say the two countries are discussing measures including a bailout package to address the economic crisis so bob his government has been accused of a brutal crackdown during protests of a rise in fuel prices the country's human rights commission accuses the security forces of systematic torture the u.s. the u.k. european union and other states have imposed sanctions against them barboy of a rights abuses during former president robert mugabe's time in office online there's been sharp criticism of the south african president's comments with accusations he's out of touch he speaks of sanctions but nothing about corruption he says nothing about the black on black violence that's going on in zimbabwe right now he speaks of a bailout package with no conditions no conditions no economic reforms required no what about the human rights violations mr mcwhorter what do you stand for because

right now you look like you are just part of that said the brotherhood who are only interested in benefiting from the system also side remains dysfunctional and all you people are concerned about is being able to control the people and to benefit from the resources so we're seeing similar sentiment on twitter zimbabwe opposition politician and lawyer david coltart says from a force a statement was exceptionally disappointing the root of our problems is the willful disregard for the barbarous constitution by the regime but others disagree shango here says he is pleased that the south african president finally recognized that the economic woes of zimbabwe are a result of the u.s. and e.u. impose sanctions while the day earlier president emma someone on god promised to investigate the security services actions and to call for national dialogue. nigeria's anti trafficking agency says it has found thousands of missing girls and women in southern mali many have been sold as sex slaves in gold mining camps

incredibly the agency says there are between twenty to forty five thousand kidnapped women in mali which had originally raised the problem was originally raised ten years ago says plans are now underway to return the women to nigeria this girls where exploited by virtue of the new ability from me through our communities in various parts of nigeria six different states to be precise and tricked into going into mali giving the impression of doing to be getting jobs in the hotels and the usual story some of them are actually we're actually up ducted they are robbed school uniforms on their way to school or back from school to a snatched by the kidnappers or the traffic is. more on the story now with our correspondent reporting from a butcher. the national agency for the prohibition of trafficking against persons snapped it is saying that this followed months of investigations and visits to

areas they thought nigerians are being held against their wish they followed the thousands of ghost or been trafficked to what part of mali servicing the mining industry there some of them are being forced to work as sex slaves and there are also thousands of others who are being forced to walk against their will now the international office for migration office in nigeria is talking about sending another team to mali to verify these numbers and probably look at other areas where they could possibly be more nigerians who are being held against that which in mali the nigerian president has ordered the naacp to to go ahead and start the process of bringing back some of these nigerians who have been stranded in mali already officials are talking about two hundred seventy five people young people who have been trapped in mali have been brought back home over the last two months or so now the big operation of bringing thousands and thousands of nigeria stranded in mali

will come is probably in the next few weeks or so according to officials here in nigeria with us from london who is with a quality now an organization that advocates an end to violence and discrimination against women thank you for your time to these numbers surprise you in the first instance certainly when i hear twenty to forty five thousand bases sound like unbelievable numbers. sex trafficking is really a global issue so these figures are not surprising the u.n. or d.c. reports that seventy one percent of all trafficking victims worldwide are women and girls and ninety six percent of them are trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation the u.n. also estimates that there are over forty million people around the world that are living in some form of slavery including in situations of sexual exploitation

the issue is global it's netting traffickers over ninety nine billion dollars every year so we can then see you know how big a scale it is and predominantly something that is affecting mainly women and girls forgive me asking a very simplistic question here but how does that happen how does this number of women over a period of time of course get trafficked out of their own country into another country how does this happen. sex trafficking is really about exploitation of women and girls vulnerabilities so you find that when women are living in situations of poverty of corn fleet of gender discrimination or violence in context of violence they become really vulnerable to traffickers and traffickers exploiting that vulnerability there's

a lot of use of deception as we have had in the nature experience where women and women are promised jobs only to find themselves in situations of.