speaking of the national plan while they were harassing my family because that's their modus operandi the u.s. government has warned of severe consequences should anything happen do i lol government supporters call it a cheap publicity stunt opponents a useless attempt to intimidate them and to add more drama to the day the interior minister announced what he called a plot by mercenaries allegedly paid by the opposition to assassinate keep politicians and members of the military this he says in order to raise the level of upheaval in venezuela. and that is that if you evidence the telephone analysis and interrogations and i produced this morning to capture petard conal. not only is a cruel it's fifty four years old wanted for attempted assassination treason instigating an uprising attacking military facilities.

earlier had presented the opposition's plan for the nation a road map pretty good political stability. the first priority he said is to obtain urgently needed humanitarian aid and that could put the army and president in a dilemma. neighboring colombia and brazil are offering to send the transition government food and medicine immediately now now i mean in the next few days the next few weeks so it's up to the armed forces it's up to the military if they're going to allow that food and medicine to conquer the border or if they're going to you know keep supporting the block so they going to have to choose between their families and their leader or at least their what they call their presence. so far there are no signs that the military high command is planning to break with my little who insists that he's the victim of an imperialist could a ta. see in human al-jazeera products. sela has hair on al-jazeera will get

reaction from moscow off the u.s. announces its plans to scrap the nine hundred eighty seven arms pact with russia. and i'm lawrence lee in romania which has just taken over the presidency of the european union and whose government stands accused of complicity in the mass illegal logging of its own forests. get a welcome back here in the national weather forecast here across europe we are seeing plenty of messy weather a lot of unorganized systems but that's about to change because we're going to start to see one system really to begin to develop here across the western part of europe as we go into friday notice this area of circulation that is coming in across parts of france as well as into spain very windy conditions very wet conditions for many people and you are from spain over here towards france into the

alps down here towards italy as well we're going to be seeing plenty rain as we end the week up towards the north though really not looking as bad we're going to be seeing mostly cloudy conditions across most of central europe but then we're going to start to see some snow coming into play as we go into the beginning of the weekend up here across parts of scandinavia as well but down here towards the south it is still going to be quite wet rome it's going to be a rainy day for you with the temps are there of about fourteen degrees as you make a way down here across parts of northern africa that same weather system causing problems across morocco into algeria as well notice the rain across robot that's really going to continue as we go towards the next couple days even algiers is going to be seeing a rainy day at about fourteen degrees there tunas we're going to see some rain as well as some clouds windy conditions view at seventeen and tripoli a windy day for you with a temperature of twenty six. the

plundering of armenia's natural riches has uprooted residents and desecrated the habitat of some of europe's most endangered species. but a remarkable campaign by local residents is challenging the miked of the country's investors and pinning high hopes on its newly elected prime minister people in power investigates armenia mining out the left. on a. again you're watching al-jazeera has reminder of our top stories this hour u.s. president says progress has been made during trade negotiations with china the

supreme meeting in washington to try to end a trade war but trump says no deal will be finalized until he meets chinese president xi jinping. venezuela's opposition leader has warned national security forces to stay away from his family. says officers loyal to president nicolas maduro turned up at his apartment when his young daughter was home. and thousands of iranians have gathered to mark the full say year anniversary of the islamic republic and ayatollah khomeini's were ten from exxon after thirteen years revolution was followed by weeks of confrontations painful unaids followers and the shah's loyalists. the u.s. is scrapping its do here agreement with russia us according to american officials who've spoken to reuters news agency the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty or i n f was an arms control pact signed by the us and the van soviet union in one thousand nine hundred seven the treaty banned all land based missiles with ranges of five

hundred to five thousand five hundred clomid says the u.s. has accused russia of violating the treaty and warned it would withdraw if moscow did not comply by february second i have an outward challenge he joins us from moscow so really this has been on the cards for a while what's russia's response. yeah you're right laura this is being totally expected the russians and the americans have been talking in recent days in geneva and beijing trying to find some way through this impasse but it hasn't broken any new ground the russians are basically insisting as they always have done that they are innocent they're not breaking this treaty they are accusing the united states of its own room violations of the i.n.f. and they're basically saying that donald trump washington d.c. has long wanted to get rid of this agreement and starts

a new arms race and that washington's blackmailing tactics of moscow puts it are not working it's just the latest in a series of u.s. lasher withdrawals isn't it roy from these sort of similar cold war era pacts. yeah this one has a very specific route to it there is a cruise missile that russia has been developing recently which russia calls the n nine nine seven to nine and what the united states has said is that this cruise missile has a range that puts it in violation of the iron there that that five hundred kilometers so five thousand five hundred kilometer. zone this missile basically falls somewhere in the middle of that russia says that's not true this missile is

its range falls ten kilometers short of five hundred kilometers. or so before it basically says the united states has been violating the i.n.f. treaty as well ok many thanks for explaining a bit more about that treaty there. now a new report says freedom of expression in mineral has been increasingly criminalized since unsung suchi the country's first democratic civilian leader into power in two thousand and sixteen human rights watch report found the crackdown has been most noticeable in rakhine state where hundreds of thousands of rango have been repeatedly targeted by them in my name us president has also strengthened some laws used against speech and assembly as in that at least one law imposes new restrictions on speech and in the past two and a half years an increasing number of journalists have been. arrested detained imprisoned and even physically attacks intellect is legal advisor at him and

rights watch and she joins us now via skype from yangon thanks very much for being with us so this report that human rights watch has produced it follows one that you produced back in a time of great hope back in two thousand and sixteen how has the situation changed . very much disappointed there that report being dashed out there were periods that in two thousand and sixteen it would be a serious effort to reform the law is going to protect freedom of speech and freedom of assembly in myanmar and that simply hasn't come to pass how successful have authorities been then muscling free speach. here certain topics that seem to be considered very sensitive are very off limits and then just things like criticism of the military talk military criticism of the government or government officials talking about corruption and on those sorts of things certainly

journalists that we talked to say that there's a real sense of chill in the newsrooms there is real concern we'll second guessing whether or not those are topics that can or should be covered and weighing the risks of doing. you know high profile detentions that we've reported on quite extensively of the two going to journalists said to be just the visible to all the iceberg who else is affected there. i mean the first of those kinds of arrests and other journalists even journalists have been arrested i think that's the message that this is very risky so that those kinds of threats send a message that that are being felt very strongly that you have other journalists for example look we know the girl was he was detained that accused of being on monthly sustaining a nuclear armed group because he didn't job he travels to many areas controlled by and the current group to report on that drug burning ceremony by the time liberation army and for that he was detained for two months before the charges was finally dropped but again that kind of aggressive sends

a message if you report on ethnic armed groups if you travel to conflict areas to report then you risk getting arrested we often report on the pressure that comes from outside of minimal to improve the situation but what moves are being made inside the country to try to improve it. there are actually quite a few domestic n.g.o.s that are working very hard to shoot and doing fantastic work . free expression myanmar there's a number of other groups and they are really documenting the use of these laws they are trying to advocate the government for change before and i think many of america's frustrated at their inability to get access and after anybody to make change but there is a lot of pressure coming from inside is fantastic to see because i think ultimately it's been asked a question is this going to make a difference ok so there is some hope still that thanks very much for taking the time to join us via skype from yang gone thank you. now

israel is moving forward with plans to build a cable car i have a parts of occupied east jerusalem to the walls of the old city the government says it will reduce congestion and be a tourist attraction but palestinian critics of the plan says it's linked to a program of cementing israeli control over the city's east and sector have full support. so this is the area where the cable car is due to terminate just outside jerusalem's old city walls very close to the western wall very close to the alexa mosque compound known as the temple mount to jews it's being promoted by the israeli tourism minister and the mayor of jerusalem as a traffic easing tourist attracting measure it's also being promoted by the city of david foundation which is due to build the visitor center cum cable car stop that's also the organization which is behind a lot of the archeological digging that takes place in this area and it's behind attempts to try to increase the jewish presence in the palestinian neighborhood

which abuts this area the neighborhood of silwan which is in this valley just below us here now that's one reason why palestinians are opposed to all this the very funding for this project was announced on jerusalem day in may last year part of a two billion dollars slew of projects of the israeli government announced including trying to increase the uptake of the israeli education system in palestinian schools increase business infrastructure increase the amount of archeological digging in areas such as this one so many palestinians see this as part of a wider attempt to cement and solidify israeli control in occupied east jerusalem there's also been opposition from israeli architects and n.g.o.s who say this will be a blight on a beautiful landscape that the fifteen pylons that will be used will be much bigger much more obtrusive than are been argued by the proponents and they also are attacking the argument that this will reduce congestion in the area they say that will merely move that congestion to other parts of jerusalem nonetheless the plans

are now published there are sixty days during which members of the public can either support suggest or oppose them before they're put for final submission. the u.s. senate has backs a bill amend a middle mend opposing president tom's plan to withdraw troops from syria and afghanistan the senate voted sixty eight to twenty three on the measure for by a majority leader mitch mcconnell it says pulling out could allow i say to recruit and destabilize both countries it's a rare rebuke of transformed policy by the republican controlled senate. and he's twenty nine children have died in a refugee camp in northeastern syria over the past two months hypothermia is being blamed for most of the deaths all than twenty three thousand people mostly women and children escaped and fighting arrived at our whole camp says the end of november but health organizations as many families made the journey on foot in freezing conditions. a u.s. federal court has ruled that syria's government is responsible for the death of the

american journalist marie colvin in two thousand and twelve it's also ordered the payment of more than three hundred million dollars in compensation to her family the judge said syrian forces deliberately targeted the area where colvin and her team were staying to silence her and other media are critical of president bashar assad's romania is celebrating taking the presidency of european union for the first time but it's already proving controversial the government is facing widespread allegations of corruption and mismanagement environmental activists have also told al-jazeera the government has been complicit in the destruction of some of europe's oldest and most important forests currently reports from the seminal national forest in western romania. these high hills approved rich pickings for people who show scant regard for the importance of ancient forests supposedly immune from exploitation they don't even try to hide their business it's all piled

up on the roadside despite commercial logging in the national park being illegal. nor did it take long to find the law because we'd been warned they might be armed so we kept our camera at a distance they insisted had won a government auction which allowed them to do this fairly. the environmental activists trying to stop it's say none of this could happen without the government knowing if you slogging conservations are most of the times approved by the state but when we write letters and make complaints the minister herself is answering to our said there should be no logging in national parks so there is a little contradiction here they approve it and they say it's not legal at the same time but you can see it i mean we just drove up the track and it's here you can't you can't miss it all over in any nation are parked in the town which sits below the national park a huge steel works used to provide employment for nearly everyone but not anymore nothing was found to replace the jobs so it's easy to see why logging became such

a large industry romania's forests are vast which is partly why the locals get away with it some of this woodland is among the oldest in europe but large areas have been cut out of it the government keeps secrets any records of what's legal and what isn't so global companies which buy romanian timber furniture cannot know the origin of the wood. alina worked for the forestry agency for fourteen years when she complained about all of this she says she was intimidated and isolated ultimately forced to resign when first came out the law or the addict out of the bottle i was questioned by my directors as a biologist i was prevented from doing field work that didn't from going to logging areas in the park they kept me on minimum wage they did everything they could to stop me from being able to speak out they cut me off remain you're currently enjoys the privilege of holding the presidency of the council of the european union which means it has the opportunity to set policy objectives for the whole of the e.u.

including on the environment and yet despite all the evidence to the contrary the remaining government still insists that nothing illegal has been happening inside its own protected forests their own ministers have been saying as much to the european parliament even though it has been presented with evidence suggesting the very opposite we are talking about illegal logging in private forests where there were no proper services for guarding these forests. thirty years ago the remaining people rose up against their dictatorial leader nicholai ceausescu and embarked on a journey to democracy which for the first time has put their country into a leadership position across europe for all of that remaining maintains a reputation as having a thick covering of corruption it seems unable to shake off largely al-jazeera in western remain you.

are watching our top stories the u.s. president says progress has been made during trade negotiations with china officials have been meeting in washington to try to end a trade war but strong says no deal finalized until he meets president xi jinping. as well as opposition he does warns national security forces to stay away from his family. offices loyal to president the door turned up at his apartment while his young daughter was at home. she gets in your ears right so i say to the gentleman of the pious pollies here i am with my wife my daughter in my house and i will hold you responsible for any threat to my baby who is only twenty months all it's what they do to this whole country and i say from here leave my home. thousands of iranians have gathered to mark the forty year anniversary of the islamic republic and ayatollah khomeini's return from exile after fourteen is iran revolution was

followed by weeks of confrontations between all mini's followers and the shah's loyalists. the u.s. says it will scrap its nuclear agreement with russia the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty or i n f it was an arms control pact signed by the us and the then soviet union in one thousand nine hundred seven the treaty banned all land based missiles with ranges of five hundred to five thousand five hundred kilometers but the us is accused russia of violating the treaty the us senate has backs a bill amendment opposing president trump plan to withdraw troops from syria and afghanistan senate voted sixty eight to twenty three on the measure by put forward by majority leader mitch mcconnell says pulling out could allow i saw and al qaeda to regroup and destabilize both countries it's a rare rebuke of foreign policy by the republican controlled senate. that has twenty nine children have died in

a refugee camp in northeastern syria over the past two months is being blamed for most of the deaths well in twenty three thousand people mostly women and children escaping fighting have arrived at our whole camp since the end of november. there's i had lines i'll be back with more news here on al-jazeera inside story. the week began with the use of a ninety day truce in the u.s. china trade will the world's largest supply of objectified natural gas is leaving the biggest will. we bring you the stories the economic world we live in counting the cost zero. congress and u.s. involvement in the war in yemen group of senators say they have enough votes to do so they say help for the saudi to eat coalition must stop but even if the resolution is passed it's not clear if donald trump will back it this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program i'm richelle carey for the past four years much of yemen has been at war united states has firmly back the saudi coalition which has been fighting who the rebels but peter does hacks on civilians by the coalition has drawn widespread international condemnation and has contributed to the world's worst humanitarian crisis now things could be how about to change it with u.s. senators as pushing to end washington support of the conflict the group of democrats and republicans led by senator bernie sanders plans to resubmit a draft resolution the senate passed and december but the house of representatives rejected sanders has issued a warning over america's continued role in the war bring in our gas in a moment first here's more of what the senator from vermont say. late last year i

had the opportunity to meet with several very brave human rights activists from yemen urging congress to put a stop to this war and they told me very clearly when yemenis see made in us a on the bombs that are killing them it tells them that the united states of america is responsible for this war this is not a message the united states should be sending to the world the united states should not be supporting a catastrophic war led by a despotic saudi regime with a dangerous and irresponsible military policy so let's take a closer look at the u.s. involvement and yemen washington began supporting this saudi u.a.e. coalition back in two thousand and fifteen and until recently much of that assistance was in the form of and flight refueling for saudi jets which ended in

november by mutual agreement but the u.s. still provides intelligence and is the top arms supplier to saudi arabia and the u.a.e. it says its officers advise on potential targets to minimize civilian civilian that is casualties yet saudi strikes have killed thousands of civilians including dozens of children on a school bus and saddam province last august. let's bring in our guests in london adam baron visiting fellow at the european council on foreign relations adam is also a journalist formerly based and yemen's capital saana joining us via skype from birmingham scott lucas professor of international politics at the university of birmingham and editor of e a worldview a website specializing in news coverage and analysis of the middle east and in berlin catherine shacked m. who has consulted the un security council on yemen as a researcher at the alibi and center for strategic studies so i'll come to all of you scott i want to start with you is the timing right for u.s.

congress to pass this resolution ending support for this war. well there you believe something like this should have been done back in two thousand and fifteen before the saudi led intervention escalated of the deaths and yemen but politically what you have right now is a donald trump who has weakened on a number of fronts democrats have taken control the house of representatives that means that sort of the house republicans who had held off previous congressional attempts to kobach american intervention in yemen well that is now shifted donald trump is at war with the own intelligence agencies those intelligence agencies believe for example that the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon is responsible for the death of jamal associate the journalist last october so he doesn't have or trump doesn't have the support of his own personnel and i think also trump faces

and washington press which thinks that he is weak in the combination of his general witness in front of the truck russia investigation the recent government shutdown and the washington press a specific concern over saudi activities after the death of associate i think that means that this is probably the best opportunity that congress has to check executive power and the u.s. intervention in yemen and i met me interested in your feedback on some of those and points that scott made it to to say that he thinks this might be the right time for this do you agree with that analysis. i mean to a large extent you're a invigorate democratic majority in the house and for that matter when you add that to the fact that the senate was able to pass a bill prior to the elections they feel like i to some extent they stay small blood on the water when it comes to linking trump to saudi arabia. and they say yemen is a key potential opportunity for that that being said you know as someone who

focuses more on domestic politics in yemen and on the domestic politics in the states i think there really is a danger within seeing yemen over the through the eyes of me through seeing all of this through the eyes of yemen's domestic or the united states is domestic politics ok so in a lot of ways there's there's a we're there's a worry of what is an extremely calm complicated conflict in yemen being being used for for political hits in many regards ok and i think that's actually a great point we will we will definitely come back to that point catherine same question to you though do you think this is the right time to get some sort of action on this. you know i do i do i think i agree with scott's i mean critically now is to time you know to to address the yemeni issue that i also agree with adam in this sound stuff yemen is indeed very complicated and i don't think anyone in washington not even democrats are actually willing to to drop so do. you know as

far as a point their foreign policy is concerned will still be a key ally in the region for the u.s. but i think that now we moving forward to have a different formulation of foreign policy as far as the saudi are concerned and the kind of position that would be given moving forward and i think that you know we are seeing these these a break now occurring you know away from mohammed bin someone policies because he has failed not just in yemen but in regards to many other duties and i think that this will be reflected and it's maybe a signal from washington maybe these the need for change of the guard in riyadh and that even though the u.s. is still willing to of course to support the saudi for very obvious geopolitical reason that this support will be very different and i mean we have to remember too that the many war crimes committed committed in yemen on a daily basis by the saudi and of course the u.a.e. actually on account of your u.s. intelligence and so questions needs to be answered and i think that the u.s.

doesn't want to get to that point where the war ends and questions are being leveled at washington i don't think that anyone wants to be in that position and of course we're moving towards you know election time the presidential election will i mean the race will begin quite soon so i think that people want to position themselves and try to use yemen as a kind of you know political called. scott why their reluctance on the part of donald trump to. to push the kingdom to push saudi arabia it is it can't really just be about money. that's part of it we know there were discussions between people around trump with the saudis and with the u.a.e. just before trump took office and just afterwards in terms of i took office around various projects we know that specifically donald trump's son in law jerry question or who has sort of been designated the unofficial middle east envoy for the ministration is very close to the saudis including the mahomedan solomon we know that that's one reason why trump has tried to resist his intelligence agencies over

the affair and why donald trump has gone so far as to support saudi arabia against its gulf neighbor qatar when the saudis put the blockade on in may of two thousand and seventeen and trump said oh it must be because the qatari support terrorist so all of that is in the mix but i think the main thing here is that donald trump actually knows very little about what is going on within yemen and the fact is is that no one has clean hands here the americans don't have clean hands the saudis don't have clean hands the u.a.e. doesn't have clean hands iran doesn't have clean hands and the real question here is whether this u.s. congressional initiative not only might restrict some american arms that go toward saudi arabia but in some sub small way linking up with the yemeni domestic space that i'm not so well will it open up some type of move towards political talks we have a flutter of that at the end of november but it sort of came and it's gone will those talks be revived so that we can get everyone out of the conflict and reduce the

death toll that is affected millions of young unease and adam right before we brought you on and brought you into the conversation we played a little bit some comments from senator bernie sanders where he said that you know in many ways see weapons there that have you know made in the u.s. there and and they say that america is playing a big role and killing in many ways you know you many you know you many politics what how is the u.s. perceived there. i mean to be honest when you're in a when it comes to the opinion of the u.s. and yemen they can't really win of it's and it's a difficult position in the sense that you're in even to the extent that you have many people even that are that are pro coalition that are somewhat frustrated with the u.s. role feeling that they haven't been giving even enough. even enough effort of support to the saudis but i think at the end of the day there is widespread acknowledgement that not just the united states but you know if you're sort of coordination between the u.s. and other key powers is what's going to be essential. to bringing this conflict

some sort of resolution you have seen that sort of flutter of activity particularly secretary not as we've seen is rather key in terms of the work behind the scenes that ended up leading to the signing of an agreement in sweden late at the end of last year even before that you did have efforts albeit in the obama administration coming from secretary kerry. to to sort of push things forward when it comes to when it comes to a potential solution in yemen but i think really when you look at u.s. policy in yemen even beyond the issue of of airstrikes or of discipline support the coalition there is really a sense particularly now that not us has has left the administration that there is a real vacancy no one is taking the lead on yemen within the trumpet ministrations so let me lead to better going what we we are sort of the no that's not but i was going to get you there because i am it is it is it just enough the that politicians want to disengage i mean what it's got to be more than that what else should the

u.s. be doing besides just disengaging that's not that may help obviously in the immediate sea but what does that really do to solve the bigger issue of yemen. oh exactly i mean something like ending airstrikes maybe or excuse me adding direct u.s. support to the coalition may be something that could be symbolically used as a victory for some people but it's something that absence of a wider political process may well have very little effect and indeed may end up actually helping the who is so absent the real key more than anything is you need i think a degree of greater united states leadership particularly in coordination with american allies in europe and involving greater and more more productive channels with with the gulf states and other regional actors. what yemen needs is a political process and you've seen the inklings of a beginning of a political process here that it least for now it's it's something that really does need a key power like for example the united states where particularly the u.s.

and at the u.k. really pushing things along further scott is that going to happen well i think that there are a couple problems here one is that the u.k. is almost paralyzed right now because of braga and the mess that's happening to must apply so even though they have been the penholder for yemen i think they are sort of being pushed off to the side i think there's a question about where the european union goes if it intervenes but i think beyond this is this could be a un led process and it has been a u.s. led process through gryphus for example to get those talks at the end of november but what you have to have is first of all an incentive for the yemeni government come to come to the table and i think that only comes if they feel like that saudi isn't going to come to their aid in any point and that's where this pressure is important so if they feel like they have to come to talk because saudi arabia can't just simply cover them that's on one side but the other question is. what makes the hutus come to the table what makes the hooch insurgency come to the table and i think that means they have to feel like they can't count on iran to give them cover

to continue to refrain from going into talks it's only when all external powers sort of pull back that i think the us gets the real space to start to work with local groups within yemen to get a meaningful political process catherine what could saudi arabia possibly say that they have been accomplishing in yemen besides killing thousands of people and destroying that country. not much quite frankly i mean i understand that so durable when in to try to to kind of. you know it's a gemini in the region and actually ensure that whatever transition of power whatever you know yet yemen's political landscape would actually be in its favor and that riyadh will continue to to exert great pressure on the yemenis future political future but they haven't they haven't manifested that at all if anything i think they exploded yemen even more so i mean it was already

a very fragmented very tribal country it's an infrastructure had to have been completely destroyed and that would lead to further instability you know poverty will drive people maybe to radicalization so there's a real issue where you know yemen is i would say kind of landscape has been completely exploded and it will take decades to actually fix that so we're not in terms of the kind of future that so do i can hope for in yemen or the footprint that we will have will be very difficult i don't think that the yemeni will forgive anytime soon what has happened to them civilians have suffered tremendously under saudia this matriarchy patients and i mean one of the matriculation we have to remember that i den is still under cafe sion it's going to be very difficult how do you move forward in formulate peace when tensions and i think angle has you know has risen to such an extent that people would want to seek revenge and i don't think that you know relations will be very positive in diffused so we would need definitely to have different regional power to come into you know yemen and try to

to formulate a peaceful constructive peace but i don't think that this i would have achieved anything i don't think that they will achieve anything if they continue to to think in terms of politics in terms of belligerence and this is what is coming out of riyadh systematically imagine themself in sanctions and in military intervention is that which is not good it's not good for the regions that it's not good you know in any case or any way shape or form i don't thing. anyway so this is going to be quite difficult but i do think however that this saudi to down just on the only way forward now would be to have a peace and this needs to happen politically how this is going to happen i think is going to be very difficult because they're going to need to acknowledge the fact for example that the unsubtle our movement is not going anywhere and they will have to contend with them. like for you to weigh in on that. yeah i mean i i would push back on at the assertion that this out of the coalition hasn't

accomplished anything i mean when we look at it when the coalition's intervention began that was his are on the verge of of controlling the entire country at this point that these have been in retraction they've lost control of god and they've lost not to both parts of ties they're currently under pressure and who data you know there have been military gains has it been you know the grand victory that i think many people were expecting of course it's a different story but to say to deny the fact that there have been military gains. and it was a bit complicated when it comes to the saudi role in yemen i think this is also something that's kind of complicates this kind of congressional action on on from the from the u.s. as well let's not forget that regardless of the situation now at the end of the day saudi arabia and yemen are neighbors yemen's longer term stability is something that's a key interest for saudi arabia so the question is how do you bring you don't pull open these sort of development rebuilding contacts and keep these channels open because at the end of the day this is going to be

a key thing moving forward i think even yemenis that i speak to that are broadly opposed to saudi arabia's current military intervention in the country when it comes to the idea of there being a saudi role in rebuilding which are let's be honest you're already seeing the saudis engage in a bit of rebuilding in areas like about it in the south of the country etc addict a decent degree of development and humanitarian aid going in albeit while the bombing is contained right exactly they're still bombing so i mean it's a balance but i'm saying it's kind of a it's kind of a mixed bag and i think you've seen this kind of from the reactions from many many yemenis to this congressional action yemenis or are deeply divided with regards to how how they view this so i think moving forward it's really crucial to keep in mind the sort of the deep complications of how many is view not just this conflict but also international international reactions to it all right scott i know you're there and i'm going to come back to you but i see this look on catherine's face so

i i want her to be able to respond to what adam was saying. not all i would say is that i mean when adam is talking about the humanitarian existence yes. claiming that you know they're trying to help rebuild patenting that's really the case i think that the main goal here you know when you mention matter for example is actually to you to gain access and control over your my natural resources and to try to control you know the what ways this is why it's and was actually ok it is to have an opening on to on to the sea and to ensure that the world all route is actually protected so i don't think interested in rebuilding yemen in any way shape or form other than securing access to natural resources and of course the waterways to kind of you know offer a buffer to to iran's influence in the region and i think this is not this is not the way to to to go about it because then you completely denying the fact that there are actual people in yemen millions of them and that those people we need to have a future secure for them you know if we're talking about regional stability so i've

seen these denial that people are actually then the completely exploded the social fabric the political social fabric of yemen you know we lead to you know greater issues moving forward this saudi again are completely checked into the fact that yemen has a very you know has a political reality and people have likes and desires and wants that might conflict with those of saudi arabia but it doesn't mean that they're not then that we should not respect them i disagree with people but at the end of the day i think that political said determination is the only way to promote a viable democracy in this needs to happen in yemen ok they certainly need to again to to come to terms that let me bring scott into this so scott you know as we said the u.s. has been supporting saudi in this since two thousand and fifteen proceeding donald trump this goes back to the obama administration what has the u.s. policy and thinking been towards yemen generally speaking.

well in many ways and your previous just have brought this up young is just a playground for wider interest it is a deadly playground not only for saudi goals in the region but for mohamed bin saw bowman's personal rise it's been a playground for the u.a.e. often overbooked and the hum of inside it's been a playground for the iranians in their conscious regional influence and it's been a bit of a playground for the americans in the sense that yemen itself doesn't matter is not what do you do with saudi arabia what do you do with saudi arabia when you have a split amongst the gulf states including between saudi arabia and qatar and most importantly and this i think does limit on how far congress can push the administration away from saudi including over yemen they're ministration is in bed with saudi arabia because it wants regime change in iran and until you give up that policy of regime change in iran saudi arabia still has a leverage with the trumpet ministration effect if congress or anyone else tries to push too hard let me bring that because we all i think it was you specifically that

said that donald trump has bit at odds with his intelligence community just this week the leaders in the intelligence community testified that iran is still complying with video even though donald trump backed it up where is this coming from. ripped it out hard to remember the number of those intelligence services though which the cia the office of national intelligence they're coming at it from just a sheer assessment of what iran is doing but in that same administration you have a secretary of state might pump a zero and a national security advisor john bolton who are committed to they will call it this but they are committed to regime change in iran after shredding that nuclear deal so you've got a not only divided but a two faced administration and one face might be going towards a more realistic policy with saudi intelligence services but as long as you've got john bolton and mike pompei o driving the idea that iran has to change then you

don't have a consistent u.s. policy on iran on saudi arabia or on yemen so if this measure does get out of congress bottom line scott do you think that donald trump will just will veto it will squash it and it will all have been for not. i think doesn't actually question because donald trump is so we can politically how many fights does he want to have i think it turns a lot on what jarrett cushion or says in his ear i think it turns a lot on what the national security advisor john bolton turns on presses him on but i think no i think if it's a limited congressional measure which says the u.s. pulls back on some of its assistance he doesn't veto but if it's a war powers measure in which it says congress has the right rather than the president to dictate what should happen i think he will veto that because that's a challenge to his authority catherine your take on this how do you think this is going to play out out. i would agree with them i think it's going to be very difficult i really don't see i mean it really depends because i think if trump's

can actually convince mohammed bin some month that he's a veto would come with a heavy price like you might actually go along with it that being said i don't think any kind of food politically to antagonize congress for the mall you know especially given that we just came out a government shutdown and that there's still the possibility of another so i don't see him doing that again we getting closer to the next presidential elections and he's going to need to think about getting reelected so he's going to have to pick his fight and whether or not he can actually win that one some no i'm not until i sure will but that being said i think that this is you know he has such lesser it in washington it is a possibility but i think that default would be so grand full president trump that he might not want to step on that one but again i mean if anything he has been consistent and being very rational in his position so we're very very difficult to predict so that was a very unfair question in some ways for me to put to you all but thank you very

much for the discussion i appreciate it and we will continue this discussion thank you to our gas adam bear and scott lucas and katherine checked out and thank you for watching you can watch the program again any time by visiting our website at al-jazeera talk further discussion on our facebook page facebook dot com for slash a.j. inside story and you can join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story for me i shall carry on the entire team here until i pronounce. my. tortured entertained in their home where chinese leaders are fleeing but is there a safe place to go one of many as far as their perilous journey to an uncertain future. the fallout is there. february. we investigate the toxic legacy of south africa's mining industry and examine exactly

what is hiding beneath old is toxic waste africa's largest democracy heads to the polls join us for live coverage as nigeria votes al-jazeera world showcases the best of the networks documentaries with powerful untold stories from the middle east and north africa as cubans are set to vote on the possible changes to the constitution what impact will the outcome have on the country the world sunny day witness visits in sweden where a community polarized by mining towns questions the heritage february. in the next episode of science in the golden age i'll be exploring the contributions made by scholars join the medieval islamic period in the field of medicine. saw instant to be a good subject to bring different people from all over the world together. to such like a magical the more i learn about the more i respect science in

a golden age with professor jim miller on a. al-jazeera . where every. u.s. president says he's hopeful of a deal with china to end a trade war. at

them or a kyle this is al jazeera live from also coming up fourteen years on iran says revolution and the return of the ayatollah supreme leader. venezuela's self-proclaimed president says his family is under threat as the government makes arrests for the less plot to overthrow madore. and i'm lawrence lee in romania which has just taken over the presidency of the european union and whose government stands accused of complicity in the mass illegal. looking at its own forests. this is one month to go until the u.s. tariffs on chinese goods will be heights to twenty five percent if the world's two largest economies concrete a trade deal both sides say progress was made during two days of the in washington

but president donald trump insists nothing will be finalized until he meets a chinese leader xi jinping has more from washington. we have made tremendous progress they both want to deal but there's still a lot of ground to cover us president donald trump has been meeting china's vice premier in the oval office he delivered a letter from his boss chinese president xi jinping the topic the on going trade war between the two hanging over both economies i hope it would make it if you have been sitting around the table in washington this week trying to thrash out an agreement that after days of talks donald trump is uncertain there's a deal to be done this is going to be a small deal which this is going to be a very big deal or it's going to be a deal that will just postpone for a little while but we've been dealing with china we had a great relationship i have a great relationship with president xi. the u.s. wants china to buy more american goods and to change the rules of doing business in china where american companies have to peer with local companies and hand over to

treat secrets and intellectual property and get a growing trade deficit the trumpet ministration introduced ten percent targets on billions of dollars of chinese goods coming into the u.s. that will kick up to twenty five percent if there's no deal by march by the chinese have retaliated with kind of serve their own the president says any final agreement will be hammered out with him and his chinese counterpart it's a lot of work because this is a very comprehensive deal this is what we're talking about you know they're going to buy some corn and that's going to be a no they're going to buy corn hopefully they can buy lots of corn and lots of wheat lots of everything else that we have. but they're also talking heavy technology heavy manufacturing financial services and everything in the united states and china of the world's two biggest economies there's pressure on both to reach a deal. because of the impact it's having on their own countries and the international monetary fund says an extended trade war will be bad for global economies alan

fischer al-jazeera washington. has the latest now from beijing. well president donald trump needs a deal because he wants to try to reassure jittery stock markets president xi jinping wants a deal because he has a number of serious economic problems right now these haven't necessarily been caused by the trade war but they are making things worse economic growth is now down to just six point six percent that's more than half what it was twelve years ago manufacturing output is continuing to contract and also consumer spending is starting to flatline this is worrying china's president he recently addressed a gathering of party officials saying that the government needed to mitigate for risks in china's economy in the years and months ahead and the fact this seminar lasted for four days is a measure of just how seriously president she views the current situation china has been trying to show it is sincere about wanting a deal just this week it amended

a draft foreign investment law which is basically designed to offer greater protection to foreign intellectual property here in china that has been one of the sticking points in the negotiations i think it's possible we're going to see a partial deal with china agreeing to buy more agricultural and energy products from the united states but i think there are big outstanding issues that are yet to be resolved particularly over the issue of china being called upon to basically reform its industrial policy president xi jinping wants an economy that is based on five g. technology robotics an artificial intelligence but president donald trump says it's doing all that by cheating. north korea has agreed to dismantle target military sites and open them for outside inspections ahead of an expected summit between donald trump and kim jong un. even by god will meet still korean officials next week to discuss the next steps washington has

a list of demands for pyongyang to see the destruction of all of its uranium enrichment facilities. trump is expected to announce details of the next leaders' summit on tuesday. thousands of iranians have gathered as an important shrine in tehran to mark forty years since i was hollow harmony's return from exile and the one nine hundred seventy nine revolution and the weeks that followed harmony's followers took on loyalists of the shah including police and soldiers had fled at the height of violent protests against his reign one of the same best ravi has this update from tehran. we're here at the shrine of ayatollah ruhollah khomeini the founding father of the islamic republic of iran if and here there are thousands of iranians coming together to commemorate forty years to the day since he returned from exile and rocked the slow make revolution with now forty years later decades later the ideals of the revolution that he brought continue to fuel policy here in

iran and it continues to be a sort of living thing for which iranian leaders across trying to for example rally support for foreign wars that iraq is involved but they simultaneously speak of this revolution to something fragile and precious that needs to be protected from external threats and while that may be the case that the revolution is also coming under criticism internally domestically the country's economy forty years later is suffering president hassan rouhani vice president visited this shrine just days ago and he said that iran's economy was one of the worst days that it's ever been and he falls squarely on the show of american say all i can still write off even as supporters of the clerical system of government that khamenei established after the revolution come together to celebrate the anniversary this year there are

a while most of the cross the country who say that they feel the left behind many people that we've spoken to told us that they helped protest against the persian king their khamenei unseated as he took control of the country and at the time they were protesting and rallying in support of the role of khamenei for change and for prosperity forty years later many of them say that the caretakers of the revolution like him after the founding father of the assad public all they feel those caretakers have let them down their suffering i mention my. forty years on and many of the promises of the revolution. have been broken. as ones national security forces loyal to president this month were to stay away from his family. q. some of showing up at his apartment while says twenty month old daughter was at home as any man reports from caracas the past self put famed interim president

why dog had finished presenting a planter national recovery at an israel a central university when he made a personal announcement at this hour special forces agents are at my home asking for my wife. accompanied by diplomats opposition leaders and the media rushed home residents told us the police agents onto motorcycles had been there but had already left over the years i ordered a soldier so this country not to intimidate us or poles has remained firm we are speaking of the national plan while they were harassing my family because that's their modus operandi. the u.s. government has warned of severe consequences should anything happen do i lol government supporters call it a cheap publicity stunt opponents a useless attempt to intimidate them and to add more drama to the day the interior minister announced what he called a plot by mercenaries allegedly paid by the opposition to assassinate keep

politicians and members of the military this he says in order to raise the level of upheaval in venezuela. and that is that if you evidence the telephone analysis and interrogations and i produced this morning to capture petard conal. not only is a cruel it's fifty four years old wanted for attempted assassination treason instigating an uprising attacking military facilities. earlier had presented the opposition's plan for the nation a road map pretty good political stability. the first priority he said is to obtain urgently needed humanitarian aid and that could put the army and president in a dilemma. neighboring colombia and brazil are offering to send the transition government food and medicine immediately now now i mean in the next few days the

next few weeks so it's up to the armed forces it's up to the military if they're going to allow that food and medicine to conquer the border or if they're going to you know keep supporting the block so they going to have to choose between their families and their leader or at least their what they call their presence. so far there are no signs that the military high command is planning to break with my little who insists that he's the victim of an imperialist could a ta. see in human al-jazeera products. spying software to hack the i phones american citizens and follows an investigation . by the reuters news news agency which found hundreds of thousands of people was spied upon in two thousand and sixteen and seventeen reported targets castle's amir a senior turkish official and human rights activist who's been awarded the nobel peace prize so the head on al-jazeera reaction from moscow after the u.s.

announces its plans to leave a nine hundred eighty seven nuclear pact with russia. and keeping the iran nuclear deal aligned in you bypasses u.s. sanctions to keep trading with tehran. and there we're seeing a lot of snow over parts of europe including force in britain an island a part of the world where we're not really equipped to see snow atoll so here's that wintery weather then that was in cool will last night you can see already a lot of snow is on the ground there and some of these motorists were trapped for hours in their car that system then worked its way eastwards and continued to bring us some heavy snow to many policies of southern england and central england and that's caused quite a few problems this morning that system will eventually begin to fizzle out but as

it does say we see this rather intense area of low pressure big.