aimed at ending six years of fighting in the central african republic has been postponed it's not clear why the agreement between the leaders of fourteen armed groups and the government was scheduled to be signed in sudan the sudanese capital khartoum has hosted a week of talks there aimed at ending war between christian and muslim militia which has killed thousands of people into space hundreds of others are still ahead here on al-jazeera scars of war after enduring years of violence syrian cuties phase and long wait for a statically. incumbent president makea sockets off reelection his reelection bid as his rivals are accusing him of clamping down on the opposition. to. the. hello there we've got plenty of snow in the stall for afghanistan over the next few

days here's the satellite picture and it shows the swirling massive cloud tail as this one is making its way across parts of iran is giving some of us some heavy rain and then as it works its way north woods it's going to get increasingly wintery as it makes its way over parts of afghanistan so lots of snow here on monday and for tuesday as well and that's good news because many of us here are in a drought towards the west generally quite quiet and fairly cool for us on choose day a maximum temperature in baghdad of twenty degrees here doha it's been pretty hole to over the past few days but things have changed thanks to this area of cloud hit for some rain and it's also it will rain to the u.a.e. as well the whole system is slipping away towards the south and behind it it is a lot cooler so the winds are firing down from the northwest bringing in that cool air a maximum temperatures for us then just twenty two as we head through monday and tuesday and during the evening and overnight you'll notice it is feeling a good deal cooler too as we head down to as a southern parts of africa lots of showers here in the northern parts of our map as

you would expect we've also got some in the eastern parts of south africa this is giving some of us some heavy rain a lot of rumbles of thunder as well and it's working its way eastwards is looking what for monday. morning.

welcome back you're watching live from doha a reminder of our top stories u.s. president donald trump has told a u.s. t.v. network that sending the military to venezuela is an option he's also said has turned down a meeting with venezuela's in battles president nicolas maduro yemen's warring sides are holding talks aboard a united nations boat in the red sea in an attempt to save the fragile cease fire in the data it's hoped the meeting will finally finalize a timeline for the withdrawal of troops from the city. and israel has begun building a new battery along its border with gaza when finished the fence will be sixty five kilometers long and six meters high almost three hundred palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured in months of protests along the current border. al-jazeera has been seeing how corruption in romania's public hospitals is harming

the survival chances of patients romanian children suffer the highest mortality rates in europe and no new government hospitals have been built since the fall of communist rule thirty years ago lawrence he has a story from bucharest. corruption kills people and in romania hospitals do not necessarily make people better bucharest children's hospital was built in one nine hundred eighty two and much of the equipment doctors and nurses have at their disposal looks like it hasn't changed in the thirty seven years since inside the hospital lies one year old iron valentino to mr diagnosed by a doctor he's now in a coma his young parents are living in the hospital as his body breaks down in front of them they look completely destroyed and. if he's made no recovery since he came here his lungs are starting to collapse and his little heart is as well he's on life support they've killed my son. images obtained by

al-jazeera of the conditions inside some of romania's public hospitals are barely believable this is the pathology units where human tissue was stored inside the hospital in one of remain his biggest cities clues the european union offered one hundred seventy million dollars worth of funding for three new hospitals a full five years ago but the work hasn't even started the crisis led carmen and on a former business women to launch a crowdfunding campaign to build a new hospital in the capital stepping in where the government has failed they already raised nearly twenty million dollars yes they will want to look back i don't know your reply be there remain a state in the face or showing them it's possible in a country where impossible is what you're always told regarding the first hospital in the country for children with cancer after thirty years of incompetence from their remaining state so this is it's the first new hospital to be built in romania since the fall of communism paid for by the public it'll be finished years before the government gets around to building them you may well ask yourself how it can be

that so a group of business women with no healthcare background can build a hospital from scratch in romania while the government apparently colt's wall also is corrupt officials don't want seems european funding because they have to account for it and can't simply stick the money in their pockets the other theory is that they're all just completely incompetent probably the truth is somewhere in the middle no doubt there are politicians who want to do something about all this but they're up against a huge wall of corruption the current health minister run a relatively successful hospital herself but she admitted to us the system is broken with officials stealing money from public funds yeah. i had bought an m.r.i. scanner for five hundred thousand but here they bought one for two and a half million the exact same one this explains a lot it didn't need explaining someone stole two million euros on the pretense of buying medical equipment we both understand the reasons. you have to say it's

hardly a great indorsements of the current president of the european union's who admits to the thinks it won't be able to build a new hospital for another five years anyway it'll all be too late for florian and denise are they watching that baby son die in front of their eyes killed by corruption largely al-jazeera the caressed. the last four children refugees held in an australian run detention center on the pacific island of naral are being resettled in the us they will go with their families under a deal struck with the administration of former us president barack obama australia's government says it won't send any more children to now all. over the past five months we have been working quietly and methodically to term children from the room today there are only four children on your roof and i will shortly resettle permanently in the united states our government has got the children off

you know rude demand for artificial limbs remains high in syria despite the law in fighting the eight year war hundreds of thousands lost ons legs of both especially during the bombardment of opposition held areas many of the mains are children al-jazeera is a big job it has this story from guys in turkey near the border with syria. says that had set up till when i think about what happened she says i cry this is eight year old child. like millions of other syrian children she struggles with the painful memories of how she lost her leg and her brother. we first met her three years ago when she got her first breast leg has started school since then and made new friends but now she tells us she gets bullied as well for having an artificial leg and for being

a foreigner as she grows older the artificial limb needs to be replaced with a bigger one this is also true for other patients whose bodies outgrow their prosthetics. sometimes my classmates just leave me alone other times the children come and call me things like how you with the leg keep walking like this so what young child has been telling me is that she wants to go to germany her father tells me that their case has been pending with the authorities for the last three years now that the situation in syria is karma the cases at this center continue to pile up in twenty sixteen they had three hundred people who required prosthetic limbs now that list has grown to two thousand but with more restrictions on who can cross the border into turkey they've opened a smaller workshop inside syria which has its own set of challenges because after eight years of war find qualified technicians difficult it cost somewhere between three to nine thousand dollars to make a prosthetic limb costs depend on injury and whether it's a hand or

a complete foot or a leg. man to head the war is still happening patients who require limbs are chronic and with time they need more care many of these cases appear after the fighting has finished people need to continue their lives regardless of their disability with rising inflation and riddling help it's difficult to keep producing high quality prosthetics every time the exchange rate in turkey changes it means fewer limbs can be manufactured but for children like donor fatigue rising prices and border problems don't mean much all she dreams of is to overcome what hinders her from being treated like all the other children in her school summer when job you don't have the or does the anthem. and in other news from syria state media says u.s. led airstrikes have targeted the syrian army near the border with iraq u.s. warplanes reportedly attacked a syrian artillery position in dairies or in the dairies or area of eastern syria

sources say two soldiers were injured and guns destroyed and an apartment building has collapsed in the syrian city of aleppo killing people including four children a five story block was damaged during years of war one child was pulled out alive by rescue teams many other buildings around the city are also on the brink of collapse to egypt now where some politicians are planning to push for major changes to the constitution including the creation of a second chamber of parliament and the appointment of one or more deputy president there requests follows demands from sections of the public for presidential term limits omar sure is associate professor of security studies and middle east politics at the doha institute for graduate studies he says the propose amendments are aimed at increasing the number of terms a president can run for office. the now the local media is focusing on the idea that eighty years are not enough and they're not enough to deal with the economic

political or security challenges of egypt face and therefore the current president needs more time to fix the political economic and security challenges if you look at the actual what happened between twenty four thousand to now it's a t.v. nation on multiple levels with the economic political and security or human rights values it doesn't really matter the constitution is violated on an hourly basis not on daily bases in terms of the human rights situation in terms of even you know some changes within the regime you know the you need the approval of the supreme council of the armed forces for example to sack the minister of defense the president sec the minister of defense without the approval of the supreme council of the parliament is composed of loyalists basically outbidding each other the elections were not free and fair and you have a parliament in many ways it's a done deal in a sense that no one will pause in the parliament that kind of amendment and there's no no one is even voicing any concerns or any sort of opposition so that on one end

the other thing is the parliament is going to to actually vote or amend the articles that empowers the parliament so article four seven and article one four six both of them say that the president cannot sack the prime minister or the government without the approval of the majority of the parliament i think these two articles will be probably amended so that the president has complete try to remove the government and the prime minister without the approval of the parliament. algeria is ailing eighty two year old president is expected to seek reelection the ruling coalition has named abdelaziz bouteflika as its candidate for april's vote but the leader has yet to officially confirm he'll run in power since one thousand nine hundred ninety nine but if eco especially paralyzed from a stroke six years ago and is rarely seen in public. in senegal the presidential campaign has begun with the incumbent president running for a second term he faces four candidates who have accused him of clamping down on the opposition nicolas hoch reports from dakar. he calls himself the candidate

for all for supporters of president mike use of this is more than a political slogan but a message they'll now be spreading as the presidential campaign has officially started. but i've got them. why i ask them of course we are very confident we will win because we have the best candidate the one who has brought economic cultural and political stability like no other but this stability for the opposition comes at a cost the leader of the senegalese democratic party karim what it is an exile and convicted on corruption charges while the popular former mayor. remains in jail the opposition accuses of cells government of using the courts to clamp down on political opponents nonsense says former prime minister today this has nothing to do with. politics it's about mismanagement of public funding and i think in his

program i think president made it very clear that he would like to make progress on fighting corruption with the two leading figures of the opposition out of the race it seems there's no stopping. he's been opening one infrastructure project after another jumpstarting and now booming economy. this is the latest infrastructure project in are greeted by president mikey sol it's a building for government officials and ministers a building helps to be in charge of if you wins a second mandate because the challenge for sol is to translate his economic success into votes. while the economy is booming political freedom is shrinking warns amnesty international police band several opposition protests the four other candidates struggle to mobilize supporters with many disappointed that karim wanted in khalifa sol are absent from this race we think president sellers hijack the electoral process locking in the short victory with a campaign that has barely started were t.

shirts are being distribute. added faster than voter id cards senate going to be one of the most stable democracies in africa it's also one of the most unpredictable. among the six million voters will go to the polls in twenty days time or young first time voters an undecided and powerful force not always so easily swayed by slogans nicholas hawks al-jazeera the car. iraq now an antique shops used to be a roaring trade in baghdad but years of conflict and threats of kidnapping have forced sellers to shut their shops in the markets and go online dr mattson met one trader who is determined to keep his store and all the pieces of history at home by . selling history in baghdad. has owned his little antique shop for twenty five years the used to be dozens of stores like his crammed into baghdad's back streets in the mud and the. iraqis have their history and culture and twined people in turn

for the past and they're still in the stalls for the golden era of baghdad. i've joining years of conflict antique shops have been shutting down some owners told to be rich have been threatened or blackmailed and tourists are rare. visitors would come to the auctions and antique shops to recollect beautiful memories but the business is dwindling day by day we don't have any tourists because of the political turmoil and the unpredictable security baghdad's few remaining until shops are mainly here in this little square in the center of the old part of the city most of the time they're closed but occasionally on sunny days like this one they will throw open the shutters some of the stuff waving skimming the surface of being junk but inside the stores there are treasure troves for the avid buyers. many wealthy people who would have bought antiques of art here have left iraq because of the conflicts but there are still those who hope to rediscover

baghdad's past the only one with these antique shops a part of baghdad's good old days some say young people don't pay attention anymore but that's not true i come here to collect been stitched photos of old baghdad these places of bridges that connect the past to the present. stores are also closing because their owners are starting to sell online but for reid says his doors will stay open because his shop is part of iraq's history matheson al-jazeera background. and we're hours away from super bowl kickoff in atlanta where the dominant n.f.l. team of the past decade the new england patriots face the los angeles rams safety is a major concern in the lead up to america's biggest sporting event the f.b.i. says it's worried about private and commercial drones being flown near the venue for sunday's game as a temporary flight restriction in place but it hasn't stopped strong uses.

hello again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera u.s. president donald trump has told a t.v. network that sending the military to venezuela is an option he's also said he's turned down a meeting with venezuela's embattled president nicolas maduro in la russia says the international community should refrain from destructive interference in venezuela yemen's warring sides are holding talks aboard a united nations boat in the red sea an attempt to save the cease fire in her data it's hoped the meeting will finalize a timeline for the withdrawal of troops from the city the signing of a peace deal aimed at ending six years of fighting in central african republic has been postponed it's not clear why the agreement between the leader as of fourteen armed groups and the government was scheduled to be signed in sudan the sudanese capital khartoum has hosted a week of talks they were aimed at ending war between christian and muslim militia

which has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands in our. an apartment building has collapsed in the syrian city of aleppo killing eleven people including four children their five storey brother was damaged during years of war one child was pulled out alive by rescue teams many other buildings around the city are also on the brink of collapse politicians in egypt are planning to push for major changes to the constitution including the creation of a second chamber of parliament in the appointment of one or war deputy president their request follows some citizens demanding changes to presidential term limits algeria is eighty two year old president is expected to seek reelection the ruling coalition has named abdelaziz bouteflika as its candidate for april's fold for the leader has yet to officially confirm if he'll run for a fifth term has been in power since one thousand nine hundred ninety nine he was partially paralyzed from a stroke six years ago and is rarely seen in public and the last four child

refugees held in an australian run detention center on the pacific island of now will be resettled in the united states those are the headlines and news continues on al-jazeera after inside story. caterham wins the asian cup victory for the world cup the smallest host nation puts it on course for twenty twenty two but will the big winner in the united arab emirates ease or exacerbate tensions in the gulf this is inside story.

except. that. hello and welcome to the program dennis cattles football team started the asian cup ranked a lowly ninety third in the world but after an illness flawless month long torn amid country players brought home their first major trophy all the more remarkable because the matches were played in the united arab emirates is one of the four countries imposing a twenty month long blockade on qatar so cattery fans were banned from going to cheer the team on and the players endured outright hostility on the pitch. a full reports. a triumphant return for the asian cup football champions the mirror of qatar welcomed home the winning team after they beat japan three one zero. then it was off to

a victory parade on doha's waterfront many of these fans couldn't attend the tournament in the united arab emirates. they could only watch the action from afar off to the u.a.e. saudi arabia bahrain and egypt serve it ties with could talk and imposed a blockade in twenty seventeen. it's a great feeling thank goodness we got here after a lot of hard work and perseverance. i can't describe my feeling today i feel as happy as any arab especially when my country achieved something like this it was a great game too and to be such a great team like japan makes it an even bigger achievement it's a win for the amir the amir father and everyone who lives in qatar and every arab everyone without discriminating between them. the team faced a hostile reception throughout the tournament crowds through shoes and bottles at the players when they defeated the u.a.e. in the semifinal. and no qatari fans were allowed in the stands so supporters from

oman stepped in to cheer albeit with discretion. but despite the political tension overcame the odds to win its first major football trophy showing perhaps that sport can triumph over politics. well let's have a look at a few other examples of how politics and sport of merged in history african american athlete jesse owens won four gold medals at the nine hundred thirty six olympic games in berlin presenting a huge challenge to nazi leader adult hitler's ideas of arion supremacy the mexico city olympics in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight is perhaps best remembered for. sprinters tommie smith and john carlos giving the black power salute as a u.s. national anthem was played at the munich olympics in one hundred seventy two eleven israeli teen members were killed by the palestinian group black september and the

winter olympics just a year ago brought the two koreas together marching under one flag and the first combined women's eisel key team in decades. all right let's introduce our panel now here in doha we have mahfood ammara head of the sports science program at cafe university is also the author of sport politics and society in the arab world in amsterdam via skype we have james dorsey he's a senior fellow at the s. rajaratnam school of international studies and he's the author of turbulent world of middle east soccer joining us from london is rob paris an international football writer welcome to you all but mahfood can i start with you because of course everybody loves a champion everyone loves success but how significant is this victory for cattles footballing prowess. thank you for having me this is very important because

catherine from number one the won the bid to host the world cup they received many criticism on one of the criticism was not doesn't have the affordable culture i mean this victoria but in all there is a football culture of year and there is a system which is in place in terms of football development and the victoria is in with literacy of this system and rob coming to you in london i mean how big a surprise was the seventy you cover international football the time this is their first major international truthy what will you completely go up slant by it. i mean it was an astonishing feat that run to a first ever semifinal then the final winning it and only conceding once on the way well winning all seven games scoring nineteen goals is an incredible performance and one that will also bring renewed scrutiny on the team the interest in terms of how the team is being put together how it's progressing towards challenging in

twenty twenty two but as we saw when the u.a.e. lodged a yet complaint with the asian cup organizers after losing the semifinal about the eligibility of two players there will be then that focus and questions that will have to be addressed and they'll be that is natural as a team progress they get more successful at it but what it does show to the world i think cats are is the fact that many thought that the team might be embarrassed on home soil in twenty twenty two now there's a different narrative and no be a sense of just what can the team achieve and jains and answer them much of the tournament as having over the cattery games was played in a real sense of toxicity and it was hostile hughes bottles thrown on the pitch so the team did exceptionally well given that also role of faith in all of this given that these matches were played in such unsportsmanlike conditions well i think the role of faith is far more cut complex and goes far beyond what happened during the

asian cup what the country victories has done is really is as much a sporting achievement as it is a political achievement in the narrow band of soccer of football politics but also in the broader band of geopolitics and feet first role in that has been on both levels because it in a sense what you have is that sports and politics are inextricably interlinked and that has become nowhere more clear then in the gulf over the last twenty months because of the rift among the various gulf states. to which they increasingly play right muffet coming back to you in because you've got firsthand knowledge haven't you of the system that's been put in place here in cata because this this special team hasn't come about through accident has it there's been a lot of investment made over time starting not even with this amir but with his

father you know i think of the asian games i think that will host the young two thousand and six where i think the key moments for the strategy of qatar using sport for development and for. you know for in and also in terms of elite sport development and though we have now in qatar a system in place where you have you know the all the in all the. kind of the stakeholders working together in or so you have aspire academy that are in or providing all the the coaching and the techniques and you know helping in developing the kind of the skills and also you have a spirit or a more providing the health and in all science provisions and you have other stakeholders in a working together and developing this a system. where amar we see the in all the products of the system with this

national team but not only in football but also in other sports as well and. james you were sort of alluding to the fact that this is more about more than just football which i accept but are you suggesting that katter's participation in the asian cup and its eventual success is actually changed anything in the in terms of the geopolitical situation. well i think what you're going to see years that got us victory is going to escalate the opposition by primarily united arab emirates and saudi arabia to go to hosting the world cup and we've seen a lot of that already over the last several years. but at the same time of course it isn't and enhanced got just position because what got out of the way got a will play this is to say that it as before and despite that it has the resilience to reform. to perform despite the diplomatic and economic boycott that has been

opposed on it and that it didn't it has the sort of football culture of the for the performance to host the world cup indeed let's look forward ten to twenty twenty two rob and as has already been mentioned it it does put castro in a very good position doesn't it. deals with a lot of the criticism which suggested that castle was not particular footballing nation and this is a victory that is being celebrated around the arab world which of course twenty twenty two is meant to be as well well or perhaps not in all parts there of world some of the newspapers in dubai and headlines such as unlucky japan loses the final no reference even sick to catherine those headlines so just shows how the diplomatic and political discord actually spills over into the sports pages and i think just when we thought and reviewed the organization is quite stable for the twenty to twenty two world cup fever and its president johnny fanciness seem to

term into metal with it to try to tart of self in this role as peacemaker he said he wants to try to ensure other countries in the region have games at the world cup even though cats are one that vote in two thousand and ten i think he's looked at what the i.o.c. president thomas park achieved with the winter olympics last year bring in the careers together and seize a role himself to be something more than just a sport. the minister aides say he sees himself as having this ability to bring countries together where perhaps the politicians have not succeeded so far so i think that is going to be that the big issue in the coming months does in favor and in france you know try to force games in twenty twenty two on other countries in terms of certainly going against what cats are right in the eyes of the tournament want. that's an interesting point rob put it to james because currently fee freeze is looking at a feasibility study as to whether or not to expand twenty twenty two from the

thirty odd of the thirty two teams to forty eight in if that were to be the case that would involve the participation of other countries in the reason i those countries who are currently blockading cata how complex how how plausible is this as an idea given the current situation if i can take what rob said a step further i think the notion that forcing the c.i. a situation which got there would have to share the hosting rights with other states in the region is tie in and that that would serve to bridge build bridges and. to spark every conciliation process is pie in the sky now whether the infant teano the face of president consciously or unconsciously is doing so in effect he is trying is serving the agenda of both united arab emirates and saudi

arabia in the sense that they would in an ideal situation like the seat got to deprive the hosting rights and if it cannot be deprived of that at least be forced to share the glory and that he's trying to do by eyes or forcing is by forcing a situation which you would have an expansion of the number of competing teams to already be in two thousand and twenty two instead of at the two thousand and twenty six cut as it's scheduled but you do see this effort on a much broader scale for example in the. proposition that jut janeen for tina likes put forward by japanese venture capital fund soft bank which wants to invest twenty five billion dollars in fee for and to. create two new comp. fissions and that again is part of a greater effort but quickly on the part of the se but to a lesser degree on the part of the emmy rowdies to enhance their influence within

global soccer governance and the salary efforts to allow it not be politically successful right ok we're mahfood asking you now because you'll hear how the caches feel then about the prospect of this increase in the number of teams participating in twenty twenty two and of course the prospect of of possibly sharing matches in the world cup event with other countries. i think so far in all they are going with the in or the idea that this violence you know the two thousand and twenty two is going to be a horse that by qatar and on the qatar and that's the you know on the basis that there would be the holes and of course in all of the events being promoted as being the fifa world cup not only for qatar but for the whole region but when it comes to you know the to the the delivery they already know invested a lot in terms of meeting all the requirements of the farm there have been many

visits of before on the basis that all the events will take place here in qatar but of course you know the we don't know what will happen in next four years i hope that we hope we all hope that you know this in all kinds of conflicts will be resolved very soon and maybe this maybe some good signs in or have been for the social media day a could see many saudis an emeritus were celebrating the success of qatar in one because you know of the end of the day this is you know a team in our team from the goal from the region that won this shortly by when it comes to showing in all the some of the much as or in terms of co-hosting i mean that's i think it's too soon to say anything about it right now i mean the qatari in the organizers are you know are going to. for these events to take place you know in qatar with the whole but the borders will be open and will be in all. of history beautiful more only for qatar but for the whole region and also an

opportunity for the visitors to come and see how qatar has advanced in terms of its development using sports as one of the means rides and gains a little bit early sounded just a tiny bit cynical as to what the measure of asian could be behind fief is particularly germany inventiveness. desire should we say to expand the number of teams taking place and indeed to spread the glory of the world cup do you feel that it's just a complete pipe dream that spreading the love if you like spreading football can actually build bridges where politics and diplomacy count well first of all i think that. it did i am a bit cynical about journey in france he knows approach. i think he has been doing the bidding of others but on top of that the notion that. soccer or football can be

a driver of bridge building is simply not brought borne out by history with other words if you have an environment in the gulf in which for tightness we're looking for a way of building bridges then football can make a contribution however football is not going to be the vehicle that's going to commit convince others to change the political stance and and suddenly look for reconsideration and just to give you an example out of history we can go back to one nine hundred fourteen christmas when the brits and the germans in world war one declared a cease fire for twenty four hours to play a soccer game as subsequently for you it was killed millions of people and the same is true going back to the two thousand and seven iraqi winning of the asian cup which brought together people in the streets of baghdad at a time of heightened sic tarion violence for twenty four hours and they then went

back to kill each other behind ok well rob if the beautiful game doesn't have the power of reconciliation embedded in it looking forward ten to twenty twenty two do you foresee that for that there will be obviously there will be negative and that that have an impact if the blockade is still in place just in terms of logistics and holding the world cup here. yes i think obviously and the mass influx of fans that cattles never seen before would be a serious and significant impact impact on the country and i think many thought the burden would be eased by the fact fans could stay in dubai fly in for games for instance and fly out again and help to ease in that logistical burden so that will be one of the challenges if you can't fly in directly as we saw the fact the cattle team can even fly directly to abu dhabi for the asian cup they have to fly via q.a. i think one of the other issues that hasn't been touched on in terms of this

co-hosting plan that jonny fantino is trying to introduce in the region at this point i made when i interviewed him fancy you know in october given all the human rights scrutiny of cattle in the advances that cattle has had to make in the plans put forward would he also improve request human rights strategies from new co-hosts in the region and would there be the need for them to sort of make some of the changes that cats are has had to to abide by fief is requests and that would be another layer of complexity in terms of spreading the co-hosting and spreading the hosting of the tournament and the games clearly you can see where they go and please continue james. i just wanted to take this one step further with just if that indeed the economic and diplomatic boycott of got that were to continue at the time of the world cup in qatar this is going to be a real problem for for the saudis the button

a nice the end the rowdies because they're set and citizens at this point run a risk if they were to travel to gattaca so you will have for the first time a world cup in them in the arab world and in the gulf of which citizens of the major countries would be barred and that probably is going to force a situation in which the south but he's the governor he's about raise would have to breach their own boycott because otherwise this would create domestic issues. alright and coming back to my food all of this. political tension this regional rivalries taking the shine some was off what is an exceptional development. achievement in terms of cattle or its commitment to sport and indeed its football success i'm particularly taken by the fact that i think cafés any country in the world that has a national sports day which underlines its commitment i think what is interesting

now the national sports day has been taken over by other countries neighboring countries and there's been and now it's we have national sports there i think in the us maybe saudis or saudi arabia are also thinking of having the similar events yeah i think sports is you know is unique here in qatar it's. you know one of the pillars i would say of in or in all of development in the country in terms of using sports as a means of looking for other to diversify the economy in terms of sports for development spoil is of the heart of the how the city is now is being reshaped and redesigned in all. in all it's quite unique in the in the here in qatar and maybe that's why other countries in neighboring countries are maybe trying to maybe apply

this the similar system of using sport as a means for development of course you are in qatar they have been one of the. then the sudan port and so on the power of sports may be earlier than other countries in the arab world and perfectly in the region saudi arabia is also mao is more open to this idea of having you know using in all the kind of the capitalizing on the on sports and more as a means for development there so i think about will in or even in the other parts of the arab. are things that would be particular to the elite sports system cut or maybe twenty two. votes in on terms of you know trying to use it as a best practice and rob judge from from what you've seen in terms of katter's footballing performances in the asian cup how much how much of an improvement have you noticed how far they're footballing credentials

burnished now by their for performance and obviously looking forward to twenty twenty two what do you how do you rate their chances or the made the world stand up when they be switzerland a few months going to friendly and that was pretty noteworthy victory in the fact it's quite a young team that won the asian cup shows that much not many years of progress ahead of them i think what many people looking at will a big name coach be brought in to manage the team at all michael emerson name and perhaps what might put cattle off that is the fact the big name coaches who are in charge of teams in this tournament like licky and eriksson did not do well at all so that's the question do they stick with we what they've got or do they still bring in the big names or joe summary now in cattle the other week doing some television punditry and it's all about now how the team progresses and that big challenge will be in the summer because they're going to be playing in the copper america the south american championship and in the group state of argentina so that's going to be one of the challenges that will show just where the teams are ok

james i think we're going to get the last word to you because you've written a book called the turbulent world of middle east soccer is the turbulent world of middle east soccer any less turbulent today following this amazing victory on the part of cattery football. i think the turbulence is going to be different from the time that i wrote the book and that was. referring to the popular approach of two thousand and eleven but in terms of turbulence itself i think you're going to see greater rather than less turbulence all right thank you all very much indeed gentlemen mahfood. here in doha james dorsey in amsterdam and rob paris in london thank you all very much indeed and as ever if you want to see this program again you can go to the website al-jazeera dot com if you want more discussion as perhaps you might you can get our facebook page facebook dot com for slash a.j.

inside story there's always a to us as fair as well our handle is at a.j. inside story i'm at martine dennis from the whole team here in doha thank you for watching international. as politicians in washington the fights are over the border wall we talked to the people at the center of the story many of them just said oh no it's very dangerous ghosts and already guns are there and it's not it's a very safe place migrants smugglers and people who live along the border. are all

just zero. when the news breaks a few minutes ago we were able to hear a huge explosion fifty people are still missing when people who need to be hurt and the story needs to be told we need to invest in development of nuclear invest in making sure the people are not left behind al-jazeera has teams on the ground join us for this historic step in american politics to bring you more award winning documentaries and life moves on and on line in recent years the sawhill of north africa has witnessed the so-called war on terror. but is this official narrative. masking a larger battle. a battle for the earth's natural resources. shadow war in the sahara on al-jazeera.

you stand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world. al-jazeera. al-jazeera. for the back to go this is a news hour live from i had coming up in the next sixty minutes donald trump says

military intervention in venezuela is an option as an e.u. deadline to embattled president nicolas maduro drolls closer yemen's warring sides hold talks as the u.n. tries to salvage a fragile cease fire in need for teaching for city of new data also this hour israel begins construction of a controversial barry allen long the gaza border and i'm peter simmons with all the day's sport it's super bowl sunday fans of the new england patriots and los angeles rams of taking over the city of atlanta and all of the big game ben will play to this new zone. thank you for joining us u.s. president donald trump has said that sending the military to venezuela is an option in an interview with c.b.s. news e also said he has turned down

a meeting with venezuela's president nicolas maduro adore meanwhile has offered to hold early part of entry elections as he fights demands to resign but is rival one is demanding a presidential vote and e.u. deadline for my door to call new elections is due to expire on sunday. well here's requested a meeting and i turned it down because we're very far along in the process you have a young and energetic gentleman but you have other people within that same group that have been very very. if you talk about democracy or democracy in action or here's a latin america. with more from. the european union's deadline is almost up for president nicolas maduro to decide to hold free and internationally supervised elections presidential elections in the very very short term or the e.u. will recognize as the interim president i don't think there's much of

a mystery about which way this is going to go because president has already said emphatically that he will not accept quote blackmail or being bullied by these arrogant europeans those are work his words and so we're at a stalemate right now and probably on the verge of seeing yet more countries join those who recognize wide all as the interim president of this country however europe is being very careful about promising to impose sanctions economic sanctions they have said they're willing to do so on individuals members of the government but not blanket economic sanctions like the kind of the united states is is putting on the government because they say that that will hurt ordinary people and not the government and i saw speaks a christian in washington d.c. christian president says he's not ruling out sending the military did he give any indication on what else the u.s. is going to do to help the opposition leader in venezuela. the president was very

light on specifics when it comes to venezuela merely reiterating what his cabinet officials have been saying since the united states first put its support behind opposition leader. as the legitimate leader of venezuela he did say that all options are on the table including the military option as his cabinet officials have been saying but he declined to specify what would justify intervention on the part of the united states when asked and he did say that he had turned down an opportunity to meet with nicolas maduro the act the president of venezuela. in recent months. and that the process was moving along and it was very far along in the process and he was pressed as to whether he would meet with him in the future and perhaps try to convince him to step down and he never really answered the question again very very light on specifics we have been hearing from national security advisor john bolton however that the united states is ready to

deliver aid to venezuela bolton said in a tweet that they were mobilizing and ready to transport medicine surgical supplies and nutritional supplements the problem is majority has refused any aid so far raising the question of how the united states plans to get this aid into venezuela the international committee of the red cross has cautioned that going in there without an agreement with national security forces who are still aligned with mr doro would be very risky thank you for that christian salumi life force in washington d.c. let's speak some more about this now to robert valencia who's a journalist at global voices and is following developments closely from rio de janeiro he's via skype from rio thank you robert for being with us on al-jazeera so donald trump says he's not ruling out sending the military to venezuela and the european union has given an ultimatum to my dural to call new elections the international pressure is clearly growing on the embattled president but it doesn't

seem to be working so far he's rejected calls for new elections what do you think it's going to take for him to change his mind. well i think more international pressure and i believe that the new sanctions are worse that wish last week in terms of oil price up the author of the stop french oil purchase from the united states the halting of it will definitely be take a toll i mean that's not forget that previous a or b. but as a minister of the state oil company finances. should not be plants so once we start seeing the effects of the sanctions established over this they all will company we might see a change i believe that the only way for this crisis to quell a little bit is to actually sit down with the opposition and that green west a solution and

a call to know elections obviously is not going to go down easily be exceptional what president up on the president. has said that the model will hold out in a matter of hours i don't think that's going to be the case but the opposition is so far refusing outside mediation outside intervention if the e.u. recognises quite do as the interim president does if threatening to do after this deadline expires what would it change to the situation on the ground the dura still has back is on his side including the army. correct now this is a really interesting question because even some members of our being outside of israel or some of the what you call group has representatives of the military in our countries have actually supportive. so little by little we're seeing changes within the military but i didn't mention it's not going to be easy because we're not just talking about the military we're talking about militia power in this way

that we're talking about about we're talking about one million people apparently willing to take their lives on behalf of press for another world i'm afraid that this does not want to go down easily they must be some blotch then i think that's the scenario that we all want to avoid but there are other interests at stake i'm sure but we've heard before the intelligence officials in venezuela are around by chance and humans at yes this is what political prisoner points out it told me during an interview last year so it's not going to go down that you say yeah especially with china and russia backing maduro and trump saying he's not ruling out military intervention though he might be just talking on the fly for now are we looking at a potential flashpoint another foot ten szell flashpoint between russia and the u.s. a venezuela this time. absolutely i think we're talking about a new tug of war between two between two are lies between two or more always i

would say i would say the current powers in the world the united states and russia we are seeing the same shrug well that has happened in syria and now is one of be moved into men as well as let's remember what happened a couple of months ago when russia sent two bombers to nuclear barbour's near the shores of venezuela and not too far from the united states so i think that this is going to be a new struggle about the balance of power. we'll see how this is going to go down but i'm afraid that there's no clear path with the exception of finally sitting down and decide when the next elections are going to say plates thank you for your thoughts thank you very much for inside robert valencia joining us say from rio de janeiro. yemen's warring sides are holding talks aboard a boat in the red sea trying to salvage the cease fire in who data the meeting between the saudi u.a.e. bat's government and hoofy rebels has been ted by the un's outgoing monetary tied

dutch general patrick comet the sides are discussing how to implement a peace agreement reached in sweden last year it calls for a withdrawal of forces from her data which is home on the crucial sea port city. yemen extensively has the details the chances for a breakthrough in the jose the talks slow for the simple reason that the who things are not willing to hand over control of the city and the ports to government forces say that they are willing to withdrawal. only when and if local authorities of how they are themselves take over something which is rejected by the government the government of the president i will also have he says it's the only jessamine authority in the m.n. and therefore it's the one which must take control of the city and this poses a day limit for the united nations of the u.n. envoy martin wolf it's because in the deal in our last in sweden in december

it's work about three angles a ceasefire agreement which still holds despite the fact that it's fragile a prisoner exchange deal which has not been achieved yet and the redeployment or the withdrawal of the host of fighters which is not happening if that doesn't work the deal could collapse if you collapses it means that the fighting for control of her day there will resume and that could lead to a massive disruption of the food imports coming to yemen from the port of her data which means that millions of yemenis will be severely affected. pope francis has just arrived in the united arab emirates the first visit by the leader of the roman catholic church in the arabian peninsula these are the latest pictures coming to us from abu dhabi before arriving in the u.a.e. the pope appealed for an end to the war in yemen so francis those involved in the

conflict to respect the cease fire in who data a human rights watch released an open letter to the pope saying he should use his visit to press the u.s. government to end violations in yemen part of it the u.s. plays a prominent role in the saudi led coalition's military operations in yemen since march twenty fifteen the coalition has indiscriminately bombed homes markets and schools impeded the delivery of humanitarian aid and used widely banned nations human rights watch has documented nearly ninety apparently unlawful coalition attacks some of them likely war crimes. and israel has begun building a new battery a long its border with gaza when finished the fence will be sixty five kilometers long and six meters high almost three hundred palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured in months of protests along the current border harry fawcett has more from west.