shazam e joining the revolution. he went on to fight in iran iraq war of the nineteen eighties hundreds of thousands were killed and maimed among them mohammed raises younger brother hammy the razer. aswell as you know our belief in personal sacrifice for the revolution is for our spiritual leaders says we are the victorious ones because our enemies cannot put pressure on us militarily they are doing it economically and culturally. mohammad reza says he's against moderates in government and believes foreign influence is to blame for economic problems outside of a city festooned with the colors of the islamic republic of iran many people now speak openly about economic hardship. but forty taxi driver a no older reza is as old as the revolution he says he can't pay his bills i mean

what a man has no matter how much he cut back on my spending i can make both ends meet i'm distraught i've got two children aged eight and thirteen for decades since the revolution of a population of more than eighty million and there's a big gap than ever between the rich and the poor the economic situation getting worse and made much more critical by the u.s. sanctions has led to high youth unemployment and inflation increasing by the day that's leading to subdued anger in many parts of iran. it's likely to get worse for the people before it gets better reimposed u.s. sanctions are now forcing more countries to stop importing oil from iran its main driver for growth we spoke to some iranians who say people have to show resilience . that the issue has to be so we should all have the same goal we should.

revolution from being. before he finishes speaking a bystander interrupts with her view of the revolution i don't know about but here it has driven us to dismiss ari and poorer tea people are poor and they have nothing left. young people in this crowded setting talk of leaving iran once they've graduated from university this twenty year old plans to move to canada to work as a nurse i don't see my future here i don't think i can find a good job most of a rainy and want to. immigrate. the divide between an often stoic older generation and younger people has undoubtedly grown since mama razor and others brought down a monarchy but he insists nothing can break the spirit of iran's revolution. some other was from the president that the united states would like he said the

role of iran in the region is more prominent than any time in history without iran know by and nobody can implement anything in this region the arrogant americans and israelis should know that so certainly no all of branch from this president and now we're awaiting in a few days time a meeting a summit effectively in warsaw of the u.s. and other allies in europe to discuss the middle east that hasn't been any invitation to iran this summit has been dubbed in its early stages an anteroom summit iranian leadership here saying that this was a hostile act and shouldn't be taking place russia is boycotting it what will be discussed it remains to be seen but the united states is on happy with your up in the way it's trying to keep sanctions at a live through means of trading a trade deal with iran and this is putting a lot of tension in the white house and indeed the state department there's

a lot more to come this is not an easy situation a landmark moment in this crisis ok anderson and thank you. still ahead on al jazeera egypt's president takes over as chairman of the african union we'll have a report coming up from at this hour we'll also be speaking to an activist on the plight of the weekers after seventeen australian residents disappear in china. hello nothing extreme here to talk about the real low temp is a hostile hidden up here somewhere but where most people live the middle of winter now for example the korean peninsula in japan sees a few showers a snow every now and again but largely it's fine is frosty by night and not so by the way although pyongyang struggles to get above freezing and beijing remains

below freezing and quality of course being the major problem here but for the japanese islands not the reason turkey is very typical every now and again the cloud bank comes in that light north westerly wind supporters manas six fairly typical to be honest for february there's a little bit of cloud and therefore rain in the middle of china come back from shanghai and you see the transition from rain to snow south that is fine hong kong's probably enjoyable and twenty three twenty five degrees even with a fairly dry breeze and northeast not much in the way of cloud in the sky maybe the morning mist then largely clear skies well as answer thailand vietnam laos and even the philippines very few showers here very few through borneo but soon away seeing job pick up again and if you're in singapore daily shasta in a likely event at this time of the year and the eastern side is sumatra that's also true on peninsula malaysia in fact is even a possibility still of shower in bangkok.

take the worst possible material eurabia grounded into dust. and make up the law and put it into place where people think these are. just. so many people here this is the silent he. doesn't make you feel like a movie we have created an enormous. disaster. and investigation south africa toxic city on al-jazeera. hello again the top stories on al-jazeera the acting u.s. defense secretary is on

a surprise visit to afghanistan. and is meeting military and. to discuss national security issues the united states isn't negotiations to end the seventeen year war iran's president hassan rouhani says the country will continue to expand its ballistic missile program he has been addressing tens of thousands of people to mark the fortieth anniversary of the islamic revolution. seventeen australian residents are believed to have been detained in china a spark of a crackdown on the muslim minority activists say the individuals were visiting relatives when they were arrested about a million we are believed to be held in camps against their will china's government though says the camps are voluntary and designed to stamp out extremist tendencies the australian government says it's not aware of any residents being held in china andrew thomas has more from sydney. there are about three thousand chinese people of the week at this is he here in australia and i spoke to the representative of

that community on monday and she's told me that while she's very reluctant to go public with her concerns she feels she's getting nowhere behind closed doors with the australian government she's concerned about seventeen we get chinese people living in australia either on spouse visas or his permanent residence here in australia those are people who've returned to china for short holidays and then disappeared initially that had their passports confiscated and then they've just gone off the radar people in their families here just do not know what has happened to them and they say they've been asking a straight in government to find out what's happened to them whether even they're alive or dead for some months and they're just not getting on says the lady i've spoken to says that if these were australian citizens rather than permanent residents then she thinks a lot more would be done she says she's spoken to people in the u.s. state department who say that if they were u.s. residents the u.s. state department would have done a lot more to find out what was going on but she doesn't think enough is being done

by camera to find out what has happened to these people let's return or girl who's an advocate for a week or as in australia she's joining us from canberra thanks for speaking to us and the australian government has now responded to al-jazeera saying we're not aware of any australian citizens currently detained in jang and for privacy reasons we will not comment on specific cases or responses what do you make of the government's response. good. evening just in camera first of all the difference between citizen and the resident seventeen case. is not. due to residence. hall chinese passport with a permanent residence a visa huge to that passport and for out of that

seven there's a spouse wheezes which is they can have multiple entry of rights to land any time whenever they feel and live when they arrested or detained they were actually in on their short trip back to china. that's a different from what that which is depart for enough a of state of as a citizens yes it's correct they are not citizens but they are permanent residency and the chinese citizens with their spouse issued by a strong government ok thanks for the clarification on that but how difficult is generally to confirm the fates of anyone how old in these camps given the secretive nature of the. anyone who held inside

a camp or with a life or did it or how they were being is a chance easier. for those families whose willing to go public or not willing to go the very exactly the same they do not. worry about some of their relatives is a when they got detained and taken in of course china says that these camps are voluntary from the people that you speak to what can you tell us about what goes on inside the camps of the treatment for we better help there. which is not true at the camp and a detention center that's not while i'm sure it's involuntary and it's force and all the people who have spoken to. their family who actually. is a trip back to china back to. a region which it was c.t.'s with

it's a norse. the moment they landed. in a question. to short stay in detention. confiscated then taken into detention and in some cases only person actually allowed to leave the. interrogation room. they get arrested few weeks even months after arrival to relatives or parents so it's a case where a case is very different but in terms of where it's by force or voluntary involuntary my answer is by force it's involuntary it's taking in a by state police in awareness someone is taken by state police and the covered with the. face is completely covered up and also.

doesn't look like that's a voluntary all right. we'll leave it there we thank you very much for speaking to us from camera. nicolas maduro is vowing to defend venezuela against any attacks the president says his soldiers are ready to fight the u.s. and the rest if it's enemies and zero has appeared on state television with his vice president and defense minister he was at military exercises in the northern state. today the most important military exercises that our republican history recalls have been successfully initiated throughout the national territory the most important because of the situation we are living in a real threat from the imperialist government of donald trump against the peace of venezuela the head of the empire has threatened us and that is generated indignation rejection by all the people of venezuela and of the world public opinion. of the opposition leader. to stop aid getting into venezuela are

a crime against humanity tons of food and medicine sent from the u.s. has been stuck at the colombian border since thursday as well as military has refused to let it in under orders from the president nicolas maduro says the aid is part of a u.s. ploy to remove him from power why doses he'll use volunteers to open new ways to get that aid in saudi arabia says it doesn't know where the body of murdered journalist as he is in an interview on u.s. television the minister of state of foreign affairs says the kingdom is still investigating bad accuses turkey of not sharing intelligence he was killed in october in the saudi consulate in istanbul. where is jamal khashoggi body we don't know what do you mean you don't know we don't know they said that the prosecutor is working to try to establish this fact we have asked for evidence from turkey and he

asked them several times formally through formal legal channels to provide evidence we are still waiting to receive any of them saying they have thailand's election commission is expected to rule on whether the king's older sister can run for prime minister next month's election the thai rock such our party announced princess over the arts as its candidate on friday the royal palace described the breaking of tradition as unconstitutional and inappropriate when he has more from bangkok. officially the election campaign is only a few days old already it has been very eventful end on monday the election commission is likely to rule that princess is ineligible to be the prime ministerial candidate for the thai rocks a charge party the party made that shocking announcement on friday morning that she would be the candidate to become prime minister in the march twenty four election and later on friday night the palace responded with a very strongly worded statement saying that this was unconstitutional that it was

inappropriate because while she gave up her royal title back in one thousand nine hundred seventy two to she married a commoner and a foreigner she's still very much part of the family and therefore has to adhere to the traditions the protocols the rules surrounding the monarchy so it would really be unimaginable that the election commission would go against the wishes of the palace if it makes its decision on monday this party could also be dissolved because of this although we're unlikely to hear any more news about that on monday because that would have to go through the constitutional court also in what's being seen as a tit for tat move a member of that thai rocks a chart party is on monday going to submit a request to the election commission that the candidacy of the current prime minister. who led the coup in two thousand and fourteen is also ineligible because he continues to hold

a government office he refuses really to back down while the election campaign is on and take on a caretaker role so according to this member of the thai rak to chart party he should also be ruled ineligible to be the candidate for another party. it's the final day of the african union summit in ethiopia's capital egypt's president has sisi has taken over as chairman of the group from rwanda's president paul kagame a welcome what has more from this. well in sunday's closed session they talked entirely about peace and security in the peace and security council presented their report on all member state to african heads of state who had gathered and it included sections that were critical of the actions of the governments of the room the and camorra in their respective political crises both of those countries requested those sections to be removed from the report but they failed to get that done but ultimately it is just a report so there is no action expected to come out of it now in the coming hours

heads of state are due to arrive in on today's agenda the climate change migration also president mohamed hari nigeria is due to report on the african union fighting corruption that was the last theme now according to the african union's own figures about one hundred forty billion dollars lost every year in africa to corruption that's about a quarter of the continent g.d.p. and the didn't result in any binding agreements nothing that could ultimately lead toward the prosecution of anyone in any of the member states and observers pretty much agreed that that amounted to nothing much more than a talking point. the headlines on al-jazeera the acting u.s. defense secretary is on a surprise visit to afghanistan patrick shanahan is meeting with the military and

president ashraf ghani to discuss national security issues the united states is a negotiations to end the seventeen year war and the u.s. is likely to start pulling its troops out of syria in a few weeks the trumpet ministration has so far been sending mixed messages on the timing but his top commander in the middle east says it all depends on how things pan out on the ground iran's president hassan rouhani says the country will continue to expand its been listed missile program he's been addressing tens of thousands of people to mark the fall. we have anniversary of the islamic revolution nationwide commemoration started on fabry the first marking the day i tell the ruhollah khomeini returned from exile in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine oh yes so today in order to make different types of missiles we are not getting permission from anybody and we will not ask permission from anyone to build them our military power it will continue and i would like to make it clear to you the iranian nation that our military power over the last forty years and specifically

over the past five has been shown to the whole world and has surprised them saudi arabia says it doesn't know where the body of murdered journalist she is in an interview on u.s. television the minister of state of foreign affairs says the kingdom is still investigating a bad accuses turkey if not sharing intelligence was killed in october in the saudi consulate in istanbul where is jamal khashoggi body we don't know what do you mean you don't know we don't know they said that the the prosecutor is working to try to establish this fact we have asked for evidence from turkey and he asked them several times formally through formal legal channels to provide evidence we are still waiting to receive any of them seem to have it's the final day of the african union summit in ethiopia's capital in egypt's president of the fatah has sisi has taken over as chairman of the group from rwanda's president paul kagame may it marks the end of code gamez reformist tenure at the helm of the organization

this year is focused as refugees and internally displaced people those are the latest headlines on al-jazeera inside story is up next so stay with us. african leaders are in ethiopia for the annual african union summit this is seen as refugees and displaced people for the continent faces challenges including conflict and poverty so will the aid you find and cannot reform itself this is inside story.

welcome to the program. the african union was created to harness a sense of unity and to tackle common problems but it's face criticism that it doesn't do enough to protect its citizens from conflict and corruption the age has declared twenty nine t. in the year of refugees return these and internally displaced persons with the goal of finding what it calls durable solutions to the vast problem so with that in mind leaders from fifty five countries across the continent are in the ethiopian capital for their annual summit on sunday egypt's president of the c.c. will take over as chairman and the international warns that has tenure could undermine the use commitments to protecting human rights we'll bring in our guests in a moment but first malcolm webb sets up a discussion from ababa. here at the african union in ethiopia's capital

this a barber african leaders they do to discuss the plight of refugees and displaced people across the continent the more than twenty million people in africa who've been forced from their homes that includes and leave this place people will say refugees those who've crossed borders into neighboring countries while some are able to set up new lives many more are stuck in camps where conditions are squalid they depend on humanitarian aid often there's a shortage of food in many cases people aren't free to move around their host countries also some of those camps are very safe people are at risk from armed groups or from the security agents of the governments involved in the conflict from where they fled as the states are meant to talk about if that was the theme for the year ahead here at the african union is not likely to result in any kind of binding agreement africa's displaced people probably aren't going to get anything concrete

out of this summit anytime soon african union doesn't have a particularly strong track record in preventing or intervening in the conflicts and the political crises that cause people to flee their homes in the first place but among the other things that are expected to be discussed by leaders here are the recent disputed elections in the democratic republic of congo and also the implementation of the october peace agreement for south sudan between rebels and the government malcolm webb the inside story. well let's take a look at some of the numbers from the u.n. now africa has more than twenty six percent of the walls refugee population that had an estimated six point three million refugees and fourteen point five million internally displaced people of the end of twenty seventeen that number increase last year with one hundred seventy thousand new refugees and more than two million newly displaced people there are more refugees from south saddam than anywhere else in africa and uganda sudan and ethiopia are among the top ten refugee hosting

countries in the world it's. well over to the panel now joining us from nairobi is a k n a executive director of the pan african citizens network joining us on skype from capetown astonish and i do research at the institute for global dialogue that's a south african think tank and in london we have michael moore visiting fellow at the photos largely center for africa at the london school of economics a very warm welcome to all of you miss a k n a it is the theme of this year's african union summit so how serious is the african union about looking after refugees. i don't think the african union is a serious as it can be about looking after refugees we have had refugee protocol since the sixty's and yet over the years rather than encourage refugee protection.

protection seems to have gotten worse there was a time where there was a pride in hosting. africa's refugees there was a prize there was a pride in hosting people who had to flee from their countries it was considered as a core aspect of an african ism but lately refugees are trapped stranded in camps for tens of years you know how decades and this is just unacceptable there is no move by. african countries to integrate refugees and to ensure that they are able to live lives of dignity miss niger what do you think about that has protection for refugees actually decreased in the previous decades and is this summit with the same of refugees and internally displaced people a good start. to address that i think what my colleague nairobi has pointed out

is definitely an acute sense of the problem i think the challenge for the african union in terms of trying to move forward on what has become a critical policy issue for the continent in terms of protection of refugee rights protection of internally displaced persons as well as individuals who are fleeing for for a variety of reasons i think they haven't been managed to keep a kind of a sense of trying to keep having a balance with it because i think what has happened over the years is that the protection of refugees and the so-called individuals who are fleeing because of a variety of systemic risk that they feel in their home countries i think they feel more vulnerable as well in refugee camps or internally displaced persons camps and so forth and i think on that in that context what happens is that there hasn't been a kind of balance with regard to where the e.u. wants to see policy and what is the implementation of

a strategy at the national level by sovereign states and i think the challenge for the a you in going forward is trying to have a continental policy that can be implemented by member states which hasn't necessarily been taken up so we do have for example i think. the idea of putting it onto the agenda making it the theme of the summit yes really interesting important however i think the challenge with you is that. the way in which this has been playing out in the continent hasn't necessarily kept up to see. in holland national governments have reported have actually implement this and i think it also creates another dilemma for the you and that is what is the absorptive capacity of the host countries like uganda and so forth and i think that's the bigger challenge and then the final point i want to make is that you know you can't separate the questions around with reforming and moving the the humanitarian part of it out of the

political commission into the social economic commission of the e.u. doesn't address the problem i think it's much more systemic and much more systematic sure and before we talk you know more about the systematic reasons for internally displaced people and for refugees i do want to bring michael imo and now on the points that both of you have been making mr elmore do you think that this summit can achieve this pan african you know continental policy towards refugees and internally displaced people and get the fifty five nations to adopt whatever it is they come up with that's lot of unity required. i think that the most important thing to do is to try and address or tackle the key course or the fundamental cause of conflicts and for that matter displacement in the first place the main cause of conflict and displacement on the continent is to

do if heads of state stay in there for longer than necessary and so long as you've got heads of state extending the presidential term limits and been there for a long time conflicts will not cease and displacement will not cease and i think that the moment of the african union is considering the e.u. reform only situational reform it will be a key time to perhaps look at ways and means of being able to tackle this for example i mean generally most heads of state would not want to be sanctioned on that so you probably are thinking of getting the consent of or heads of state and government to erect a new superstructure body over and above head of heads of state that would have monday tree powers to do with extensions to presidential limits yeah and i think that new superstruct a body may be able to sort this out i can see both miss i can and miss neither

wanting to come in on this. kind of what would you like to say i mean how realistic is it to implement sort of presidential term limits on national governments from an international body in a continent where as mr armor said extending presidential rule is very common and is one of the key reasons for conflicts on the continent. i agree that this is important but i don't think we need necessarily a super structure i think the african union already has the tools with which it can use to bring a country back into. the real more of democracy and governance the african chatter on democracy elections and governance gives a very good. blueprint which the african union should be able to use for

countries that engage in what is called unconstitutional change of government and that requires that any country that changes or doesn't change its. will leadership. in a manner that respects a culture of democracy should have functions well and then again. have in the past is that blueprint working and if it's not how much of a reason is that all the conflicts that we're seeing across the continent and then the displacement of people the internally displaced people and refugees. well the blueprint works when they wanted to work i mean we saw very well when you tried to extend his term limit despite the fact that he lost elections we saw echo us which is the which has primacy in terms of dealing with situations of peace and security on the country and in the west african region we saw echo us take

a very firm stand particularly president and he sought endorsement of his actions by the african union and the u.n. and he successfully managed to stop. me from continuing to to to to hold power unconstitutionally but then we look at the other side of the continent and we see burundi and that is that again community completely failing to be able to sort out the crisis the political crisis in burundi and so i think it works when they wanted to work it doesn't work when the there just don't have the commitment to making it work this night or what do you make of what mr armor said you know how much of a problem behind you know the cause of refugees and internally displaced people is the president's actually staying on for too long on the continent and if a superstructure is not the answer then you know then what is to address the underlying issues which cause a.