if the shift in looking over there will work in. order to know. the. little i knew all about that i don't have the money that sort of thing. for ibrahim this videophone during the attack was proof enough. you can make out a falling bomb. log it was confirmed that only the syrian army and such helicopters. ibrahim was convinced that he had a strong enough case to trigger american intervention and end the war. a few weeks later he met with officials from the united nations. one of the officials now lives in sweden. to.

focus telstra vividly remembers that drawing. an expert in non conventional weapons he was mandated by the un to investigate the use of chemical weapons in syria at the time. his team worked on sixteen alleged attacks including the one inside a key guy we were met a number of people among them was a prime. showed us an admired mount a work and a moment to information in school for thinking he was smart very smart and had a skinful thinking of how to secure he really aimed at securing the information that he gave us a key skin. in the king. sent all sudden. and. a lot of the

fuselage. in a bra and opinion it was urgent for ten months similar attacks had taken place in rebel held areas ibrahim believed that the regime was testing barack obama that the bombing of their akiba could be a precursor to a larger attack. on august twenty first twenty thirteen his worst fears came true. last i can recall attack killed hundreds of people in a hotel in the suburbs of damascus the majority of casualties were civilians ibrahim's investigation hadn't stopped the massacre from happening but he had one last hope that sells times reports could point a finger towards those responsible the report was issued to the united nations six months later the use of chemical weapons etc and who was confirmed but those

responsible were not named barack obama would not intervene unfortunately all the work that he had carried out we couldn't just take his information and bring that in tora court it was not a phone chain of custody and that means that in the event that was followed could not be guaranteed that all steps was covered from the start on until it reached us or our tape. it was not like a movie field where you have every square in that movie theater but it's there were some cuts in the movie and that is not acceptable in a forensic investigation the video of the helicopter film during the attack was not sufficient to prove that the bombs had been dropped by darts aircraft. only the poisoning of mariam could be proven thanks to samples taken by his team from the victim's body. but nothing proved that the regime was responsible for the poisoning

the army and the rebels both rejected responsibility furthermore brahim was described as being close to the opposition. and there was share them a can. can ms o'donnell was a phone and of course to the new country been a model in them and us in the water the working the story of that and the. whole we. and they can mold. to how you use and the stock so that they're still in the mold already. will be of us in the things that you've done maybe in the hood to create cost a little more out of the in the. yeah the a getting me for the winter isn't very light and love is a because look to look to have a law that i have to say and the old g.'s c. had a lot of that for nothing but it was not

a brahim is work that was in question but the traceability of the evidence what's more like all those collecting evidence ibrahim is personally involved in the conflict they are all putting themselves in danger to do what only they can do preserve evidence of the syrian charges he was. pro-democracy protests began in march twentieth levon ended up in the south of syria a group of teenagers sprayed revolutionary slogans on the walls of a school they were arrested imprisoned and tortured was was to protest and demand their freedom thousands of civilians took to the streets on the eighteenth of march twenty eighth levon their retaliation by the security forces was bloody faced with this repression they used what they had their mobile

phones they filmed what was happening and shared it on social media. without knowing gets the citizens and then started one of the largest collections of evidence in an ongoing conflict with. despite the flood of images there was condemnation but no intervention. was. on the ground the opposition started to take up arms. as the country plunged into war independent sources of information were by. coming more and more scarce. in turkey western n.g.o.s decided to train syrians to be their eyes and ears on the ground.

they transformed the citizen activists into real investigators to be both professional and neutral. abdul qadeer was one of them. to smack them and i gave him i had sued him and not anyone was having. sex or a. young mother i lost with those you. look back at the whole insanity cafferty up for. today from gaza and tap he leads a team of syrians like ibrahim who bring him videos and physical evidence of attacks against civilians. but you know i thought it was shock was bad if your child wasn't there ok here is one of their first videos filmed during the discovery of one hundred fifty dead bodies in the center of aleppo. syria and there's a new horror but what i just what the man was like

a man as your facts as i meet them themselves never had made their son go but found out then to be a fraud he just. thought mano a mano if. he was doing that today. the video is striking but not convincing images are weapons and can be manipulated to change the course of history like intermission water romania. it was one nine hundred eighty nine these pictures of a mass grave were seen across the world and hastened the fall of the dictator ceausescu the truth these bodies had been dug up from a neighboring cemetery by the opposition and syria is not an exception when it comes to these manipulations. so international organizations require irreproachable traceability mission let. me. feed you and let the. part of. the men in the give to the journal more often.

than a short b m e it a solid if you do it by definition of b. and if you don't and you're so what can we have. for your father's second manny. let. up till called there's teams had to learn how to film a crime scene. leaving their emotions aside. salon that has a cost we still feel is that enough so we're going to have our full would you feel an urge i hate to have to hide it it's just so i might as a good deal. to avoid any suspicion of manipulation the evidence collected in syria is just a matter stripped labelled and sorted in front of a camera abdul qadeer opened up

a parcel coming from aleppo it contained the remains of a missing child that killed twenty five pupils at a primary school. the stock market fell home stosh you don't want to. know and want to know what it will not should i don't have a lot of. other one dollars those i'd share in the cupboard in my hut for the sunday. these images are to guarantee the traceability of the information so that some day it can be used to convict those responsible in a court of law and how it did then did then the fifteenth about my mom and the house and. the. in my heart coming. from my fellow highly i'm glad that. saddam had a. layoff and he had. a ladder.

and he had get away from having him to get on the house up to me to mean. if letting me know i left. for a long time and you always were the only people on the ground collecting evidence of the war crimes committed in syria but in twenty thirteen a dossier endorsed by the opposition claimed to have proof of these crimes. and military defector code named caesar smuggled some fifty three thousand pictures out of syria many of which appeared to be of prisoners tortured to death by the regime. he was a photographer with the military police he claims that until twenty eleven he photographed accident scenes and crimes involving the military. but when the revolution started the bodies photographed by cesar didn't look like

accident victims anymore he alerted sami an activist friend who had been documenting atrocities since the beginning of the revolution sami was at the very heart of the operation agreed to speak on camera so this was his problem. to sort of be suz. so to hold. clearly. an order book. and that really. those are only a mom of other humans and. i know what a little highly. partisan also delicious of. looking the police at mr the mother. i think it was i think your son. i mean.

just two of the to my side on a horse. somebody would lie about the sword. but is that it. would be tough but also he's also going to be talking of all sorts of. other useful sort of ninety three not as many as he is using. for two years there regularly uploaded thousands of photos onto u.s.b. sticks that he passed on to thumb. the pictures show men starved and tortured to death. they appear to be prisoners held in detention centers in damascus. kind of. them to. stop the war fought. a war for years of thirty five and then just kind of. you know all that in the them and these are you know not. a lie and that the these

are warming that was. what should be could be done. here what is we have what we. get out of me or. what i was. in august twenty third team the photographer felt he was under threat the rebels helped him to escape tonight an exclusive new report alleging systematic torture and killing of prisoners by the assad regime. in early twenty fourteen caesar's images were. at least to the media and seen around the world a team of renowned war crimes prosecutors studied the pictures and interviewed caesar to establish authenticity. despite the links with the syrian opposition

the evidence was judged as admissible. in paris the half abuse the director of the french diplomatic service saw the photos they were shown during a meeting at the k. door say eleven foreign affairs ministers were present. in the office so just two you could have walked the dog was it your own. image if you decision or. could it obscure more broader. dollar or. there or. is it day in summer vision mostly all the more. for b.s. your baloney for joe b. a play. be the most. absurd c. . or pong. industry sure you're not.

the books it takes time more for you dylan. cesar's photographs hit a nerve with the french. and so my law is not of the most discreet of course didn't do predict it in wa that which is often said that the left on your plate on ivy league to me that is unfair. given all. claiming their. contact is this of course the purpose you're even demo versus him out city police to our. team. any. yeah. i like honest argument mostly i just do something.

fly qatar airways and experience economy class like never before qatar airways going places together. there is growth in a very short time to be a trusted news source wherever you are in the world he really want to know what's going on there and you can find out very quickly we're not looking at the news from some nations prism. we are probably international everybody will learn something watching our coverage. be sure and that we can be the best international news and most trusted source of stories that people actually can't find elsewhere and that's going to continue. but i'm a tradition every weekly news cycle brings a series of breaking stories and then of course there's donald trump told through the eyes of the world's jannah least that's right out of

a hamas script that calls for the annihilation of israel that is not what that phrase means at all he joined the listening post as we turned the cameras on the media and focused on how they were caught on the stories that matter the most him better use a free palestine a listening post on al-jazeera. they're watching all jews their arms the whole robin and all these are all top news stories because. president says he'll ask for foreign assistance to track international links to sunday's bomb attacks a nationwide emergency is due to come into effect from midnight local time on monday which will give police and the military extensive powers to detain and interrogate anyone without a court order at least two hundred ninety people were killed in the attacks because

health minister says the prime minister and his cabinet were kept in the dark and the security information was not shared evolved in the early going to be the chief of intelligence wrote a letter to the police officials where he mentioned many names of the members of the terrorist organization but those letters have not been copied to the prime minister and the president the prime minister has not been a foreigner but the letters and these revelations in this letter indicates that the leader of to he has planned a series of attacks in this country and the letter also mentions the importance of tightening security of the v.i.p.'s. police in algeria have arrested five billionaires as part of an anti corruption investigation those arrested are said to be close to former president lizzie's buthe sleeker who resigned earlier this month there has been months of protests demanding change the former prime minister and the current finance minister have also been ordered to appear in court. sudan's

military council has ordered people to stop blocking roads and let police do that jobs the warning comes as protesters say they are suspend talks with the council deposed president omar al bashir. this month. and breaking news coming out of the u.s. the white house has announced it'll end waivers to countries importing oil from iran and of course we'll have more on that in the news are in half an hour and iran's president has revealed that he'll develop a joint border falls with pakistan made the announcement after talking to my minister imran khan of pakistan is on a two day official visit to iran. and on group in mali is famous for its ability for an attack that killed sixteen soldiers targeted an army camp in the town again north of the capital bamako early on sunday the military base was reportedly ambushed and burnt to the ground those are the headlines and back with more news in half an hour in the al-jazeera news articles or full update on what's going on from

colombo sri lanka until there. in new york the united nations had to be convinced to refer the case to the international criminal court the i.c.c. previously investigated crimes against humanity war crimes committed in uganda the democratic republic of congo and darfur but there was one obstacle syria is not a member of the i.c.c. an investigation required a unanimous vote of the permanent members of the security council including russia and unwavering ally of damascus when he got up but then. again you say this is your . security and so forth visible not devoting more not your

life as human. don't put that. you. just expects. that complicated boss at that be to see. as you want it could be that you will face the. deception. as a result of bessie. the french diplomatic service was prepared i must warn you that this is a grim session. once again the photographs were shocking. on the twenty second of may the text was submitted for a vote for those collecting evidence it was crucial. it would mean that one day bashar assad could appear before a tribunal. the russians use their veto. for those who support bashar assad cesar's photos did not prove that these crimes were committed by the bathurst

regime. citron even. yet they claim in the early flu didn't see any bullshit this is. good news i revere fair play beloved but if you want to distort misc group or do you foresee which could bore day for the year. but you do know for currently. so that. you have clearly. some sort of looking for you know and the words we make use them and you'll get on the whole beatle. danny and measure me in the most soothing that you know how to hold. your own or you know what i look like of course you go into connecticut and i've been with them i don't comment on both them up and let you know that the my book. the

international community has been powerless since the start of the conflict in syria in june twenty fourth teen the islamic state in iraq and the levant isis announced the creation of an islamic caliphate so. it's already controlled large pieces of territory between iraq and syria. locally known as taoists the armed group was in control of the second largest city in iraq mosul. for months now mohammed has been collecting evidence from inside syria are another matter linda sold out of morsi social. time and i don't see that india cuts a little influence and more to the sea some small off a lot recently. did is do it in eastern syria fell to eisele.

goodness and circle in the dust on that one can tell him what i can and leave off the actual middle of the volunteer been deleted lot and often because even in such human judgement to fix the image on its own we have we are a lot more aware i did and it doesn't want to let those who don't have as also delighted about what i mean didn't develop solid in the end of the journey it was at the walsall night and donate one of. from turkey mohamed collects information that reflects the reality of those living under i saw. the documents that he found so that's men who were banned from shaving their beards and that internet users must register. this man accused of rape. was secretly filmed by sound and pictures an organization

which also records witness statements from prisoners held by i thought medical reports and court decisions the members of sound of pictures have been targeted by i saw. today that if he is on the feet the most that is about and i know said it also pushed him a new trees will call to talk. of a small fee that is the tunnels that go on a small feat to do not in the end be in line and not a second one to obey him can also look been in and out of four in the second and. how does it not unlawful have the saloon humans any. inside syria with so many armed groups in the conflict any organization can be infiltrated every conversation is protected by a code that day if the word cheese was used they had to hang up. on

a hard shell as in. all of that it was here ha. ha ha ha ha ha yeah off to. the conversation is safe the two men can talk but that he does. believe. in mali question how does a lot of things trouble. harness on others. also do not teach or for this horrible more. despite all precautions for activists were assassinated at the end of june twenty fifth. one in syria and three others in turkey with his life under threat mohammad eventually led. four euro. doesn't that

a lot of money was a lot and yeah well i definitely saw lots of religion will tell you that it was stuff but he said he's gone love the innocent even though we have a food dish softly about him because of sylvia behavior that's one minute at least . it's annoying that he shoots would want us alone. in twenty fourteen eisel quickly expanded and gain territory. the group became the focus of the international media not. bashar al assad's crimes were being pushed into the background. this happened in spite of the thousands of civilians who were killed by his forces in july twenty fourth two months after the russian veto the syrian opposition attempted to reserve

rect caesar's dossier. this time they went to the u.s. congress which opposed the military intervention in syria even after the chemical attacks and. a group of republican supported us intervention. evan mcmullan a member of the commission of foreign affairs arranged for caesar the photographer to be interviewed in front of members of congress. we knew that most people in the united states didn't know of us its mass atrocities and the idea was that if americans understood more what exactly atsic was doing if they really understood they would have much more sympathy and they would expect i believe our leaders to do more and especially the president who is our commander in chief and who leads our foreign policy to do more to act to stop assad's. trustees'.

caesar was in hiding afraid of being captured by the syrian secret service and security was very very high very high. on july twenty seventh caesar arrived in the u.s. capital his visit was organized in complete secrecy. the photographer made his way through a maze of underground corey doors to get to the interview room. before entering caesar insisted that all cameras be turned off. we bought. a rain jacket that a blue rain jacket that we that he would wear with the with the hood over his head so that no one could even see the shape of his head. we had caesar's pictures displayed around the hearing room and on the televisions in the hearing room we

displayed pictures that hadn't been released to the press some of the more gruesome . for over an hour american representatives listen to caesar. the shock tactics worked. it isn't often if ever that there are hearings like this in congress. you can't see those pictures and not feel enormous compassion for for the victims and outrage that. there is any human would do this to any other human and even further outrage that that any president of the united states or any other world leader wouldn't take action. to stop these to stop these crimes. and i

think everyone in the room felt the same thing the members of congress the media. and the public the syrian opposition the staff everyone. news of caesar's pictures reached the holocaust memorial museum. the director of the center for the prevention of genocide at the museum decided to exhibit caesar's photographs. this was the first time that we had come into possession on our own of photographs of such a not just a contemporary case but an active case these were photographs that were weeks and months old some of them they were going on as we spoke they were not

a historical event seventy or eighty years ago they were not photographs in black and white these are photographs in full color. that that tell a story that's going on today. it took an allied victory to end the actions of the nazis. barack obama was elected to get u.s. troops out of the middle east he could not take the risk of another military intervention caesar left unable to change u.s. policy. that has been the great disappointment for caesar and and still for everyone involved and i think for humanity. and that we could have someone like caesar come to washington and sit on the world stage and tell the world of these terrible mass atrocities and then have no real response no response not a letter not

a meeting not a speech and certainly not actions to stop the atrocities. the syrian opposition did not obtain any commitment of intervention nor a criminal investigation into the crimes committed by damascus living in europe an ex investigator from the international criminal court noted the paradox of cesar's case that has tremendous emotional and human value it puts. a human face on the documentation on the charges it's a dead human face but it's a human face and that's ultimately i think where we're going to see the value of the season materials but letting the world know what's happening is not the same as putting together a criminal case i'm sorry to be so positive at this positive to mystic about it but we have to. the criminal investigations are not. very

emotional from a criminal investigative point of the point of view it's. it's good it works well with our other material but in and of itself would it make a case against a shot no not at all not at all. in these offices william wiley assembled a team of arabic speaking lawyers for years now they have sorted translated and analyzed documents used by the administration of the syrian regime it's the only way according to him to obtain evidence against a higher ranking officers. on the ground collecting evidence there are around forty investigators working inside syria. and it's now the and it's now the heavy hitting. the list would have to

have us stop. the thought of the film in the midst of to the living. during one of these missions got his hands on documents abandoned by the syrian army. in the midst of war his priority is to secure evidence. that it was minor or with a happy smile. at them of them on the socket of the moment. and i thought. if in a war zone where death and destruction is rampant food and medical care is scarce risking your life for a few pieces of paper can seem trivial. i meant to us in the midst of that and see that. at the. time i thought marchand's. could imagine it.

did not. i would like you to all shuttle program to his straight to the state department in the u.s. why might pump a u.s. secretary of state is discussing iraq let's listen and horrific wave of islamic radical terror bloodshed heart breaking that a country which is strive so hard for peace in recent years has been targeted by these terrorists we mourn the loved ones of the victims some of whom we can confirm were indeed u.s. citizens this is america's fight to i spoke with the prime minister sri lanka this morning and our embassy and other parts of this government are offering all possible assistance to americans and the sri lankan government alike we urge the any evil doers. be brought to justice expeditiously in america is prepared to support that. we also stand with the millions so sri lankans who support the

freedom of their fellow citizens to worship as they please we take confidence in knowing that he not even atrocities like this one will deter them from respecting religious freedom today our nation grieves with the people of sri lanka and we stand committed resolve to confront terrorism together now turning to iran. almost one year ago after withdrawing from the iran nuclear deal president trump implemented the strongest pressure campaign in history against the islamic republic of iran the goal remains simple to deprive the outlaw regime of the funds it has used to destabilize the middle east for four decades and the set of eyes iran to behave like a normal country up to forty percent of the regimes revenue comes from oil sales it's the regimes number one source of cash before sanctions wanted to fact iran would generate as much as fifty billion dollars annually in oil revenue overall to

date we estimate that our sanctions have denied the regime well north of ten million dollars. there's sheehan would have used that money to support terror groups like hamas and hezbollah and continue its. missile development in defiance of u.n. security council resolution twenty two thirty one and it would have for a pet you added the humanitarian crisis in yemen our goal has been to get countries to cease importing iranian oil entirely last november we granted exemptions from our sanctions to seven countries and to taiwan with this is to give our allies and partners to wean themselves off of iranian oil and to assure a well supplied oil market today i am announcing that we will no longer grant any exemptions we're going to zero going to zero across the board we will continue in for sanctions and monitor compliance any nation or entity interacting with iran should use its diligence and err on the side of caution the risks are simply not

going to be worth the benefits i want to emphasize that we have used the highest possible care in our decision to ensure markets developing the united states has been in constant discussion with allies and partners to help them transition away from arabian crude to other alternatives and we have been working with major oil producing countries to ensure the market has sufficient volume to minimize the impact on pricing both the kingdom of saudi arabia and the united arab emirates have assured us they will ensure an appropriate supply for the markets and of course the united states is now a significant producer as well i can confirm that each of those suppliers are working directly with iran's former customers to make the transition away from iranian crude less disruptive and as i said we're doing our part here in the united states to in two thousand and eighteen. crude production increase by one point six million barrels per day over the two thousand and seventeen levels and the u.s.

energy information agency projects an increase of an additional one and a half million barrels per day in calendar year two thousand and nineteen. look with the announcement today we've made clear our seriousness of purpose we are going to zero we how long we remain there at zero depends solely on the islamic republic of iran senior leaders we've made our demands very clear to the ayatollah and his cronies and your pursuit of nuclear weapons stop testing in political ballistic missiles stop sponsoring and committing terrorism halt the arbitrary detention of us citizens our pressure is aimed at fulfilling these demands and others and i will continue to accelerate until iran is willing to address them at the negotiating table finally as i said before these demands are not just coming from the united states government and many of our allies and partners they are similar to what we hear from the iranian people themselves i want there any people

to know that we are listening to them and standing with them we will not appease their oppressors as the last administration did our hopes are for a better life for them and all people afflicted by the regimes violence and destruction. i will now take a few questions. thank you good morning mr secretary what is or thank you. i just. broadly on iran aside from this if your goal you just do not bring them back to the negotiating table like that are you really interested in a renegotiating that j.c. v.o.a. or negotiating something like that or are you just looking for are the all the steps you're taking look aimed at just getting them to change their behavior without getting anything in return and then secondly if you could just address a report about comments you allegedly made to a rainy and. diaspora leaders last weekend and texas for his comments what in

particular that. you're not interested in that met any kind of military intervention that it's basically about economic diplomatic pressure and and some. notes on some kind of comment about the m.h.a. and hearing or not you know let me thank you to try to take those i take them in reverse in a reverse sequence we've not supported any outside group. we were supporting their raney and people. and so i get questions all the time about outside iranian groups including the i mean k. . and i was i ever time i engage with anyone and this was a meeting with folks who have family and have family inside iran want to make clear to them we're supporting their own people not any particular group that's the u.s. administration's policy second with their sect or objectives we're happy to receive the what we're after to get the outcome however we can achieve it president has always made very clear we've made clear to the runs leaders that if americans are

attacked we will respond in a serious way and i don't think there should be any doubt about the fact that if it is required for us to take an action in response to something that cause i'm still the mahdi does or the iranian leadership or sheer militia somewhere in the world that we will respond to that a way that is appropriate to protect american interests wherever we find them. whether respect or go we laid them out we laid them out there are twelve things we're looking for when we get to those things we're happy to reengage with iran as a normal nation if they're prepared to come to the table and negotiate of those things to get to that outcome fantastic if not the campaign with which we've been engaged since frankly the administration took office what more clearly sense the president's decision to withdraw from the j.c.b. away the campaign will continue and we built that enormous coalition to work on this right gulf state partners israel lots of countries that are working alongside us to achieve these objectives you see the europeans with increasing risk from the assassination campaign that's taking place inside of the country we watch as iran

continues to try and have. a role in protecting majority in venezuela this is this is causing countries in south america to understand that the expeditionary nature of the islamic republic is something that threatens citizens all across the world and so this is not the united states alone it's a true coalition working to achieve the ends which we've laid out and thank you ma'am. just when we want to. speaking to an assembled press corps in washington d.c. let's cross over to mike hanna our correspondent also listening in to what's the secretary of state had to say very clear guidance really from washington now to the world about where they stand with regard to iran but regardless some of their allies are going to be quite concerned about the fact that this waiver has been taken away. very much among those countries which had been

granted a exemption wave by the u.s. government was india china but also traditional allies like taiwan or japan so certainly this is going to have a major impact on those particular countries now once again one must look at the whole background to this is that when president. pulled out of the iranian nuclear deal then he then reimposed the sanctions that had been in place before that deal was done back in twenty fifteen there was a six month exemption given to a number of countries that exemption will now be removed from the second of may we heard from the secretary of state there the intention is to reduce iran's production to zero now very important to note here as well is a other message came from the white house fifteen minutes before the secretary of state started speaking confirming that this was happening in effect preempting the secretary of state statement in that statement it's made very clear that there has

been coordination with saudi arabia and the united arab emirates to make up the shortfall in oil production so what we have here it would appear is a coordinated campaign led by the united states with the help of saudi arabia and the u.a.e. to completely stifle iranian oil production what remains to be seen is how other partners such as the european union nato view this particularly those who have been working to find some way to circumvent the u.s. side and unilateral decision to pull out of that iranian nuclear deal and of course the other point i can take certainly from what. you stated he was very careful with his words mike he did talk about regime change he talked about attitude change and that they weren't looking for a military. military intervention so this still on the lines of you might see

a very high stakes diplomatic game here. well it's very high stakes indeed now this is something that mike pompei o has been pressing since he became secretary of state he's been joined by the national security advisor john bolton both of them had adopted a zero tolerance attitude towards iran. they see iran as the problem they see its coordination with countries like saudi arabia and the u.a.e. as the solution to that particular problem but what we've also heard from the secretary of state from the national security advisor is that insistence that somehow this is going to lead to the people of iran in some way being liberated now that is a similar argument that we've heard in the past particularly with relation to countries such as iraq insinuating that the imposition of extreme sanctions on a particular country is going to lead to the people of that country adopting

support for the country imposing those sanctions now this is twisted logic which has been proved incorrect on a number of times before but that is the argument that the secretary of state is using he doesn't use the term regime change but he is using the term that the people will somehow be changed by the imposition of such extreme sanctions history has shown that exactly the opposite happens will be great concern among the u.s. as european allies in particular about the iranian response to this iran which according to international inspectors has met every single term of their joint a comprehensive plan of action that's the nuclear deal that was signed back in twenty fifteen with no more incentive such as the listening of sanctions there may be nothing to stop the iranian government from proceeding with nuclear development for the moment we'll leave it there my kind of in washington d.c.

if we can go back to of course the u.s. we can see. the secretary of state this is thirteen hundred hours you're watching al-jazeera english the secretary of state has announced in the last few minutes that the u.s. will now withdraw all of its waivers to countries that were allowed to buy oil from iran those waivers will. fire now on may the second leaving as the u.s. hopes no country importing a rainy an oil he's still taking a press conference in washington d.c. we've just spoken to mike hanna in terms of the american angle let's cross over to zain basrah the who's been listening in from the iranian capital perhaps no comment from the iranians as yet zain but they were expecting a significant announcement. absolutely in anticipation of this in i think the government here in iran has been expecting

you know the other shoe to drop since november since these exemptions were granted in the first place in anticipation of this before the announcement from pompei we did hear from local news organizations in and an unnamed source from the oil ministry to the local news agency did say that the united states was unable to reach its goal of making iranian all sales zero by november of last year they'll be unable to do so in the next ten days when the waivers are expected to expire they won't be able to do so in the next few months or in the next few years so again with the same rhetoric of defiance which is really the only option that iran has for the moment it's to grit their teeth and bear it hoping that down the line when trump is no longer the president of the united states that something will change but that's the reaction we've gotten so far today from the iranian government as earlier last month there was there was an interview that the oil minister gave to an iranian radio show and

a lot of what he said still is relevant today he said that despite the fact that america and its allies will try to offset the supply that might be hit by not extending these waivers the fact is that demand still remains and by not allowing iran to sell its oil it makes the oil market unpredictable and fragile something that he says will continue to enable iran to be able to sell us oil via back channels and there is some truth to that we've seen something interesting pompei we did talk about working with iran's former customers to make sure that the transition as smooth as they get the oil that they need now we've been hearing already today from some of those customers china iran's arguably biggest client for oil one of its biggest has said that it does not support unilateral u.s. actions against iran and that it will stand by its commitments and that its economic trade with iran is under the is within international law. iraq iraq one of iran's closest allies and a close neighbor has said that it has no other option but to continue to trade with

with iran and continue to buy natural gas and oil from its ally and so we're already hearing these murmurs from from some of iran's biggest oil clients saying that this kind of action cannot stand that it is not practical and that the supply and demand is still working against the u.s. policy to try to hurt iran but not impact oil markets we already saw a rise in the oil prices in asian markets at the beginning of the day expecting this announcement to come and so there is truth to a lot of the confidence that many of the officials in the oil ministry have that iran will continue to sell its oil on the global marketplace perhaps not through the regular channels but through its established back channels for the moment to leave it they've destroyed force in tehran of course we just heard from mike pompei o who is still taking questions from the assembled press corps in washington d.c. stating as we've heard both from my comes from saying that the u.s.

will withdraw its waivers from its allies and countries who buy oil from iran hoping to make sure that iran's imports end up zero we'll be getting more reaction on this story from global capitals across the al-jazeera day as we get reaction. on to our other top story because government has announced it will declare a nationwide emergency beginning at midnight local time this gives police and the military extensive powers to detain and interrogate anyone without a court order it comes a day after coordinated attacks killed two hundred ninety people across the country earlier a police police defused a bomb in a van parked near one of the churches targeted on easter sunday adding to the tension and confusion the health minister says the prime minister and some of his cabinet were not told about a prior alert warning of possible attacks now police have arrested at least twenty

four people but no one has claimed responsibility the bombings targeted several luxury hotels and churches meanwhile the u.s. state department is warning of more attacks in the country. because government appeals for international assistance with the investigation alexy o'brien how small . the number of blast in colombo outside st anthony shrine the bomb squad had been working to defuse an explosive found in a van when it blew up near one of the targets of the coordinated attacks on easter sunday. other explosives were found near the city's main bus station sri lanka is a nation on edge after the worst violence since the end of its civil war ten years ago. outside this hospital in the capital by white and a heavily armed guard hoping for news of their family and friends to begin she went to church yesterday we kept calling her off there we heard of the incident but

there was no response that is why we came here first thing in the morning. priests join the crowds gathering outside the morgue to identify the bodies these scenes are repeated across the country struggling to come to terms with not only the devastating bombings in churches and hotels but the news that there was information that an attack was imminent. he. became the chief of intelligence wrote a letter to the police officials where he mentioned many names of the members of the terrorist organization but those letters have not been copied to the prime minister and the president the prime minister has not been informed about the letters and these revelations this letter indicates that the later after he has planned a series of attacks in this country the government says the breakdown in communications being investigated there's been a rift between the prime minister and the president since late last year. now rival

factions are blaming each other for the attack that the health minister links to a little known local group called the national tower he jamaat the inquiry will look at where they were saved advice all money from overseas security forces have been conducting raids and making arrests and the government says it will bring emergency powers here investigations cause the shattered remains of st sebastian church just outside the capital the walls of this house of prayer stained with shrapnel and the blood of the victims'. families are not really was there. the government says tuesday will be a national day of mourning it's apologized to families of the victims and announced compensation but along with deep sadness there's also growing anger that these attacks may have been prevented. bryan al-jazeera. let's bring in our correspondent who joins me now from the capital colombo let's just begin with this state of

emergency that's been imposed or will be imposed soon what does that actually mean . basically it will give extended to the police and the military particularly in view of detaining of. of questioning suspects basically under the usual laws there are certain provisions that when you take someone in either for questioning under detention or arrest they must be produced before the court before a magistrate there has to be an order in order to detain them whereas under the emergency these security officials the law enforcement authorities do have a wide ranging amount of powers so what we're hearing is that the state of emergency a limited state of emergency particularly relating to the prevention of terrorism clauses will breed brought into effect as of midnight today just

a little over five and a half hours from now so giving basically the police and the village a much more wide range of powers to do what they need to do to get to the bottom of investigations of these for these targeted attacks and these continuing sort of attacks that we have seen even today in terms of the explosives and things like that that have been detected so indeed yes let's talk about all of the other things that we have it's been a very busy day in colombo let's talk about these controlled explosions near a church again everybody on edge in the capital when these sorts of alerts come to fruition especially when they're finding explosives. absolutely i mean the controlled explosion that we heard about just close to the center anthony's church was a large explosion the device basically found in

a car that was reported a suspicious car that was found parked near this an anthony shrine the does bomb disposal units were brought in the basically approach to this bomb and did carry out a controlled explosion the sheer scale of that bomb coming home in terms of the visuals that we have seen coming out of that explosion first you see this car obviously match of the media the general public will moved away to a safe distance the next thing you know there's not even a sign that a car had been in the area even was close to that car having been sort of destroyed by the force of that explosion even earlier on during the afternoon reports.