pro-government militia known as the cost protection force compared to taliban and isolate combined it's a thirty nine percent jump on the pro-government side three hundred three people killed compared to two hundred twenty seven killed by the taliban and i saw the leading cause of civilian deaths is coming from airstrikes the vast majority of which are conducted by u.s. forces one hundred forty five people killed and u.s. strikes of those with children and that number is continuing to climb that is not necessarily a freak number over the last year we have seen civilian casualties continue to climb from is strikes there was a relaxation around proximity regulations on on the airstrikes and since then those numbers have steadily risen another contributing factor for why civilians are being killed on the pro-government side is from search operations and other people might call these night raids sivan to turn civilians were killed in these and the vast majority conducted by some afghan intelligence units and

a pro-government militia known as the cost protection force now they are under a lot of scrutiny right now the u.n. says that they are in fact supported by u.s. forces but really there is no accountability for them that they act with impunity they are calling floor specially the cost protection force which is this kind of pro-government militia which which goes into these areas and does these night raids that they need to be disbanded or formally incorporated into the forces because right now they can act with impunity and there is no accountability for the civilians being killed the u.n. says the numbers stand up they have verified that they have how they have conducted all the kind of research gathering is the gold standard for the u.n. in that they have got three sources on all of these the one positive is that overall civilian casualties are down by twenty three percent the reason for that coming from a massive decrease in the number of deaths from taliban suicide i text they have ranged that in significantly compare. last year the same last year they conducted

nine hundred suicide attacks this year so far just four. are u.s. forces afghanistan spokesman colonel dave butler has responded saying we reserve the right of self defense of our forces as well as the afghan security forces the best way to end the suffering of noncombatants is to end the fighting through an agreed upon reduction in violence on all sides japan has apologized to tens of thousands of victims forcibly sterilized under a now defunct law politicians unanimously passed legislation to compensate those affected by the nine hundred forty eight law it was designed to prevent the birth of those considered what they called inferior descendants about twenty five thousand people with physical or mental disabilities were sterilized the law remained in place until one thousand nine hundred ninety six at least thirty two people have died in floods and mudslides in the south african city of durban heavy

rain started on monday night to do parts of the eastern cape rescue workers continue to search for survivors. egyptians have voted to approve major changes to the constitution in a snap referendum the amendments open the door for president of the fact that his sisi to rule over egypt until twenty thirty they also extend the military's involvement in egyptian politics rights groups say the referendum was neither free nor fair we have explains. been is me them i know them i mean when i let out and then you may feel me the numbers the government says reflect the triumph of egypt's democracy. official figures but the turnout at little more than forty four percent and almost ninety percent of those who voted approved constitutional changes that extend president of the fertile cc's rule and had him greater power to influence the judicial system the changes also formalized the role of the military in

egyptian politics since he has been leading it really gives them reliant on the armed forces and the security services and will continue to do so except more. aggressively so that if you will be armed forces are now control of the state through sci fi and through with their ownership or power this is diary square in twenty nine hundred sixty supporters celebrate overturning changes that were hard one by thousands of anti-government protesters during the twenty eleven arab spring . after thirty years of president hosni mubarak's rule the constitution was amended to limit future precedence to two four year terms tuesday's referendum results change that to three six year terms which means sisi can now rule egypt until

twenty twenty four and perhaps even to twenty thirty he will also have control over the appointment of judges and public prosecutors these constitutional amendments were rushed through very very quickly i'm not sure egyptians even knew what exactly they were voting on in fact the text wasn't even finalized until four days before the referendum was held in preston sisi supporters did everything they could to get people to the polls the even off free boxes of food in exchange for votes some people queued up for them across the country was president sisi says his room means a stable and secure egypt in the face of turmoil in neighboring countries the referendum results were announced on the day when he was hosting two summits one in sedan where longtime president omar al bashir was deposed recently and people one

the military leaders out back up and the other on libya a battle ground between rival governments eighteen years after his dictator moammar gadhafi was ousted. emboldened by his victory in the referendum critics fear sisi maybe uses new powers to make sure any threats to his rule are kept firmly under control priyanka gupta al-jazeera. saudi arabia has executed thirty seven people a majority of them are from the shia minority saudis they media said they were guilty of terrorism and disrupting security human rights group amnesty international has condemned the killings. activists say it is the largest mass a secure execution of she has in the kingdom's history more than one hundred people have been executed in the kingdom this year. ali abu ahmed is director of the institute for gulf of says he says those executed were mostly protesters. you mean

when the saudis use the word tirzah and they're talking about people who are posting on facebook and twitter or participating in protest so you are looking at the court system that has no place this time and each course and parts of the it is part of the regime and the judges are part of it you and they do whatever the government has them to to do. since two thousand and twelve not a single member of isis for example has been sentenced to death or executed just two days after. the united states and i was it's zero. committing of sanctions against iran the saudis it take thirty four shia and thinking to abandon at some sunnis and get you know so it's not that list doesn't look like a sectarian decision and so this is why the saudis doing it let's remember

a few weeks ago when john kerry u.s. ambassador. or it it was saying very similar things condemning shiite expansionism that's was well taken you might say to the the saudis saw in in us statements from and from john if you see it start now this year i was in general will face greater. community face greater. challenges this is the largest mass execution of shia in the history of saudi arabia since that days of the early so you obvious state where thousands of shia were murdered by the obvious forces this is the largest since nine hundred. there are plans to revitalize france's most famous avenue to show each year about twenty million people visit but less than two percent of those are parisians local architects say it is in desperate need of renovation before the twenty twenty four

olympics tasha butler reports from hours often described as the most beautiful avenue in the world the shells lease a is a symbol of paris its name conjures up images of french elegance luxury and flair but the reality is quite different traffic's heavy pavements a crowded and the avenues lined with fast food restaurants sports shops and car showrooms parisians tend to stay away tourists are often disappointed oh yes but it's not exactly what i expected and there are too many people everywhere there are so many cabs people and noise that i find it hard to see any beauty here the head of a business and residence committee says the situation's urgent he's launched a project to renovate the famous avenue plans include more green spaces more the road around the outer tree of could be transformed into a garden beach or ice rink. the of a new has lost its soul and its identity

to shows it is a supposed to be a place for walking if the reasons don't come in and it's not because it's not your choice enough. it's because it's noisy unpleasant and polluted one of the main problems with the show also is there is the traffic is nearly always noisy and busy sixty four thousand vehicles pass out the stabbing you each day sometimes the pollution is worse not viruses far bring greater that's why architects say one of the solutions could be to reduce the number of planes. since its construction in the seventeenth century the shah's elisei has been central to french culture from the allied liberation of paris from german forces in one thousand nine hundred forty four to france's two world cup wins people have celebrated here. recently many people were shocked when some yellow vests protested scandalize shops and monuments the architect behind the renovation project says it's vital to maintain the show's easy unique place in french history but it's all courses we could use

this to show french excellence in gastronomy culture fashion and green technology this sunset he says an international symbol a myth and icon it should reveal what the nation does best the project has yet to be given the green light by a paris a city hall but those behind it say a new look. could be revealed in time for the twenty twenty four paris a lympics and help restore some of the avenues lost glory and romance the tasha butler al-jazeera paris. and as always there is lots more on our website doc. powerless going to round up now of our top stories the death toll in sri lanka after sunday's suicide bomb attacks has risen to three hundred fifty nine people including thirty nine foreign nationals the state defense minister says eight of

the nine suicide bombers have now been identified sixty people have been arrested so far and often and as has been following developments for us from the capital colombo. as the fielders continue there is. sadness that pervades the entire country because they keep sort of you know harking back to what unfolded on sunday but that frustrates ssion and mounting anger that this sort of absolute tragedy and carnage could have been prevented the worst part about sunday and the next couple of days basically has been that now there's a situation where there is concern there's fear that it's the worst is not over that there can be further incidents explosions another day of protests

expected in sudan found signs of demonstrators conducting a sit in outside the army headquarters in khartoum they're angry after african union leaders gave the military council three months to hand over power to a civilian government of north korea's leader kim jong un will be arriving shortly in the russian city of la de vos stockwell who meet president vladimir putin kim's visit to vladivostok is part of north korea's efforts to build international support after the breakdown of talks with the u.s. in february a un report on civilian deaths in afghanistan says the military and u.s. forces have killed more civilians than the taliban and i saw air strikes and military raids killed three hundred people the report also says taliban i saw and some of the fighters have killed two hundred twenty seven people but a number of attacks has gone down the taliban suicide attacks are also down compared to the same time last year. up i once again

there's lots more on our website as always al-jazeera dot com those are the headlines we're back in our for now right now it's inside story. the shootist administration in spain's modern history has been forced to point to snap election in twenty eight with polls suggesting a fragmented vote and the rise of the far right populist movement marks can the socialist alliance hold on to power stained with al-jazeera the latest on the spanish elections. stop buying iranian oil or face sanctions will the u.s. ultimatum stoked tensions in the gulf and does donald trump risk alienating friends and antagonizing died this is a tough story. hello

and welcome to the program on iran can all prices are on the rise of the united states an ounce the new crackdown on iran's oil exports aimed at reducing them to zero the iranians say that will never happen and they're again threatening to block the strait of hormuz the world's lifeline of all from all gulf countries including saudi arabia kuwait and iraq around a million barrels of iranian oil is shipped through the strait of hormuz every day particularly to china india south korea japan and those cells are in jeopardy as the u.s. warns it will no longer give sanction waivers to those countries the u.s. re-impose sanctions on iranian also as last year after donald trump pulled out of the iran nuclear deal is the iranians being state sponsors of terrorism and destabilizing the middle east roselyn jordan has the details from washington. the u.s. says its efforts to impose

a worldwide embargo on iranian oil is already working in the last eleven months the trumpet ministration says iran has lost about ten billion dollars in oil revenue all this since washington to punish the han for what it calls the government's quote maligned ways the trumpet ministration and our allies are determined to sustain and expand the maximum economic pressure campaign against iran to end the regimes destabilizing activity threatening the united states our partners and allies and security in the middle east these demands are not just coming from the united states government and many of our allies and partners there similar to what we hear from the iranian people themselves the u.s. imposed oil sanctions on iran in may two thousand and eighteen after it withdrew from what president donald trump called the ineffective iran nuclear deal the u.s. wanted to cut off iran's ability to support hezbollah and who the fighters as well as send aid to governments in syria and venezuela last fall when oil supplies were

tight the u.s. gave several countries permission to wrap up their existing iranian oil purchases by no later than may second but now the u.s. says supplies are plentiful and so the five countries still importing iranian crude china india turkey japan and south korea no longer have a reason to keep buying from terre han. to conduct these transactions one almost always needs to participate in the financial markets and we intend to enforce the sanctions we don't lay out sanctions that we don't have any intention of encouraging countries to cooperate with analysts say it's important to look at the impact sanctions could have to untie speech when the u.s. and other countries for example how sanctions could derail current chinese american trade talks but analysts say it's just as important to consider why the white house considers saudi arabia in the united arab emirates and not other oil producing

nations key to making the iranian parco work i think that actually feeds into this narrative of this very close relationship that the president trump hassle with the saudi royal family and of course the united states again this is a president who looks at issues from a transactional standpoint state department officials won't say just how soon after may third that the u.s. will impose sanctions on countries still buying oil from iran but they are adamant they say the only way to get iran to change its behavior is by imposing an embargo and the only way to make certain that the embargo works is to impose sanctions on other countries even if those countries happen to be the u.s. its friends rosalyn jordan al-jazeera the state department. the decision has sent india and japan scrambling to meet their oil shortfall china and turkey have condemned the move and iran is appalling and has passed

a resolution labeling the u.s. military as quote terrorists let's bring in our guests from washington d.c. udolpho frank a republican strategist and former advisor to george w. bush and senator john mccain in teheran mohammad marandi head of the american studies graduate program at the university after her own and from beijing dan wearing a china analyst for the economist intelligence units thank you for joining us all let's begin. in the states with adele frank this was a deal that was trumpeted by the previous administration it was one backed by the european union why has this administration broken the terms of the deal it was said to be a good deal. well. first of all you had an excellent report on the issues but let me add a little perspective as to why this is happened and it has you have to go back to our presidential election of two thousand and sixteen i think president who was elected of course as our current president made very clear at that time that the

iranian nuclear deal was a bad deal and the american people agreed with him and that the deal had to be scrapped that was very clear the president was absolutely committed to ending that deal and then to ramp up pressure on iran so two things from our domestic perspective the president has kept his promise to scrap this deal and to pressure iran hopefully into making a better deal alternately these sanctions are are not only important but they're really designed to be proud of a broader strategy to bring iran actually back to the table to do a deal that from the republican point of view and i think the majority american point of view needed to be we negotiated now secondly the sanctions themselves this is a big story but it should not be a surprising story that has been consistently the policy of the united states and

has been as you reported here a timeframe that we would actually as secretary pompei o has said go to zero and that means zero in terms of allowing iranian oil out of iran in a legal fashion and through the financial markets and therefore the sanctions were actually imposed last november with a grace period and that grace period ends in may on may second to let number of countries transition to other sources of oil revenue of course italy has done so greece has done so as you've reported taiwan has done so and there are several other countries that have not completed that process. or now in many ways scrambling to do so so the policy perspective is is i think understood people might disagree with that but the president's view is that the only way to bring. iran to

the table and to really curtail its terrorist activities is by imposing sanctions and having them work and they hash they have been working quite successfully i'm going to bring in mohammed morandi jin just a second from to here on have i do you want to ask you both the same question and start with the dolphin or cindy say why should the iranians trust you they signed a deal they made a deal they had a deal that the international community said iran has stuck to why should they believe you know why should they believe the u.s. . well you know that's an excellent question and i think that actually is a very fair question but nothing is etched in stone we have done the same thing with respect to nuclear arms agreements and other arms agreements with the soviets when we believe that the deal has not worked or has not been in the interest and of course the administration has made a case that iran has been actually not living up to the deal that can be debated there's no question about that it is a fair question but the position of the united states and the current position of

the president is just because a president a former president made a mistake on behalf of our country that we not be stuck with that deal and the simplest way to express it and that is if the deal is a bad deal and really there is a will to bring about a peaceful solution to the problem that iran will be willing to renegotiate the deal so that is in essence the american view and it's consistent with the president's view which has been putting our interest our national interests first and this would require a renegotiation of the agreement. in teheran you had a guest there he said barack obama the previous u.s. president made a mistake this is a bad deal should iran come back to the negotiating table. now i'm at obvious that iran will never really go shake the nuclear deal with the american the because the united states has no credibility the regime has torn up an agreement that. the

previous administration signed up to and there is no reason to believe that it will abide by for future commitments so that's out of the question and i think that more importantly though is the fact that the united states being the aggressive regime that it is destroying iraq afghanistan may be starving yemen with the saudis supporting extremists in syria for seven years. this indirectly directly and trying to carry out regime and regime change in men is whether there is no incentive really for anyone in iran to negotiate with the united states in fact if you look at the this force of the ministration in tehran you see that the language of president ronnie and our foreign minister dr zaeef has changed significantly over the last couple of years with regard to the united states in the

past the united states used to or what even western media consider them to be very moderate and now they're probably more harsh in their language than most other politicians in the country because the united states has basically. betrayed the international community by leaving the agreement so but i think the united states is also here miscalculating because iran is not a small country iran is not a weak country run has allies across the region from the himalayas to the mediterranean from the red sea to central asia and iran has a very powerful presence in the persian gulf region so if the americans escalates the iranians will have no option but to escalate as well but in an asymmetrical fashion. but mohammed what the u.s. is saying is that you may have stood by the letter of the deal but not the spirit

that there is much more to be negotiated is there much more to be negotiated in toronto points of you know there's nothing to negotiate because the united states is not abiding by its current to commit by its current commitments how can we negotiate anything else when what we've already negotiated for roughly a decade is to have been thrown out the window well who's to say that in future any agreement hypothetically that is reached will be abided by by the united states if the nuclear deal actually wasn't the americans didn't abide by the nuclear deal either under obama either from day one they began violating it yet the international atomic energy agency has said i think fourteen times now since the deal that the iranians have stuck to the deal. and that they were abided by abided by the deal very carefully and with this is one of the i think advantages of what trump has done. despite the hardship economic hardship that the u.s.

has been trying to impose upon ordinary iranians just like the united states is trying to impose hardship on the on the venezuelans i saw you i saw you shaking your head in his show the dolphins i just want to bring you in just reply i haven't learned in tehran is saying there's nothing left to negotiate. yeah well there's a lot to negotiate at really don't think we're going to go into the details of what's really going on but the iran is actually in the process of developing its capabilities to actually have nuclear weapons developed and would then probably sixty years they really have the capability of course all this he'll say is that. the nuclear watchdog suggests the lights. well they're not developed gone now but they're having the infrastructure and the development of the uranium and so forth to actually be able to do so but here's the key to this and everybody knows this unfortunately and this is why this is an acceptable president trump is that all this deal did and it did do one thing is buy time for the west which is

a period of time hopefully that would be regime change or this was the promise here or somehow moderation by iran so all we've done is buy time and we know at the end of the time period of this agreement that iran would be in a position to legally and fully develop a nuclear weapons but let me just step back for that's our concern but let me just step back to a couple comments that were made in my shaking my head first is you know iran is a sophisticated country when president obama was negotiating this you had a majority of the senate and senate led by senator cotton united states senator saying they were opposed to this to this deal so two things why this is important first of all and they knew this. president obama was in a hurry at the end of his tenure to negotiate a deal to get a deal for a legacy but the united states isn't president obama it is

a country we do not have a treaty we had an agreement but not a treaty and the reason we did not have a treaty to do this is because it requires the congress which represents the american people and a bipartisan buy in into the agreement to turn it into a treaty and. this is why and this was no into iran that this was a a flimsy agreement to begin with and one that ultimately would not be binding and had we had a treaty with iran which would have required then senate approval which means bipartisan approval democratic and republicans well then that would have been a very different story and president trump and then you could use the phrase the united states would be behind the treaty so i think that's important and lastly on this to suggest that iran is not behind hamas in terrorism in the region i had to say this is just laughable to most people outside every ron iran is a state that is dedicated to say to supporting state sponsored terrorism throughout

not only the region but throughout the world so it's iran's meddling in syria of course in yemen and in other places the world that is troubling not only the united states but to saudi arabia to the regional allies and therefore why they support quietly these sanctions i'm going to bring in dan weighing in beijing in just a moment but i do want to follow up on these two with these questions with you from washington and from tehran firstly. chile this is just about regime change this is about news unlike pump effectively said this is about pushing democracy within iran that's the real reason for this is not. would hope so and not be candidly i would hope that we have regime change in venezuela were opposing imposing sanctions as well i would hope that we would have resume change in iran these are these are not democracies these are people these are societies which are oppressing people and are promoting terrorism and i would hope and president i mean secretary. has also

said that we should go to the source which which is cuba as well we impose sanctions on south africa in the one nine hundred eighty s. what we are i was in the reagan administration i didn't see much opposition to that with that was regime change driven are we going to invade iran no or venezuela i don't believe so as well but we're going to apply all the economic pressure. and stand with the venezuelan iranian people are not the iranian government now having run to your response please. well thank you for finally giving me a moment to respond to. a long merry long monologue. obviously your guest reminds me of pompei or who just recently said when he was the head of the cia we cheated we live in the stall and that's the american great american experience or something like that which you said just

a couple of days ago the united states was lying from the very beginning when it came to iran the nuclear program even now the i.a.e.a. has never provided any evidence that iran was manufacturing a nuclear weapon even back then and the iranians despite much opposition inside the country they negotiated the deal to take that excuse away from the americans to show the international community that the americans are not honest about their dealings with iran and i think that both the fact that trump exited the deal shows that the united states is indeed dishonest and that the united states is not only a bully in our part of the world but it dictates terms sitch to russia and the whole of the international community you do you shall not trade with this country or that country because we say so it is a it is an empire the united states supports apartheid in palestine a regime that even democratic two of the key democratic candidates have

admitted is racists and yet iran which supports the people who are constantly being bombed in gaza the iranians are supporting the terrorists the united states just like the united states in apartheid south africa they supported apartheid mandela and they and see were terrorists and those and the apartheid regime in south africa was a democratic regime that's how the united states works now iran is a dictatorship according to your guess but the united states is allied with saudi arabia this is allied with the united arab emirates with mohamed bin sound man to the united states. isn't hot supporting democracy the united states is opposed to democracy that's why the united states has helped saudi arabia starve the people of yemen let me bring in the regional perspective. regional reasonal perspective let's bring in dan wearing from beijing let's join his reactions will this. well

so far the public media has been quite calm there is not a widespread widespread opposition to the u.s. decision because overall when we think about oil trader with iran iran has been quite important to china it's one of the top five oil suppliers to china in terms of countries but it's not essential so it's all export to china account for about seven percent of china's total oil imports it's a very difficult to replace but not impossible but in terms of the overall of the broader economic ties i think iran actually take a very important position in china's global strategy because to start with iran is one of the major destinations for chinese products such as consumer goods tronics machinery and especially cars so iran has been a top car importer from china if you go to a major city in iran and you see chinese brands like computer id cherry leaf on

they're all over the place even more so than in china and more importantly what i see is that iran has become a very important ally for china's belden road initiative which is not particularly well received at this point because there has been this china sentiment are rising globally not just from the us to europe but also from the receiving countries of the.