donald trump earlier this month two hostile offering support has angered some members of the president's own party republican senator lindsey graham described it as. i don't know what the phone call to hop there was about but it had an unnerving effect on the ground i was in tunisia and the president had called. general from the east of libya this moving on tripoli and saying thank you for helping with isis and helped our did but death phone call seems to be perceived in the region as we're picking sides of the war had reports now from tripoli. forces loyal to were really for have to have advanced towards. neighborhood that's about fifteen kilometers away from tripoli city center and eyewitnesses in al sadr and locals there say that they have seen have to his forces engaging against the forces loyal to the you and the recognized government of national accord in the streets and

inside the densely populated areas namely in a neighborhood on the southern part of the libyan capital we know that during the past two weeks after his forces have been losing ground and a government of national called forces have been pushing have forces back beyond tripoli in active international airport have his forces after they lost ground they intensified air strikes specially night air strike this situation remains very tense especially for civilians living in nearby fighting areas and the government forces say that they are receiving more troops to push have to his forces back to their old locations they also say that they are able to push hefted its forces back beyond their administrative borders of the capital tripoli little weather of. talks between sudan's military and opposition groups are due to restart

on monday of a transition to civilian rule and sri lanka's president appoints a new national police chief but the old one says he isn't going anywhere. however we've got some rather wet weather pushing into japan at the moment. and try and present. but this area cloud just moving across the korean peninsula developing area of low pressure which lists ludus way out the key issue into honshu really wet weather coming three full chased i could see a little localized flooding actually in that cloud on the right but that's about it back in tokyo to around fifteen degrees celsius the heat of the day picking up to around eight say on wednesday is that what's the weather moves out into the open waters but still it's

a eating area of disturbed weather coming into kishi as we go on through wednesday for the north across the caribbean to be fine and dry by this day particularly into north korea by saying it's up to twenty eight celsius with some pleasant sunshine for its time again up to twenty eight seven to the southeast of chaat a fair amount of cloud and right around here live a downpours come it's very hong kong in the mix as well and that's the case over the next couple of days with the winds coming in from the northeast direction in the cloud on the right hong kong will struggle to get to twenty seven celsius taiwan looking pretty wet as well but bright skies do come back into shanghai some bright skies to you into the philippines as we go through the coming days ago these are shots across southeast asia just a little wet and need in asia. a climb to stein world of illegal trade what you have here is not just an archaeological object you're talking about

a political dimension where the spoils of war are smuggled and sold to action houses and private collections for selling an artifact is worth finances the beheadings and most news in the middle east don't sound that's one quick solution trafficking on al-jazeera. hello again this is al jazeera let's remind you of the main news this hour spain's socialist party is celebrating victory in the general election but it hasn't won enough seats to rule on its populist parties also made headway with the far right vox gaining seats in parliament for the first time. a man who'd been detained in

turkey and charged with spying for the united arab emirates has reportedly taken his own life in prison according to the turkish government zaki body was found in syllabary prison on the outskirts of istanbul two men were arrested earlier this month and reportedly confessed to spying on arab nationals a turkish president says that he's backing libya's un recognized government and its battle against the wall probably for half the fighting has intensified in southern tripoli as government forces push back against after those fights this. sri lanka has a new defense minister the appointment as part of the government's overhaul of the intelligence and security services the president also is also appointed a new acting police chief but the current chief food youth. has refused to step down let's go live to colombo was there as bernard smith is there this is an interesting situation you've got two chiefs of police at the moment one newly appointed one who refuses to step down

a new defense minister still the state of emergency in place what is the security situation in sri lanka right now are they expecting more attacks. adrian colombo's the streets are as a traffic clogged as you would expect them to be on a normal monday afternoon it's just coming up to temp five it was the end of the working day but this is the busiest day be it now the eight days since those easter sunday attacks here in colombo the outward appearance of some. return to normality it does remain very tense the security services are warning still of threats of imminent attack they warned about that yesterday on sunday but nothing happened. today and they say that those attackers wherever they are however many of them are still at large could be targeting five separate places they could be disguised in military uniforms there are about ten thousand members of the military and security

forces deployed across. at the moment trying to maintain the police trying to find who those attackers might be in trying to prevent them carrying out any further attacks the government also banned the full face veil it says in this state of emergency needs to be able to identify people quickly because main islamic advisory committee supports that temporary bar. on the bail in the current circumstances but it's dumb not to head off the threat of permanent legislation banning the full face veil saying that could be divisive in any way very few muslim women here in trying to wear the veil later in all of this having a negative impact not only upon daily life but on the country's tourism industry but. yeah it's noticeable effect on the tourism industry the minister tourism minister

a minister today has said he's expecting a fifty percent drop in tourism visitors to colombo in the next couple of months on a thirty percent drop in visitors island wide there were forty four and victims of those attacks on easter sunday among the two hundred fifty three people who were killed and to give an indication of how important tourism here in. the country's third biggest cerner of foreign income and a million people in connected industries and brings in two and a half million visitors. the government wants to secure the country as quickly as possible safe secure by finding out where these attackers are so that foreign governments will be prepared to live that travel warnings which many of the new york in the us say you should not for the moment on holiday the government here so the people will come back. out a serious point of smith live in colombo many thanks bernard. a rare grand assembly

of prominent afghans is taking place in kabul where the u.s. talks with the taliban are likely to top the agenda it's known as the loya jirga and such meetings have been held for centuries it's a way of bringing together afghanistan's many ethnic religious and tribal communities they can be more than two and a half thousand representatives they've been used to be used to approve a new constitution to declare war choose a new king or to make sweeping social or political reforms on the first day they'll be of votes to appoint the jirgas temporary leader as well as deputies and secretaries the new head of the jirga will then create fifty committees will spend up to a week discussing the issues recommendations will then be made but they're not legally binding on a serious shot at palace reports now from kabul. loya jirga is underway here in kabul the white building behind me where the action is taking place more than three thousand people from all across afghanistan different tribes different religions variety of ages thirty percent of the people woman and they have all come together

to try to five questions around pace should the government get the author community to discuss and try to come to some type of peace negotiations with the taliban these people decide what are the red lines and what are the priorities for the government going forward security is very high around this event behind me this whole area is locked off these houses have been searched by afghan intelligence and then all of this valley around the loya jirgah this way it is you cannot get into these areas without being searched by police without having the right credentials without having your bags checked your chips the security is very tight and there are hundreds of police afghan intelligence international forces doing to make sure that this event happened smoothly it is expected to go anywhere from three to seven days and over that time kabul essentially comes to

a standstill the private sector is. the public sit to shut down schools is shut down because a public holiday has been instituted from saturday until. they have a link to the chairman his name is abdul rauf he was the mujahideen leader and the . all of the committees there will be fifty committees who break up and discuss these questions over the next few days he's in charge of them and then at the end of the week president. and these groups who offer the recommendations of what pay should look like in afghanistan going forward talks between sort of these opposition groups in the military and. the two sides. to announcing the solution of the joint council on saturday night to lead the country into elections are held. in sudan's capital khartoum. talks between the transitional military council leaders of the opposition and protest leaders are expected to continue with them discussing

the fine that details of establishing the joint transitional council that they have agreed up on these agreement which is in principle is by itself being hailed as a huge breakthrough in the talks meaning that the a stalemate husband of voided of course there are differences not only on how many members the transitional administration will have but also to do this it will be in power with the military say to favor a two year transitional period the protest leaders want four years they say this would be enough and trenched the rule of law in sudan and ensure that there will be little interference our support from the military once they organize elections of course the protesters will pull off a much needed leverage to the protest leaders in these negotiations are still comp

outside and say that committed to stay until some sort of transition and civilian rule is restored in sudan more than two hundred seventy election stuff in indonesia reportedly died in the days following the world's biggest single day polls held earlier this month the general elections commission says the work has mostly died of fatigue related illnesses caused by long hours spent counting millions of ballot papers by hand more than one hundred fifty four million people are estimated to vote on april seventeenth three elections the presidential to national and regional parliamentary ballots were held on the same day in order to save money address asado is at indonesia a consultant for human rights watch and says that you part of it has to make changes to the electoral process. my footing station open at seven am and finalise counting at two fifteen am meaning almost nineteen hours open

not to say preparation we have to prepare the previous night meeting these people working like forty eight hours more straight with of course could break lunch and dinner break but again it is not adequate at the same time they have to deal with the last election presidential center national parliament drop into the parliament and local parliament and there are sixteen possible parties meeting at least for these three legged left if you like and you have. sixteen park this time. of papers this is not the fall election comments and they're doing a great job the thing is the parliament want to save money by organizing elections in a single day very complicated very difficult and so unsurprisingly many people have this will parliament. you would be x.

this thing election law making it more human and it'd be done now or then. if it is done to be later you know the parliament will be more worried about gerrymandering about how the new election law will benefit them in kenya faso an attack on a protestant church has left six people dead gunman shot five worshippers at a past as they were leaving a service in the small the more than town of so god cheap recently there's been a surge in attacks attribute its armed groups space in the north china has banned all variants of the drug fence until which is a step welcomed by president donald trump in order to stem the flow of lethal opioids responsible for forty eight thousand u.s. deaths in twenty eighteen but the drug isn't just entering the u.s. directly from china it's being imported by mexican cartels john home and reports now from the heartland of mexican drug trafficking the state of sinaloa. three young men out in the woods in similar lower mexico it only takes these pots and

pans to cook up a drug that's wreaking havoc in the us tend to do the synthetic opioid that's killed tens of thousands in the last six years some of it enters the u.s. directly from china but mexican traffickers are also importing it from the asian nation before processing and smuggling it's across the border to them it's a gift about fifty times more powerful than the poppy based heroin they've been growing in the mountains here for decades and far less. work in the middle of the growing the poppies is a three month process venton all comes in by ship to match that land port from china or germany and it gives better profits poppy based opium means a lot more investment and less money the cooking's done in these floating labs set up in the middle of nowhere we got this area very intro ll you have to be a member of the cartel to be here if you're not you're in danger we're covered by radios and lookouts the only threats from the armed forces the police they say have

already been told. they're all sorted out we've made an arrangement what even so there's danger he hopes divine help ward off the old tripoli's misuse of more imagination consuming me and product can stop you breathing within minutes everyone we talked to knows of the danger to uses for the business comes first and then aware that this drug trafficker told us he worried the fentanyl boom could actually damage businesses so in the long term. i think phenyl is going to cause a problem because there's so many use the deaths there will come a moment when the federal government's going to put more and more brock's on this and it will be a lot tougher to do business. in the lower as police chief says his forces are already working with u.s. agencies to do just that on the day of a visit they just made that first fence and taking thousands of pills the chinese government's also acting they've now banned the drug that will make it harder from

its can gangsters to get their hands on it then notorious for always finding a way. to think that the organized crime groups who are behind all of this will stay with their arms crossed would be very in adequate so we intend to keep on the lookout and make sure we adapt to any changes in changes could be coming traffic has told us the cartels are exploring how to make fence a new from scratch if they do get control of the entire supply line it spells bad news for those fighting the epidemic of the us. john homan does it a similar low. paid skit to have you with us adrian finnegan here in doha the headlines when i was there a spain's socialist party is celebrating victory in the general election but it hasn't won enough seats to rule on its own populist parties also made headway with the far right vox gaining seats in parliament for the first time i was serious

stephanie deca reports from madrid. the key issue is the cattle and independence parties if they form a coalition with sanchez what kind of a compromise is going to be made it is an issue that is not going to go away you have twelve leaders on trial here madrid has not independence leaders on trial it is a hugely divisive issue you also have the economy that needs to be dealt with a lot of people we spoke to said that the high cost of living unemployment was one of the main issues so he has huge challenges ahead first of all forming that government and then secondly second tackling those issues a man who had been detained in turkey and charged with spying for the united arab emirates is reportedly taken his own life in prison according to the turkish government zaki m hassan's body was found in a silly very prison on the outskirts of istanbul two men were arrested earlier this month and reportedly confessed to spying on arab nationals case president. says

that he's backing libya's u.n. recognized government in its battle against the war lord khalifa hof the fighting has intensified in southern tripoli as government forces push back against tough tough fights as. has a new defense minister the appointment this pos of the governments of the whole of the intelligence and security services the president's also appointed a new acting chief of police bus the current police chief push with just some data has refused to step down despite his success of being named. has been accused of failing to act on warnings that suicide bombers would target churches the government has declared a state of emergency and deployed thousands of troops talks between sudanese opposition groups in the military are due to resume on monday the two sides will meet again announcing the formation of a joint council on saturday night and those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera today's inside story next.

hello and welcome to inside story today we're coming from the al-jazeera forum here in doha on the program today we're going to examine u.s. foreign policy across the middle east in theory what should happen is political goals and diplomacy come together with a military strategy but with the u.s. president donald trump heading towards another election is his policy in the middle east beginning to unravel from israel to palestine to syria to turkey to saudi arabia to jordan are we heading into a more dangerous period this is inside story. welcome

to the program and welcome to our audience here in doha let's get going with our discussion here on inside story guests first off we have mahmoud from the ellington center for islam and law in europe we have side mohammad marandi a professor of english literature oma from the us appeal newspaper and mohammed chicago way from the al-jazeera center for studies welcome to you all gentlemen can i just start with you my how much of it when it comes to u.s. foreign policy across the gulf across the broader middle east how did we get to where we are today. well actually the crowds foreign policy entails so little political iowan is now or this month or talking about what the

amount to the clear. in an economic war on iran by pushing for a zero export of iranian oil at the same time the trump administration is hand in a peace hand or more in a shot in the peace and to the taliban that was blacklisted for the last twenty years so i think if we since went to him to talk about the god of israel the policy in question and all the middle east didn't de lima's i think there is a common thread that combines them here and they would call it the luck of a trumps grand strategy. what we have seen so far is mixed reactions to different incidents different case studies if you like his approach to the iranian has nothing to do with his approach would target one as i mentioned earlier at the same time his approach to the golan heights question differs from all the claims of being

a broker of peace between the parties scenes and the israelis so there are several controversies going on and they think what is also central in this analysis is the fact that trump prefers to handle one crisis by jumping to another so we don't see a settled period of time where there is a strategy to deal going on not only that we can also add another factor that is plex in most of us as i know this is how he keeps shifting his positions and his statements about the same the very same issue oh my yes or from newspapers do you concur with that analysis of where donald trump is coming from and not wishing to put words into your mouth mohamed the dangers that perhaps lie ahead when it comes to where donald trump is heading when it comes to u.s. foreign policy in this region. and i think it was the media and. how do you

concur with the gentleman what he said indeed it is the american the message is predicted and as a matter of fact. it's in a confusing kind of way. you know this is with. a dependence on the eulogy to say this is a very even manifest in the palestinian cause the americas do have. the lean i'm very flagrantly towards the he's. the problem with the palestinians are they said there is this some third so he said we need to lean towards israel this has been emblematic here. he took different decisions regarding jerusalem and. so on and so forth but this

doesn't mean that he is the only reason for such manifestations he thinks this is fertile i am going into it he likes. to be subject to whatever the americans born to do with us and this is a fact we are the weaker side we are terrified and he invests in this terror and he would use bogeymen in order for us to be more in need for him he said turning. to. interfere in the legitimacy of certain countries saudi arabia his fear. comes to political. b.s. . want to come to the militants. and. he.

morphy when he when he thinks he fears from the task formation of the societal transforming. iran says he is. fearful of. what goes around him mohammad marandi to pick up on a phrase that you use so you were talking about it being willy nilly is that how it's perceived and to run. i think perhaps one way of interpreting the united states is to look at the u.s. administration. or to reverse the phrase the regime. in in a sort of different light trump is i think we should look at him separately from pompei you know and bolton trump i think is his basic objective is reelection and to remain in power and almost everything that he has done over the past few

years was to get reelected to get elected and now i think it's a get reelected. bolton on the other hand is a neo con he's an american supremacy s. and he wants to settle old scores with anyone who stood up to the united states so that makes him different from trump and sheldon adelson is perhaps the a key figure behind bolton and from pale but pompei as different from bolton in that he is. a christian zionist he spoke recently about the rapture and. so his his world view is different from that of alton and therefore world views are different from that of trump and that's why i think you see this different voices coming out of the united states or or the white house but i think the ultimate policy is quite

similar fact i don't really see and i'm sure some may disagree but i don't really see trump as all that different from previous administrations ok thank you for the drama for me earning a center for islamic law in europe three whole league negative interpretations of us foreign policy is your interpretation as negative as other guests i did that i said i will focus basically listing an israeli lead and the role of united states in this conflict at this time in particular. but before doing so when i think there are three bin bases to clarify the american policies in the region which are israel iran and saudi arabia these three countries are the basis of the of the american strategy in the middle east and specifically in my

intervention i would focus on israel and the conflict with the palestinians their medical reasons or to the. israeli what we have been seeing in the conflict is that his own side that there were strikes a lot about the deal of the century i don't like this expression i would like for instance we call vision american vision of the solution and i think after another this will be announced but in fact practically the implementation began on the gone two years ago and even before that and do this american vision seen is that it does not mean just on the two state solution which is the obvious exclusive of the israeli palestinian situation this is no longer the kids. second one of the american policy is the shield to help israel to achieve that this historic victory over the palestinians and the scale of the scene since the beginning of troops there there should be

a what pressure on the palestinians and what is new and trumps the policy is that is trying to weaken the palestinian authority to push them to the new position table again and shalit but what does this mean within the gulf crisis and the transformations the region and them pose and think and the this is and in fact this is a movement that only began the few years ago that we notice that there is a strategic about this peace is a verse now which is a model that's from outside into the through the inside and this means that instead of creating peace with the palestinians in the beginning and then normalize the arabs the terminators at peace with the arabs are normalization or of the relations with between the arabs as i and then using this the relations to put pressure on the palestinians inside so that they need more concessions and not for certain it

was something that as i was successful and because it has well had the studs good relations some of the gulf states and it seems that a number of arab countries are now quite understanding again that is the need peace and the normalization. conclusion of like to say. what can we how can we understand from all of these developments of our listeners should put the more. marginalization of this palestinian issue and this was seen phoenix ago when the house bill leaked a number of one session in which a number of the ministers of. state's the clothing the have anyone the saudis and the emirates spoke clearly in time that they're there and their priority is to face iran and not to solve the palestinian issue. out of all of

these key regional zones out of all these key playing countries across the region which is who for you is potentially the most dangerous probably the expected announcement of the deal for the sentry in a few weeks from now and i think most arab muslim audiences governments elites anxious to figure out exactly what judge it caution that has as a magic touch to advance this plan we have heard about it we have not seen it yet and i think this is going to divide the arab world the islamic or the in two main camps.