ron europe taking a very different position than the trumpet ministration repeatedly so there's no question given the special relationship if you will between the united states and the u.k. that in fact there will be perhaps some sobering discussion that will take place and there are many in the united states that may be grateful for that given there is real worry about the specific and credible intelligence that the united states claims it is responding to in terms of this ratcheting up yet again with the deployment of a carrier strike group there are questions about the credibility of that intelligence so there is real fear that the risk of confrontation is high and given the vagueness of the language coming from not just the national security adviser but also more recently from the u.s. secretary of state might pompei of there is real worry and we should also remind our viewers that there is will worry given national security adviser john bolton as part of the decision making process because you have to remember he was very very

open in twenty fifteen about advocating for military action against iran he wrote an op ed in twenty fifteen in the new york times where he made the case that there should be some sort of preemptive strike on iran so this is something that many people in washington and around the world are worried about and are now watching very carefully for these next steps for the believe of a complete course join us when things change on you'll be allowed to thank you. well there's been international reaction after the iranian president's announcement israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu accused iran of resuming its bid to build nuclear weapons he says such efforts will not be allowed to cite those who threaten israel security china's foreign ministry says all parties of the agreement are responsible to make sure the twenty and fifteen deal is fully implemented the u.k. says to her has taken an unwelcome stern warning they'll be consequences and france says more sanctions could be reimposed if iran fails to keep its commitment to the

deal natasha bottle has more from paris no doubt the two european powers all along this process ever since donald trump pulled the u.s. out of the core day year ago started re-imposing u.s. sanctions on iran there's no doubt that european powers have felt caught in the middle they want to salvage this deal because they believe that it is the best bet for peace and regional security but on the other hand they know it's not easy because they are faced with these u.s. sanctions that in some way they've been trying to bypass that is why february they launched a and a payment mechanism called in stakes which allows trade for medium and small companies in europe and iran that can bypass these u.s. sanctions because it trades not in dollars so in that way they're saying to iran look we're making an effort to try and support this deal maybe some of the big european companies are pulling out they're not going to risk us penalties but at least this is one way that we show you it is supporting it they're also sending the message to the u.s.

that they mean business they want to continue supporting this deal but it's becoming increasingly difficult of course but what european powers don't want is for this deal to collapse completely not only because it would be huge blow to their credibility because they've spent the last twelve months trying to save it but also because they say they want to avoid any sort of nuclear arms race. well laura record is executive director at the vienna center for disarmament and nonproliferation she was formerly the senior legal advisor at the international atomic energy agency where she worked on iraq and iran joins me now via skype from vienna good to have you with us this record how concerned are you at the developments of the last two weeks where in fact where we are today oil waivers removed military hardware being repositioned by the u.s. and iran threatening to pull out of an agreement in sixty days if more isn't done by the very signatories to the g c p. i find it very frightening and as they say dish out will all over again and you see

a ratcheting up as your reporter discussed of this bellicose rhetoric on the part of the united states the repositioning of. naval warships in the gulf it really is. we've seen this before and we've seen some of the same american officials today who were in the iraq invasion in two thousand and three i think iran up until now has behaved fairly moderately fairly responsible if anything it is not surprising that eventually now their patience is starting to run out and in fact the two announcements that they made about not. respecting the stuff pilots have and then maybe even possible by the recent actions by the u.s. government which declined to renew the same actions waiver with respect to the sale of iran's image to radio and the sale with the placement in on. there have

been their access heavy water which they currently are committed to do under the g c e o a range in terms of your understanding your knowledge or your history with the a house in iran continue to adhere by the obligations of the twenty fifteen agreement yes indeed and the i.a.e.a. has certified to continue compliance by iran with the j c p o since it's very implementation that is so there is nothing to suggest that iran is not complying with to this point in time in terms of your understanding of the obligation of the signature ease to that agreement of twenty fifteen can you clarify for our international audience what are the obligations of the united kingdom france. germany china russia and would have been the united states to help iran. in

terms of the nonproliferation of nuclear material and what they get out of this agreement but fundamentally there was a geisha years to implement the g c p o if to fulfill their responsibilities which are to assist iranian now converting the our app to the water reactor which would reduce their ability to produce the. keep to capsize and allow iran to exploit its excess eliyahu to permit iran to engage in international commerce so there they can. raise the level of economic level of their country it each one of these partners is an equal and the united states has stepped back from and it's really up to the remaining groups to continue to honor the j.c. . and that puts the e.u. in particular the european countries between a rock and

a hard place and we have to see that happening again. in two thousand and three but that's what happened in two thousand and three as well as the u.s. forced its european allies to choose between. the united states and in a nation of iraq and a peaceful solution if we are heading in about your reaction and that is a worrying thought and it's just a theory at the moment what can be done are we looking at diplomacy at the very highest level a summit between national leaders and the u.s. because one contributor to al-jazeera earlier in the day suggested this might be the only route to the only avenue available now. i think it's going to happen there needs to be some pressure relief here one hopes that cooler heads will prevail in the united states but i think high level discussions among the parties to the g.c.e. late are not just warranted medicine for to see what does at the moment the law

rocket thank you very much for your insight really appreciate your time from vienna thank you. still ahead here on the al-jazeera news hour fasting during the month of ramadan in a country that's on the brink of starvation. and the raptors get their claws into the seventy six ers in the n.b.a. playoffs paul have the details of that game in sports coming up. to africa where sudan's opposition coalition is threatening further unrest over what it calls the military's disappointing response to its constitutional proposals protest leaders are accusing the military of delaying the transfer of power to a civilian administration there are talks underway to try and form an interim government the military council said it could hold elections in six months if an agreement can be reached with the opposition have a morgan joins me now from the car to with the very latest on going scenario here

but of what's actually been happening there was a meeting of opposition groups earlier in the day they were supposed to be meeting the military there's been a bit of a frak car i believe as well what seems to be going on. well at the moment so the issue is that some political parties don't seem to be agreeing with each other there's been five has been throwing of chairs a bit of violence between political parties not the military council and the political parties but between the opposition parties themselves now let's go back to who these parties are they were parties that joined the national dialogue initiative an initiative that was launched by president bashir former president bashir in two thousand and fifteen to try to according to him to try to bring peace to the country there was so there was fighting in several parts of the region including the western region of dar for the southern part of the country. mountains so some of these groups are some of these political parties that were in the meeting with the military council are basically armed groups who have joined the

government who put down their guns as well as other political parties who felt that they were excluded and then joined in two thousand and fifteen saying that they are going to wait for elections in twenty twenty but since president bashir was ousted it doesn't look like elections will be held next year so the military council held meetings with them to try to find out what their visions are for the what it would their visions are for the transitional period and the military council said that they will be included in the transitional period all parties will be included except the former ruling party but the question is so how to bring about or to unite a vision of more than one hundred fifty political parties who've had their differences over the decades. seems to be some sort of disturbance. of the we are seeing pictures we're not quite sure what happened can you talk us through the. well each party they're so has their own ideology has its own point of view of how the transitional government should look like now the military council did not lay out a blueprint the opposition coalition which includes main opposition parties

presented their idea there of a transitional government and the military council responded yesterday saying that technically they were ok with it but then there's a lot of issues a lot of terms that need to be clarified a lot of parties that need to be included and that's why they held this meeting today they're trying to include these parties but the issue is people regard these parties that parties that are part of the former government part of the former regime and they have their own ideologies they have their own views and obviously they don't seem to be agreeing with each other we're talking about more than one hundred fifty parties with their own ideology each with their own view trying to form a transitional government so it seems that they couldn't agree and that's how the violence broke out for the moment we'll leave it there thanks have a hit morgan there in khartoum. while south africans are voting in the sixth democratic elections and the end of apartheid in one nine hundred ninety four president of the governing african national congress cast his vote and his party is expected to win by a small margin after being hit by a series of corruption scandals in recent years opposition leaders from the

democratic alliance party the economic freedom fighters have also voted. excitingly on. this board people voting is just amazing. the day should not be blocked and. they can see that. they are doing and you do all you will be giving. you. that speech malcolm webb who's at a polling station in johannesburg the president says people are energized this election. definitely not for others in the township of alexandra. you can see the some of the neighborhood here typically people living in quite the conditions for housing

a lot of people don't even live in houses they live in shacks made of metal sheets and ever since the early to thousands have been protests. against the government you see the government is being very poor at delivering public services but similar protests have been seen in townships across south africa since about that time there was actually a spike in the protests here in alexandria coming up to the election you're one of the reasons why there's some police here. small. disputed and keep voting to the police stepped in. not sure exactly what happened to the police quick to step in and try and break it up. the government said it would deploy extra police in the hot spots where there have been spikes in protests recently. and alexandra is definitely one of those areas for a couple of hours this morning there was a police helicopter circling above the township where people have come in numbers

to vote people some people were waiting since before the polling stations opened this poll. in a tent that's been put up says the temporary. facility people can come and vote their story clear in south africa since democracy first began in one thousand nine hundred ninety four there's been generally quite a lot of enthusiasm for voting in the us because in part at least because of how hard it was for people to win those rights as democratic rights to be able to vote the struggle against white minority rule went on for generations many people were killed but that enthusiasm for voting has steadily tailed off since nine hundred ninety four support for the ruling african national congress voting turnout steadily the turnout steadily got lower and about of quarter of eligible voters didn't even register to vote this time and out of those three quarters that did

waiting to find out actually how many will have turned up to vote the opinion polls have suggested that the ruling a.n.c. is expected to keep its majority but only just the opinion polls indicate it will keep that majority with a lower margin than it's ever had before but we're waiting to see if you does or has continued to lose support and how many of those votes will be picked up by the opposition parties that you mentioned or how many will be lost or people who just didn't vote at all for the moment thanks mark to market where they are in johannesburg well it's been twenty five years since south africa's first free poll since the end of apartheid and the national assembly is made up of four hundred members elected for a five year term now the party with the most seats chooses the president now the african national congress is a specter to win another majority if it does its leaders are obama will remain as president some forty eight political parties are taking part in these elections more than twenty six million people are registered to vote. is the electorate in

political studies at northwest university in math the king joins me now live from johannesburg good to have you with us live on al-jazeera just begin with the fact that we talk about elections as close run things or the reputation of a party is at stake what is at stake for south africa in twenty nineteen. good afternoon and thank you so much for having me connecting to your viewers as well one of the big really is the future of africa the country of south africa the speed because we've had. the as the governing party we've had a lot of corruption scandals a number of it's so easy have collapsed we have had a lot of mismanagement and actual mismanagement and as you came to know we are also in the process of their commission of inquiry into state care of chad so things really these elections today will really determine their future course of the south african stayed with it becomes a failed state and this is just in terms of whether that africa will be able to

manage physically in the next five years whether they will survive. economic downturns or whatever may have been under the rubble stage regarding not only the economy but also regarding the political. standing or the democratic nature of south africa indeed i mean how successful have opposition groups getting their point across because they can often and as they do or position groups criticize an incumbent government and say we can do things better but do these opposition groups opposition parties have the where for all and support in twenty nine hundred to actually make a real difference for south africans. so you don't we are yet to see because what these i had from a lot of these opposition parties instead of them offering an alternative to south africans which is what they should be doing we've had a lot of conversations are out there and happiness with the a.n.c.

you know so what they've been providing what they've been offering really has been a rebuttal to what the a.n.c. has done so far so they'll talk about the corruption scandals of the sea you know they also want to seep into the historical legacy of the a.n.c. but not really offering any real alternative if they are that has been lost in how competitive they have been towards the n.c.a. and towards the governing party with regards to what it is that they can offer we're not really certain of that for the moment we'll leave it there in the lead immediate we'll see what the reaction is to those results in the coming days thank you very much for your time from johannesburg thank you so much for having us. well still the weather again in the u.s. apparently rob this is a familiar feature it's may after all is the most violent month but let's have a look at rather closer to the coast of texas that he since low lying we've been feeding much moisture so you tend to get daily shower some a vicious some of them just do this which is typical example of fifty millimeters of rainfall are going to shorten flooding on the street i'm sure they used to in

texas i'm not looking at things looking at anything worse than this thankfully however this is not just texas alone the bigger picture stretches a long way up beyond the houma here on the brusk or up towards the great lakes is most of cloud has been a very wet spring wet from the point of view of flooding there's been a lot of snow about thirty suddenly in fact these coconuts to admit more snow in the far north plains of north dakota for example this past here is all rain and given the even the mississippi is overflowing much of its length is not difficult to get a flood risk issued once again ignores a fairly good example there but it's been happening now for weeks or sandbags everywhere but the river is just flooding many cities that are next to major rivers in the u.s. and of course tributaries unfortunately don't have much we can do about it there's more rain to come on top of an already dodgy position and it's rob and slow to move . thanks very much rob well still ahead here on the news hour we'll have details of

a bomb in the pakistani city of lahore that killed eight people. and the international court of justice is here in qatar as case against the united arab emirates for targeting its citizens with a blockade will speak to a human rights lawyer. and a hometown hero lets louis into the n.h.l. conference finals all those stories coming up in sports later. becoming a living legend to the young age was simply not enough. he transformed his influence on the pitch into political clout the book piece to the ivory coast. hosted by eric cantona football rebels begins with a look at the life but did he talk about the football he succeeded with politicians not. deviate struck by the ivorians civil war on al-jazeera.

one of the really special things that work in progress here is that even as a camera woman i get to have so much empathy and contribution to a story i feel we cover this region better than anyone else working for us as you know it's very challenging liberally particularly because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues we are the people we live to tell the real stories are just mended is to deliver in-depth journalism we don't feel inferior to the audience across the blue. book about you're watching over there is news hour with these. robin a reminder of our top stories world powers are reacting to iran's decision to stop

selling enriched uranium and heavy water and its threat to step up production of both gave the remaining signatories of the twenty fifty nuclear agreement sixty days to keep their promises to protect its oil and banking sectors from u.s. sanctions. also fighting has broken out at a meeting held by sudan's opposition coalition in the capital khartoum this was the scene that a press conference where the group threatened further unrest over the military's response to the demands. of south africans are voting in the sixth democratic election since the end of apartheid in one thousand nine hundred eighty four presidents around the poser of the governing african national congress has cast his vote his party is expected to win but by a smaller margin have to be hit by a series of corruption scandals in recent years. turkey's main opposition party is calling for last year's general and presidential elections to be an old they appeal comes two days after the election board decided to rerun its stumbles

there are election present recipe for the ones party lost the vote so that has more from istanbul. turkey his main opposition republican party c.h.p. or submitted a request to the supreme electorial board to cancel last year's general and presidential elections as well as the march third two one. stumble districts and the main opposition said even present add ons meant mandate should be a no following the ousting of c.h.p. mayor in istanbul supreme alexion board cancelled istanbul may oral results based on based on the grounds saying that there were illegalities in irregularities in the appointments of the ballot box officers and now the mayor position argues that the ballot but the visuals were appointed as in the same way as they were. in last

year's general and close for is their actual action the following vision in turkey is election rules in march two thousand and eighteen. in their request they had there was another issue that the main opposition raised this in turkey during local elections in one envelope you have four voting sheets that you elect to your local administrators mayors. local councils and local municipal councils and local officials so the fish and the supreme court to a careful. may overall result is not welcomed by the main opposition saying that it is totally unlawful that all the results should be annulled as well so now the main opposition argues even the legitimacy of last year's presidential and general election is compromised by the decision of the supreme electorial board well us national court of justice is hearing qatar's case against the united arab emirates

for violating human rights qatar's government says the u.a.e. targeted its citizens based on their national origin when it expelled all qataris and stopped them from entering the us after the twenty seven to blockade qatar says rights to marriage medical education property ownership and even employment to be restricted rights group person registered more than one thousand one hundred complaints over the last two years the united arab emirates claims that cattle is hampering its efforts to improve the situation a charge that qatar has denied stephanie decker has more from appearing in the hague in the netherlands. yesterday we heard from the united arab emirates exactly that how they use qatar of how bring what the court had suggested last year which is to allow citizens back into the united arab emirates the reunification the reunification of families and also students saying that culture was hampering

efforts to blocking a website that the emirates now need to cut to the citizens to apply a visa for and also other different measures so today we will be hearing a response from the companies they've got three hours to do that this morning and then tomorrow we have closing statements from both sides they each have an hour and a half to do that then the court will go away and figure out whether the a morality is have a case and it was a sidebar to the main case theory which is of course qatar taking the u.a.e. to court here saying that it is discriminating against its citizens the bigger picture is this this is a political dispute that is almost two years in the making a blockade of qatar by four countries closing land borders closing its airspace you have the national carrier qatar airways when it flies down having to circumvent saudi arabia the united arab emirates when it flies anyway it's costing all these countries millions and millions of dollars but also it's become personal they've expelled citizens a company citizens from their country making it far more difficult now to access their studies or families in a region where there's a lot of intermarriage and

a lot of family links so this is why we are here this is the biggest court in the world let's say when it comes to disputes between states both teams of hires the best lawyers there are and they are now arguing really into semantics because moon isn't its national human rights lawyer joins me now live from london good to have you with us. how difficult a court case is this as it's been what two years in the making. thank you it is a complex process as we've heard there are three days of hearings where the state of qatar has been presented its case than united arab emirates has presented its response what is what is quite clear is that this is part of a bigger political battle as far as the blockade is concerned but the case before the into court of justice is extremely important because it really has affected

thousands of guitar nationals in the u.a.e. it is quite clear that the u.a.e. . has embarked on a discriminatory practice against qatari nationals and as we've heard it it has affected sars education employment business interests and a whole host of other issues so it's a very important case that needs to be argued the u.a.e. as one would expect has dismissed the other patients as they tend to amount to such as this but it's going to have to provide some strong justification for the actions because the actions are all a well established and based on credible evidence of credible reports so for the court it would set the u.a.e. position they're going to have to be convinced that first alcatel has done nothing to prevent what they had ruled several months ago but also that the practice continues as we see in the u.a.e. is continuing to discriminate against our nationals what does

a verdict in favor all not in favor of qatar mean in the much bigger picture of in terms of the blockade does the case collapse in terms of the u.s. arguments against qatar and therefore have much larger implications down the road. assuming the i.c.j. rules in favor of got to which i would certainly expect it to. do based based on the other patients and the case but forward. the question would be wat the u.a.e. would do in terms of a a negative ruling against them whether they would comply with that ruling what steps they would take to comply with that ruling i think we have to assume that the way you would not abide by that ruling as we've seen. in much of the criticism that has been raised against them as far as the unlawful blockade is concerned and

the the massive human rights criticisms that have been made recently the likelihood of them complying with the verdict would would be unexpected so so that it would it would almost certainly have to go to the u.n. general assembly where qatar who could raise the not implementation of a nice each a judgment if the ruling was to go against qatar as i said i wouldn't expect that but if it does go against. then of course that's not going to be the end of the matter there is there is going to continue to be frustration between the the the gulf states there is still the issue of of the blockade that needs to be dealt with and as we've heard it's costing the governments and it's costing businesses and individuals huge amounts of money and that will have to be resolved to some stage which is what has happened for the moment because the thanks so much for joining us from london you sent to. the pakistani christian woman who spent eighteen years on

death row in a blast in the case has left the country bibi's lawyer says she's in canada six months ago she was acquitted by pakistan's supreme court the verdict led to mass protests bibi was originally convicted in twenty ten after being accused of insulting islam during a fight with her neighbors. if action of the pakistani taliban has claimed responsibility for a bomb blast at a popular shrine in the city of lahore at least eight people including five police officers have been killed in one of pakistan's oldest soofi shrines victoria gate because the latest forensic scientists focused their attention on a police band damaged in the blast it was parked outside a popular sci fi shrine in the city of lahore offices responsible for guarding the entrance but women were inside the game. most of the wounded have been moved to mt hospital according to our initial reports there are seventeen to twenty two wounded and rescue workers ongoing seven to ten people are in critical condition but we

can't say with a bit dead or alive. a faction of the pakistani taliban has claimed responsibility and they say it marks a new wave of what they call religious fanaticism i personally think it's extremely what islam but i also believe that the faction of the g.d.p. is not operating in full full talking it in pakistan because there have been some previous attempts in the past events which have been foiled by the security agencies the data dhaba shrine which dates back to the eleventh century has been targeted before a suicide attack nine years ago killed more than forty people in pakistan's government improve security across the country after an attack on a school in push our that killed more than one hundred fifty people mostly children that was five years ago but this attack shows that armed groups can still cause chaos in one of pakistan's largest cities victoria gayton be. the taliban this

time responsibility for the target of not a stone's capital at least nine people were injured by explosions that have close to the attorney general's office in kabul the taliban says its target was the u.s. based aid agency counterpart international. a producer with al-jazeera in kabul we spoke to him. could not have come out of the at the moment but he looks different here the compartment that special forces arrived at the scene in terms of who operation right now. fifty employees of the organization related by the special forces on the other hand part of the responsibility.