well he's in the estimates of many experts including some within the iraqi government that one of the principal casualties of such a shooting war would be iraq itself and so this has focused the minds of the entire iraq it political clout regardless of which side of the issues they come out on so it's more conceivable to me that a european power perhaps even switzerland which op or all represents american interests in iran and the president the united states met with this was president in the oval office oval office for 2 and a half 3 hours recently so i think it's more likely that a european power will have the ability to mediate between the 2 principals rather than a regional country also in iraq the military says at least 5 people have died after a car bomb exploded at a busy market west the mosul that happened in a village near the syrian border that tim's were out shopping before breaking their ramadan fast. still ahead on al-jazeera the u.s.

president takes in the traditions of japan but instead of what we progress on a trade deal. the police used tear gas indiscriminately and treated everyone violently rights groups accuse indonesian police of unnecessary violence during last week's election brian. hello there the weather still giving us quite a messy picture over parts of the middle east at the moment the satellite picture is showing most of that cloud is marching its way across the caspian sea but further south we're going to see a few more showers as we head through the next couple of days in one or 2 of these may turn out to be quite live they also might kick up a fair amount of dust as well towards the west now if we find a dry for most of us here and the temperatures in beirut will be wrong as it as we head through the next couple of days to choose day i think will get to $27.00

degrees a bit further towards the south of the some of us around the arabian peninsula this is still some cloud around particularly over the northwestern parts of yemen and into the southwestern parts of saudi arabia now this cloud is giving us some rain in fact some of us have reported nearly 90 millimeters of wet weather and that has always run down the mountain sides and you can see that water there to see pain through the town i think that will be some more showers as we head through the next few days and again some of them could turn out to be a little bit heavy here in doha though no major changes for us weather wise i think we'll get to around 39 or 40 degrees and still until we hear it at times for the southern parts of africa but a cloud there just getting into the southwest making things rather gray away for us in cape town that system is edging its way eastwards as we head into much. every piece of devastating impact on. earth rise explores some of the efforts to

recover those lost from the syrian scientists safeguarding one of our most valuable resources these are important south poles that we have to make sure they are surviving to the refugees striving to co-exist with nature ok so what's going on there simulating what happens when i listen. to conflict on al-jazeera. following on the top stories on al-jazeera voting is in its final stages in some european countries for an election that will decide be continence next parliament

early results from germany suggests governing parties of lost ground with big gains for the greens and smaller gains for the far right algeria supreme court will investigate corruption cases against a number of former ministers 2 former prime ministers and 5 ministers from because governments were referred to the courts iraq has spoken out against how the west has treated its neighbor iran iraq's foreign minister said baghdad doesn't approve of the unilateral actions against iran but it would like to mediates between the 2 countries. saudi arabia according to its state media has intercepted a drone armed with explosives launched by the fighters the drone was said to have targeted the airports and near yemen's border who the rebels have launched a number of drone attacks on saudi cities. main opposition party has rejected calls from other protest leaders to organize a general strike on tuesday and wednesday it's the latest sign of divisions between

groups after weeks of political deadlock they're trying to force the military to hand over to civilian rule in one more from parts from. this is mounted by the arm of party would have been a very big deal before december however the political landscape a in sudan has completely changed and it's the sudanese professionals association that are currently the leader of the political pack in the country they're the ones that called for the strike and it looks like the strike will be heeded by many sectors of civil society here in the country you know the sudanese professionals association is very much a middle class and we've been very much based in khartoum and it can bring khartoum and perhaps parts of the rest of the country to a standstill now the party said it's not the right time for this and they need to not hold a strike however although those calls may well have been heeded before december the party don't have the political power that they once had and also the transitional

military council say that the opposition are actually divided and that's why we haven't been able to come to a deal with the world the opposition coalition say actually what's happening is the regional players are backing the transitional military council and they're supporting them and that's been borne out in the last few days the vice chairman of the transitional military council and he has met with crown prince of saudi arabia mohamed bin so man we've seen the chairman of the transitional military council meets with. sisi his name is abdul fatah but han and now i'll go to han is actually going to the u.a.e. to meet with the crown prince of abu dhabi mohammed bin zeid that's angered the protesters because they say this government this transitional military council is in effect acting like the government of sudan and they're not negotiating with the opposition coalition with their not negotiating with us in good faith so they say they've been forced into this strike action and it looks like the strike action

will take place and it will hold and it will bring to a standstill sources have told al-jazeera that an armed group is and bussed in nigeria and military convoy killing at least 20 people. they say it happened while the army was trying to move refugees from a camp and. on monday and i select groups struck a military base killing 9 soldiers in the same region. as war from my degree. local sources say the attack happened when the military was escorting a group of civilians from the village of. towards the world on saturday morning now the military has not issued a statement regarding this attack and this is not by the way the only attack in recent days a few days ago there were claims by islamic state in west africa probably that it had attacked military positions i don't google area killing so many soldiers just days after they released a video which they claim to show the execution of soldiers fighting the insurgency

in the east nigeria recently both functions of the islamic state in west africa programs that align to the islamic state of west africa province as well as the. other parts of borno state have launched attacks but the islip targets mainly military targets in the region while before them fighters the other ones led by factional leader i will because i've been raiding villages for food items and the rest they mostly target civilians and they also attack military positions and now the nigerian military in collaboration with the multinational joint task force the regional forces in the electorate area have ramped up their attacks and operations against in the region claiming to have killed several of them in attacks carried out on that basis in the northeast peacekeeping has always been dangerous work men and women sent around the world trying to keep a lid on the worst conflicts and now it's financially volatile to the un's finding

itself sort of missions in the balance our diplomatic editor james bass explains why. the u.n. is holding its annual events honoring the work of its peacekeepers around the world . some of the most volatile places on earth last year 98 were killed while on chichi increasingly they also operate in a very difficult financial environment funds a tight with some budgets being cut or peacekeepers need better training and better equipment and their men that seem to be the least think and adequately support these we've both resources and political will for many years un peacekeeping has been based on a grand bargain western countries the e.u. and the us providing specialized equipment and troops and the vast bulk of the money while most of the troops come from asia and africa. but the system is

breaking down many countries but most notably the us are not paying their share un peacekeeping is owed a staggering sum over $1900000000.00 the country is providing the peacekeepers countries like pakistan which has over $5000.00 men and women serving around the world are the ones currently having to pay most of the costs so here we are $2.00 contribution countries making sacrifices losing lives in order to maintain international peace and security and facing budgetary challenges so i think we need to fix this it needs to be fixed because this removes the most successful enterprise of the united nations and it should be adequately resourced the u.s. owes way more than any other country to un peacekeeping that's been the case for many years but under president trump the size of the arrears has swelled to over

$1100000000.00 a former obama administration official says it would make real sense to pay up now it's a little confused. the united states side the u.s. cares about peacekeeping we see it in our interest u.s. is a larger training training country for peacekeeping missions and our diplomats work worldwide to help them succeed because we see the value of these missions so some of this can and should be sorted out with congress so they fully fund the amount that the u.s. owes and we can resolve this shortfall the u.n. secretary general knows he must tread carefully president trump doesn't take kindly to demands for huge sums from international organizations even though in this case it's money that everyone agrees the u.s. is james bone. of the united nations. at least one person has died in northern peru where there's been a powerful earthquake the magnitude 8 events happened about 75 kilometers southeast of lagoon as the strict

a civil defense spokesman says at least 11 people have been injured it's also caused power cuts in several cities and damage to buildings brazilians have rallied in more than 50 cities to show their support for a presidential year balsa norell gatherings were going to in defense of the right wing leader as his approval ratings decline also narrow so cautious in january but is struggling to purse through pension reform and curb unemployment last week tens of thousands protested against cuts to the public education budget. u.s. president said on social media there will be no major progress on a trade deal while he is in japan so far his spend his time there taking in traditional japanese culture and on monday here prime minister shinzo while there will hold a bilateral summit where trade will be discussed when he has more. to do something of a contrast is donald trump sent ringside at the grand sumo tournament in tokyo alongside

the 1st lady and japanese prime minister shinzo a bare and unconventional president watching the most ritualistic and traditional japanese sport i earlier in the day the 2 leaders had a round of golf but on monday the games will stop and they'll get down to business although no significant announcement on a trade deal is expected it's thought that she won't make major concessions particularly in agriculture before an upper house election in july the us produces one better access to japan's food and agriculture markets that have traditionally been protected by subsidies and other non-tariff areas the rural voter base is one that she won't want to risk losing ironically u.s. farmers would have had better access to japan if the united states had remained part of the trans-pacific partnership multilateral trade deal that came into force in december but donald trump pulled the u.s. out of that agreement after he won the election. trump also wants to revive the

u.s. car industry believing that imports have harmed american innovation. as you arrived in japan classic car enthusiasts gathered outside tokyo keeping the glory days alive. what i like most is the design and also the sound of the v 8 engine i don't think the design has aids the designer who came up with this car 50 years ago is amazing. to help the revival the president wants japanese companies to invest more in the states he made demands japan limits vehicle exports and is threatened to increase tariffs japan has been there before in the eighty's with the reagan administration what was agreed at that time was a quote of an upper limit for cars and that resulted in major investments of chip a new car makers in particular a honda and toyota in the u.s. economy i do think that the negotiations are heading in this direction. for now this visit seems to be mainly about relationship building with japan trying hard to

impress and keep the united states on side when hey al-jazeera tokyo. proper new guineans prime minister is expected to quit after 7 years in the job here on emails imminent resignation follows weeks of high level defections from the ruling party he says a change of leadership is needed to ensure a planned reforms are delivered former prime minister a joyous child will take over as leader australia's new cabinet includes a record number of 7 women prime minister scott morrison announced that most positions will remain the same after his surprise general election victory but he's also appointed the country's 1st ever aboriginal cabinet minister will be in charge of a new national agency for indigenous australians. antony's disputed election is now in the hands of the country's top court following a challenge by the defeated candidate on saturday at least 7 people have been killed in clashes between opposition protesters and police since tuesday and there

now calls for a formal investigation into how police handled this situation just a warning that andrew thomas his report from jakarta contained some violent images . down a narrow alley in a poor area of jakarta is a family in mourning that this was the home of the youngest person to die in the process indonesia's capital for a handful jari was 15 late on tuesday night he got messages from excited friends there was something big going on in the center of town just 15 years old. in brand's parents don't think he took part in any bullets and they don't know how or why short. of a word to the hospital in 4 hours no one could tell me anything eventually they took me to a body i didn't want it to be him but he was there when i heard about it i was

distraught i can't believe that he's gone our. piece to make me laugh he was a kind boy a lovely boy. police say they didn't fall out of bullets last week just tear gas and rubber coated bullets to control and disperse drawing crowds . they say their action was restrained doing only what they had to but others christian. people from human rights groups say from their early investigations into what happened here last week basis spec the place of using unnecessary force and of violations of human rights. they say they've seen disturbing videos like this one of what appear to be police beating a man cowering in fear another appears to show men in uniform attack. someone who's already been detained human rights activists want a formal investigation into police tactics and actions by. the police

used tear gas indiscriminately and treated everyone violently peaceful protesters people who just came out to watch and those throwing stones. last week's riots began as protests by supporters of presidential election contender. after indonesia's electoral commission announced he had lost to the reelected president joko widodo. the right hand for the family say he wasn't motivated by politics he was just a curious teenager his parents want to know why that led to his death andrew thomas al jazeera jakarta. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera voting is wrapping up in the european elections as the continent decides on the make up of its next parliament early results from germany suggest governing parties have lost ground well big gains for

the greens on small gains for the right barbara sara has more from brussels. we have been getting these national estimates were expecting the national estimates as peter was saying from france another key country 74 seats but we're not going to get the final results of the make up of the european parliament in an answer to the question as to whether the 2 main coalition center right and center left will still be able to dominate the party the parliament we're not going to be able to get those results until the. new state prosecutor is pursuing corruption charges against a dozen high ranking figures from the government of former president. former prime ministers. as well as 5 former cabinet ministers there have been referred to the supreme court iraq has spoken out against how the u.s. is treated its neighbor iran in their escalating crisis but the iraqi foreign minister it's raining counterpart they're willing to mediate at least 4 people have

been killed in a church attack and so it happened in the village of tools in the north of the country it's the 4th attack on a church in recent weeks fighters linked to al qaeda and eisel have been active in the region at least one person has died in northern peru where there's been a powerful earthquake magnitude 8 events happens about 75 kilometers southeast of districts the civil defense spokesman says at least 11 people have been injured it's also calls power cuts in several cities to buildings. one of saddam's main opposition parties has rejected calls from other protest leaders to organize a general strike on tuesday and wednesday the division between opposition groups comes after weeks of political deadlock they're trying to force the military to hand over power to civilian rule. those are the headlines on al-jazeera inside story is coming up next then it's the news hour i'll see them.

could iraq be pulled into a conflict between the united states and iran iraq coltan the middle of the us where it's battery what's needed to reduce the tension and prevent a war this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. the united states is bracing for the stakes

against what it calls threats from iran president donald trump is sending an extra $1500.00 troops to the middle east and he's bypassing congress to sell billions of dollars of weapons to iran's rivals saudi arabia and the united arab emirates iran's neighbor iraq is vowing support and offering to mediate but the same time iraq he's wary of straining relations with the americans rob some reports from about that. if mama jeffords early for came to baghdad to clarify where iraq stands in the ongoing tension between the us and iran iraq's foreign minister seems to have given him an answer and. against the unilateral measures taken by the us we are standing by iran in its position and god willing we can play an intermediary role between the parties if necessary. iran's foreign minister has proposed signing a non-aggression pact with gulf neighbors but iran says it will take action if

necessary. comes i'm on we will defend ourselves against any efforts for a war with iran whether it is a military or economic one that would victimize the iranian people we will face it with strength and resistance iran and iraq have close ties to trade culture and religion but iraq relies on u.s. and foreign troops to combat the threat of eisel and it needs foreign investment especially to develop its oil fields iraq has been doing a diplomatic balancing act for years and some say that puts it in a perfect position to be able to mediate between the united states and iran but to do it successfully like most negotiations it has to be seen not to take sides they're also fears that some of shia armed groups in iraq who are allied to iran might decide to upset about violence they might decide to take their own action their own initiative against u.s. assets in iraq. iraqis filled tahrir square in the heart of baghdad on friday

demanding that their government put iraq's safety 1st and that their country should be at the center for talks to find a solution. to let up at the how loud the legitimacy on iraq has become a bridge where meetings have been held at the iranian embassy with european diplomatic missions and it's taken the decision to start talks with moderate countries and affected by the situation to lobby the united states. and iran to try to extinguish the fires of war. iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al-jazeera baghdad. let's bring in our guests here in the studio is andreea scrag assistant professor of the defense that is department at king's college london in beirut sami now the

director of the levant in 6 years for strategic affairs and all skype ilang guster roberts associate professor at lancaster university has edited and written books on the u.s. politics including the trump presidency journalism and democracy welcome to your under this is the military build up a sign of an imminent war is it just a classic example of gunboat diplomacy yes or no i think it's part of the trump weird maximum pressure policy which is about you know which is what how he's driven any of his business strategies before becoming president which is basically putting maximum pressure on clients and then forcing them to basically give up and then come to the negotiation table that might work in the business fear i'm not sure but it definite doesn't work in international relations and when we see what's happening here with iran is that you know there is it's all about narrative here is about building up a narrative of a posture signaling strength power and a and a somewhat an escalation of tension if you will be always sending more troops in

ascending and making it look as if there was a buildup in reality i think it's not a buildup it's all of this is within the realm of normal operations but it is how this has been framed i think it has been framed by the media in the particular way has been framed by the u.s. government in that way to make it look as if the u.s. is ready to go to war i think we're still hopefully quite far away from a military escalation samuel with the u.s. accusing iran of the expresses of planning attacks on american forces how do you see this crisis contained and at what price. i mean. here with that is a point that. iraq in particular has no interest to to be dragged into such a conflict now the american are putting pressure they are building up militarily but i don't think that they have an interest in waging a military action why because economic sanctions are doing well and they are

putting enough pressure on iran and the military buildup in my view is i mean and that them to deceive 8 any at 10 to from iran to not to wage a war but to resort to a military action in order to change the balance of power in the ija and to try to achieve a breakthrough in any leak in this sanctions that are putting a lot of pressure on iran economically and socially. well that's not to try to depict face most likely going to be an easy of white for the united states of america but we're talking about syria iran a country with a huge influence here the region operate it minutes with capabilities particularly comes to its ballistic system and the other that when you need them most in places

like iraq afghanistan and syria how do you see the potential for any mystical front taishan well i mean part of this you know this is a history of how the presidents of the u.s. have treated the middle east as being its own playground for military testing as telling of goods and really creating another that it does she but your 1st guest had a narrative of us versus them you know donald trump's quite frankly i think we're interested in how this plays out in the media spotlight what the images look like and what his rhetoric is that probably creates some chuckles back in the united states for for his supporters he's more interested in and the 2020 presidential election and bringing that suit to his side which is probably a great likelihood here then he is about altering any of the past procedures and processes of the u.s. government which has been to maintain tension in the middle east so i don't see

this going to a massive war because of somebody making a mistake and on the ground here of the high tensions but i do see it possibly happening based on the rhetoric that's being thrown back and forth across the oceans under us common sense says that there's no indication of a massive in a cycle for patients but you know mistakes happen you know it's when an incident can trigger. a massive confrontation yes and i think that's where that and we are in the era of weaponized narratives so narratives are not just in the information space it creates real tensions and it is actually a matched up with action as well as we see with you know the deployment of particular component of the u.s. military into the gulf and the same time the other side the reins are responding when there it is but they are also you know playing with fire there are men taining one of the biggest networks or the biggest network of surrogates across the middle east many of these are gets and has very important to highlight here are not part

of the command control system of the iranians they act on their own they're almost autonomy as the who these for example receive massive support from iran but still an independent actor and they they they might play the role of a spoiler so we've got these tensions we've got 2 relatively rational state actors here iran and the united states not willing to escalate not wanting a war and then you have a lot of gray area operations particular by iranian sorry gets across the region which might we wanting to test the resolve of the u.s. government and trying to escalate and in this kind of you know they're in this kind of space a lot of there's a lot of room for error which might just blow the entire. powder keg open some you've mentioned earlier iraq its role in mediating in the crisis what can iran achieve in this particular crisis. i mean.

here i mean iran is trying through mr zarif visit today to lever to and in iraq because iran succeeded at least since 2008 up to 2 selves in 15 to exert control inside iraq plus it develop and it's supported some proxies some mini shop proxies whether. that has been law or how to cut to hezbollah. bad to the brigade there are afforded me shows that are under iranian control however that is it change in the iraqi society and it was the big sign of this change was that the most efficient that took place yesterday today that is a big loss of the iraqi population that. that refused.

meddling of iran in their affairs and they want peace and they want to distance shape themselves. from not only from iran but from washington as well then leader of this protest of yesterday he's a staunch enemy of washington wish. to the southern so that is a good all wind movement inside a growing mood inside the iraqi population that they have paid enough the price of other is ok and they want peace and they want to distance themselves from this conflict taking place between town and washington which brings me to ask this question about the irony of suddenly having iraq bussy all messages back and forth between the u.s. and iran what can the iran iraq is achieve when they are partly beholding politically to the americans about same time beholden to the iranians. well it is

quite ironic when the u.s. government came out and said that non-essential u.s. . military should should leave as though the country of iraq was not safe for americans anymore it was a bit of an irony after everything that the u.s. government did to say that it was that it was safe i mean iraq is in a is in a tough spot here but to be to be completely clear that the u.s. is using kind of their the idea that iraqis don't want quote unquote freedom or quote unquote democracy which they may or may not want to do using that as a scapegoat for allowing you know iraq to to be into these days tight spots where they don't necessarily know who who whose we know which side to go and it's. it's a tough call here to try and play this middle man with with particularly with donald trump on the on the u.s. side in so that this tension and if this fails and if iraq is unable to perform as

some sort of mediator well enough to make the united states happy anyway then you know the white house is just going to sit back on its heels and say well you know we tried to do everything we could for this nation and it's just not working out without taking the responsibility for u.s. intervention in societies other than their own particularly in the in the middle east and yes you have said earlier that both parties are exaggerating their capabilities all trying to use it in a way to frame the own narrative we've seen the iranians of the same time saying that any warship that goes into the area could be sunk by sick with weapons iranian secret weapons we've heard also how to filter the idea of triggering a referendum on the nuclear agreement how genuine is this from the. from the iranian army and i think you want to talk about the referendum the brics and vote has shown actually how about referendums work and some such delicate issues and i think the iranians are just this is again posturing trying to maybe find an attempt

to politically justify why they stick or don't stick. with a deal i wouldn't take that too seriously when it comes to the capability question here the iranians obviously have that surrogate network of which they control some more than others but they also do have hard conventional capability particular in the realm of ballistic missiles and i think this is where you know much much of the concern is here in the gulf you know in the arab g.c.c. countries in terms of the capability that iran can bring to bear they have an absolute overload of ballistic missiles of different ranges that the air defense systems on the gulf side of the arab gulf state could not be dealing with the americans know that they would be overwhelmed completely and they have capability to strike as they said us more ships not really with secret weapons here and the we know that how these weapons operate they're caught relatively sophisticated but they're you know u.s. infrastructure is definitely very vulnerable to this and i think what is key here now is to understand that the goal of dozens of one none not saudi not the

countries not them or ati's want a major combat operation because there would be the 1st ones to suffer from the backlash and retaliation from iran sami we've heard also the iranians say that they have quadrupled the iranian i'm in which 1000000 to 3.6567 percent which was within the limits of the 2015 year clear agreement but is this an indication that the iranians are saying that other same time they are also ready to pull the plug on the deal if the situation gets worse. yeah but i don't know how smart is the move because sticking to the nuclear deal had them to create and to deepen the divide between america online side and europe on the other side and this was very helpful to it on a on the last decision and this will. help or will push push them to more isolation i think that iran

doesn't have an interest in a classical type of forward just to wind up on your last question with the guest i think that iran has developed smart be. some very efficient military assets one is called the proxies the 2nd is by mistake and putting them. in the hand of that who see and do training. in iraq and lebanon that could at any point threaten american interests but without bidding any responsibility this was part of iran strategy and that each and so i won't be surprised if iran if it wants to retaliate if it has no other choice it's so much under economic it has

to be 10 year it will use one of these proxies. at their command robust between how the supreme leader. saying delivering a bad review to rouhani and say blaming them for some of the blunders on the nuclear on the nuclear deal saying that he's widdled with ambiguity is he trying to say that if i decide to step in it is going to be a really tough action for my part. well you know i do. these deals are often struck with very fine lines between them and there's always a hedging a bet. when you go into these types of negotiations it seems in the sense that we expect the other party to to constantly perform as it always said it would and that there's an expectation that i would perform the way that i said that i would but times times change in the sense of how these negotiations go on and how they

end and how you feel at the end of those those negotiations particularly when you have you know pressures from outside the region pushing one way or the other so we have to we have to be cautious in the west particularly on how we talk about war and how we talk about striking another nation because these lines are always moving and there's always a lot of there's always a lot of tension one rung one wrong move from the white house in particular can really get these these these parties to to jockey. a very tense situation that they're also already bouncing under yes to what extent is john bolton the national security adviser. is the key player in shipping this whole policy against iran. well i wouldn't call him a policymaker because there is no real strategy or policy i think it's pure ideology and you know the funny thing is that someone i bowled in would always go and say the mullahs the deep state of the mullahs in iran they're all ideological

player the players that you know the irrational if you look at bolton he is on that same level he's an extremist idealogue obviously not an islamist one but on the other on the other end of that spectrum and he is driving the narrative and he has for years been trying to frame iran as the menace in the region the biggest threat to national security without any substantiated evidence so everything he does is he was framing the securitisation effort which is basic rating a threat out of nothing trying to look for pretext is that he can then use and blame on the on the iranians and i think him and pompei or in particular are also the ones who are framing the white house who are pushing the white as to say look you know if you need to do something about iran despite the fact that donald trump himself doesn't want to war and he's run on a ticket in 282016 saying you know i don't want another war in the middle east why would he escalate with iran of all players where the u.s. has stands the least chance of actually coming out with

a victory sami many have been saying the iranians reaction to the american move has been blown out of proportion but i mean for any iranian military strategist if you have someone like bolton all the other side of the atlantic pushing for an agenda saying in the past that he thinks iran should be bombed to set back the clock on its nuclear program don't you think that the iranians should be really genuinely concerned about what's happening on the ground. i think there are concern and i do believe that they want to negotiate but there are still waiting for november 2020 because they prefer to negotiate with someone different than tom that is always this just in the nostalgia. in iran and among iranians so good to the obama era and this is it i would not turn and that is some kind of. of demand to put all the blame on the hoax and the american administration and that

out a hoax like mr bayle and mr. dunne how whatever this is this doesn't i mean justify it any behavior on the ground the fact is doing that then last year the war on terror eclipsed. the problem was it on now that the war on terror is over or that law it's had on it any and behavior that's creating problem among the arab region among what he was is that i even we stood that is a member of. how that means that is something. something in behavior that needs to be addressed order to find a peaceful settlement but i see your point but i think this is going to be my question

to brothers but that is the issue is also to be addressed with the trump administration because i mean common sense we're talking about one of the most volatile dangerous areas in the world beset by conflicts in i've got a son in syria and iraq a different possibly the region of a suddenly trying to create conflict that could degenerate into a truck got to minister confrontation how do you see it's a robert well the really scary part yours is if this is. donald trump play at the short game in the sense that a republican candidate would do much better as a wartime president certainly. donald trump has said he hasn't wanted to have a war across the seas but we are seeing an escalation of the military's ation of the southern border of the united states and using tear gas on children militarization of that southern border so you know it at the same time he says he wants to have some sort of peace that certainly doesn't mean everywhere but you

know he's so so the short term here would be that there is some sort of military escalation or he can fly across i meet with troops secure that part of his vote. and not really thinking about the long game i mean i think it's pretty pretty likely we have a 2nd term for him and if this is how he's playing the short term it's kind of scary how he would play out the long term if there were an escalation how does that stretch out over years this is interesting times in a way andrus in the us i mean if you compare tom to bush bush had a global coalition and he had the backing of the congress. doesn't seem to have neither when it comes to the war or the push against the iranians i mean isn't this likely to be doomed to failure absolutely and that's why i'm saying we have we're still a pretty very far away from a military escalation here because none of the components that the bush administration could rely on in 2003 are given we don't have the pretext of 911 that could be blamed on the iranians we having smaller pretext is now in the region

that are still not conclusively attributed attributable to the iranians. and the problem is that even the the entire administration trump is not behind this move is not like they speak with one voice the american people in majority against this military escalation this is just people on the fringes extreme fringes in washington that are pushing that line and i don't think that they have the kind of leverage to push and present like donald trump into into the war zone if he refuses to do so unfortunately we're out of time by would be interesting to see how this crisis unfolds in the coming days andreea skrillex i mean as a roberts thank you very much indeed for you contribute to the program and thank you too for watching you can see the program again and it's by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside saudi you can also join the conversation on twitter 180 inside story from me

and the whole team here bye for now. talk to al jazeera we earth's your just back from yemen what was the glimpse of the country the gods we listen to that children are deeply affected because of war we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter now does their own. examining the headlines a collapsed economy means that many people are struggling to survive setting the

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0. and 3. coming. up. next. this is 0. welcome to the news hour i'm maryanne demasi in london with the top story from europe yes and it's coming in from the european and lections johnson i'm going to

calls posse comes out on top boss it looks like a very good day for the greens in germany and i'm sure you know. the rest of the global headlines and iraq's signal support for iran in its standoff with the u.s. while again offering to play mediator. a presidential election without candidates why 77 hopefuls in algeria have been declared ineligible also the cash shortage that's threatening u.n. peacekeeping missions we'll look at who's not paying their share. with all your sports lewis hamilton who wins in monaco and dedicates the victory to mickey mouse to let him move you in the program. oh it's the final hours of voting in the european. elections with 21 countries going to the polls today over 400000000 people are eligible to take part across 28

nations and what is the world's 2nd largest democratic vote after the recent indian elections which is of course on a much bigger scale but there are $751.00 seats in the european parliament up for grabs and the makeup of that chamber will shape the future of the e.u. the expectation is that a fragmented parliament could emerge from these elections with the final results reflecting a trend of growing support for smaller parties and a rise in populism so let's take a look at the national estimates from the largest country jummy which also has the most number of seats in the european parliament chancellor angela merkel's party the cd c.s.u. which is aligned to the european people's party has 28 percent of the vote the social democrats who are part of the socialist bloc in the european parliament have a disappointing 15 and a half percent whilst the far right alternative for germany which belongs to the populist e f t d bloc has 10 and

a half percent but it does look like an important day for the greens who appeared to have surged to 22 percent let's cross live now to brussels where my colleague barbara sara is damning by so many merkel's alliance came in 1st place barbara but also suffered heavy losses what could this mean for. well if you look at the heavy losses in the coalition they were mainly suffered by the s.p.d. so her coalition partners who saw themselves score less than the greens and comes 3rd which is really remarkable for a party to a very historic links in germany so for angela merkel maybe speaks of people being slightly disenchanted with great coalitions where you have a center right and the center left parties trying to govern together who perhaps don't have a lot in common but then we see the greens of course taking quite a lot of votes away from the socialists but i suppose from

a european point of view when you think the angular merkel party is in the p.p. which is the biggest center right coalition here in the euro parliament so far and just a reminder that these are national estimates of these aren't the final results we're going to get those in a few hours a day does seem to be a relatively positive move for anglo-american let's bring in our guest i get i guess. from the center for european reform thank you so much for joining us here on out is iraq i mean looking at germany which of course is europe's economic powerhouse the biggest country 96 members in the european parliament what have you made of the results and what you think we can infer about both angela merkel and the e.p. in the future parliament well 1st take away from the estimates coming from germany is dead greens are doing extremely well and that's in a way what i predicted that greens in several members states would do better

actually a dandy national polls where actually indicate. specialists and democrats in germany have probably every reason to be disappointed today will probably not be 2nd largest delegation in the european parliament you've mentioned yourself obviously if we hear. will be will be the case. european people's party will be probably the biggest leg ation which by the way is probably also the reason for a month for the who is the lead candidate for the european peoples party and the hopeful when it comes to the european commission refuse whichever party wins the most seats in parliament then effectively not quite that needs to be approved but almost gets to decide who the president of the commission is leading up to these elections we've been talking a lot about a potential surge of the far right bearing in mind we still need to hear from france and italy and that these are still national estimates not official results

but we do see germany d.f.t. not doing as well as predicted also in australian broiled in a scandal but the freedom party they're going down from 23 to 17.5 percent again we have to wait for france and italy but do you think the threat of a surge of the far right to has been avoided so far well i don't i don't think we can be complacent with the frats of the populist and euro skeptic parties i still think they will do relatively well but you rides to say indeed for the moment it looks like the pro european liberal forces are holding pretty well but you yourself side we have to wait for eternity and also the news from farms are not particularly encouraging i get a good sense from the center for european reform for the moment i think you and we were talking there about the threat of far right parties of course many many europeans across the continent the voters for these parties i think we should

specify is that they have a lot of controversial policies but that crucially a lot of them effectively want to dismantle the european union from within which is why they would certainly be a threat for anyone who believes in european institutions so who are we still waiting for when it comes to countries where we just talked about without get to their italy of course that result will be one of the last one. the last one france due to issue nationalist m it's very soon and then quite soon i think about 20 minutes we should get the 1st european parliament forecast to based on the national estimates from the 12 countries that we've had so far and then 16 pre-election voting intentions so effectively opinion polls so a lot of developments in the next few hours for the moment though that's it from brussels back to you very much indeed thank you very much barbara perhaps just one of that note to add that in parliament spokesman has said that 10 out of the $27.00 nations excluding the u.k.

is at 51 percent this is just the early figures showing that the turnout is the highest in at least 20 years was expected the turnout would be high the previous elections but voters very galvanized in this election there will be much more from london and of course from barbara in brussels a bit later on now let's get to darina endo merriam fank you very much well iraq has spoken out against how the u.s. has treated its neighbor iran in their escalating crisis but in the same breath iraqi foreign minister atolls is a ringing counterpart they're willing to mediate matheson reports on iraq's delicate position. if my homage of a reef came to baghdad to clarify where iraq style is and the ongoing tension between the u.s. and iran iraq's foreign minister seems to have given him an answer. against the unilateral measures taken by the us we are standing by iran in its position and god

willing we can play into mediated room between the parties if necessary. if iran's foreign minister has proposed signing a non-aggression pact with gulf neighbors but iran says it will take action if necessary. we will defend ourselves against any efforts for a war with iran whether it is a military or economic one that would victimize the iranian people we. we'll face it with strength and resistance iran and iraq have close ties to trade culture and religion but iraq relies on the u.s. and foreign troops to combat the threat of eisel and it needs foreign investment especially to develop its oil fields iraq has been doing a diplomatic balancing act for years and some say that puts it in a perfect position to be able to mediate between the united states and iran but to do it successfully like most negotiations it has to be seen not to take sides they're also fears that some of shia armed groups in iraq who are allied to iran

might decide to upset the doc balance they might decide to take their own action their own initiative against u.s. assets in iraq. iraqis filled tahrir square in the heart of baghdad on friday demanding that their government put iraq's safety 1st and that their country should be at the center for talks to find a solution. that the how. iraq has become a bridge where meetings have been held at the iranian embassy with european diplomatic missions and it's taken the decision to start talks with moderate countries affected by the situation to lobby the united states and iran to try to extinguish the fires of war. iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad face there's an iraqi ambassador to the u.n. he's now director of the center for the study of the middle east to indiana university he says

a european country is more likely to lead to any mediation. i have always been skeptical that iraq can ever play that role there are other countries in the region that have also that might have more ability to play that role and i think even they are sitting on the sidelines so i'm not sure that the iraqi government will in fact be able to play this role nor indeed do the 2 principal parties appear to be looking to the government of iraq to do so one of the principal casualties and the estimates of many experts including some within the iraqi government that one of the principal casualties of such a shooting war would be iraq itself and so this is focused the minds of the entire iraq a political clout regardless of which side of the issues they come out on so it's more conceivable to me that a european power perhaps even switzerland which aprile represents american interests in iran and the president of the united states met with this was

president in the oval office oval office for 2 and a half 3 hours recently so i think it's more likely that a european power will have the ability to mediate between the 2 principals rather than a regional country also in iraq the military says at least 5 people have died after a car bomb exploded at a busy market west of mosul it happened in a village near the syrian border victims are out shopping before breaking their ramadan fast and nearly all the candidates who put themselves forward for elections in algeria have been unable to register in time although it is hoped the presidential poll would help pull the country out of a crisis that forced the longtime leader i've been on these boats a fake out to quit several hire us reports. deny the full he's a proposed date to file geary's presidential election but it doesn't have any candidate saying fall the close to nil council has declared the almost all of the 77 candidates don't meet the legal requirements to take.