they also spoke about this issue japan and iran traditionally relatively close we had the iranian foreign minister in tokyo less than 2 weeks ago and shinzo is considering a trip to tehran some time in the middle of june in the bilateral meeting with donald trump the us president said that he supported that prospect and we've also had in the past the japanese prime minister offering to mediate in this dispute there was no specific mention all of that during this media conference all the bilateral meeting as far as we understand other issues discussed not surprisingly there was no significant announcement regarding a trade deal between the united states and japan north korea despite the discussed at length especially the issue of abductees japanese citizens taken by north korea in the 1970 s. and eighty's it's an issue that shinzo abbay wants resolved he's willing to meet north korean leader kim jong il and to get that issue resolved something that donald trump says he supports and ask

a reaction from tehran now and saying that's right he joins us live saying any response from me bring in latest 7 latest comments by the u.s. right here. well it is a public holiday here into her own but we are expecting that iranian leaders are watching this press conference very closely where are we are expecting reaction latest today but what iranian leaders are likely to say is that yes perhaps president donald trump's rhetoric is softening but that may only be until his next tweet his next form of some kind of aggressive policy towards the country and many iranian leaders have seen previous comments previous overtures that may have been an extension of a hand as a largely insincere because they say the united states actions and maneuvers on the ground in the region its economic sanctions towards iran its military footing towards iran these are all actions that are by the softening of rhetoric like we've seen earlier today now there have been many calls for mediation many countries in the middle east in asia that have friendly ties with both iran and the united

states have offered to mediate a deescalation of tensions between these 2 countries but iranian leadership the iranian government has. sensibly painted itself into a kind of tight corner by saying there will be no direct talks or indirect talks with the united states and one expert we spoke to today about president trump's comments said that the decision to go to war or to declare peace is up to the supreme leader and he is the one who will who will in the end decide what to do next so the so the language that is being used is still very aggressive language on the part of iran which really goes to show how much of a trust deficit there continues to be between iran and the united states the expert who is also a former islamic revolutionary guard commander said the one way that this may change the one way that iran may become willing to speak to the united states again is if the united states returns to the 2015 nuclear deal. tehran thank you.

still ahead on al-jazeera why dealing with corruption scandals in argentina has not been playing say. the new need of zimbabwe's main opposition to unite the party before the next election. to whether sponsored by the time and always. we got plenty of storms rumbling away across central parts of europe at the moment big massive cloud around the matter around 8 only the balkans nestle nudging its way further north what's big area of low pressure associated with this and it will continue to just drift up little further north it's a nice with this because one through the next couple of days heaviest shower was full monday are going to be across a good part of italy southern parts of france and sell in germany even into southern parts of austria but certainly across a good part of the balkans and there will gradually just not its way further north

what's nice was as we go on into cheesed a widespread shower as it really is a case of spring showers sunshine and showers across much of europe by this stage east of there is on the other hand will be largely dry and pretty warm 28 celsius in kiev a 29 there for book caressed the course of woman towards the west got a few showers still in place full london in paris some wet weather coming in here for a time but trust me it will improve as we go on through the week and woman up quite nicely there the showers that we have across central parts of the mediterranean or fate to parts of north africa particularly into tunis you have seen some lovely showers here around 7080 millimeters of rainfall some that west the weather is now in the process of clearing away but she still be fine in trying right across much of north africa. the west. and ways people have to weigh your record on this channel in fact a few years ago there was a place only for one state on the land of israel i do not believe in

a 2 state solution the official story is that there are no i'm sure we all feel are you i don't care about the official story if you were going to visit today you would say what has the media been telling you now the world isn't black and white there's lots of grays in here join me mad the hot sun on the front of my guests from around the world take the hot seat and we debate the week's top stories and big issues here on our desire. a reminder of our top stories on al-jazeera this hour provisional results in the european parliamentary election show pro europe centrist parties have suffered heavy losses populists far right parties delivered some of the biggest election surprises including in france same day to meet their opinion lections had given

a boost to austria as chancellor after the coalition government collapsed because of these so-called investigate scandal sebastian curses people's party won around 34 percent of the vote losing just one seat the chancellor is to face a no confidence vote in parliament this monday and in other news donald trump says he is not seeking regime change in iran on the 3rd day of his visit to japan the us president reiterated his willingness to have talks with the iranian leaders and do a nuclear weapons deal. not to argentina where accusations of corruption were rampant when christina kitchener was in power since then judicial authorities have launched a campaign to detain and seize assets of those involved in corruption scandals there are several has a story from. sealing through but in a river aboard a confiscated $1000000.00 luxury yacht that's been used by argentine security forces. the ship belonged to the god of the jaime the former transport

secretary during the administration of cristina fernandez. he's currently in prison accused of corruption what it will say the prefect says all saudis are using the yacht because the government cannot sell it this york was recovered in a corruption operation it is now used by the students of the institute so they can learn how to navigate we have to pay for maintenance everything is very costly but i would rather buy speedboats all students but in the meantime. it is what we have . represented construction workers. corruption and extortion the estimated value of this is about $350000.00. but it's not just there are at least 3 garages like this one filled with luxury cars the government has to pay for the maintenance and insurance of the vehicles at

cost that people like says needs to stop. ideally if the vehicles were normal we could use them in operations the problem is that in this case the cars are too expensive for us to use we have to keep them and it requires a big investment to keep them i. accusations of corruptions were rampant during the previous administration but he came to power in 2015 with a promise to fight it but he was also investigated because his name appeared in the panama papers machree is the son of a once powerful businessman who also had dealings with the argentine state. never mind the political part there are within the political establishment links to transcend the party mix business and political classes and many of them want all the corruption investigations to be closed because many many.

decrease so the government can sell the confiscated corruption items but for now it has not been implemented. the degree needs to be controlled by congress and congress rejected it the decree is unconstitutional i think fighting criminal organizations require us to address the new methods but it has to go through congress and all political forces should be on the same side. but it's an election year in argentina and for now many in. the opposition say the law will have to wait . fighting between prisoners in brazil has killed at least 15 in made some others were strangled during visiting hours the a mouse in amazonas state at least $56.00 prisoners were killed during a rebellion in the same jail 2 years ago dozens of passengers are missing drowned after a crowded boat sank in

a lake in the democratic republic of congo at least 30 people died in my don't be in the d.r. see around 180 survive the disaster on saturday night as the boat was ferrying around 350 passengers somewhere teachers travelling to collect their salaries staying in africa zimbabwe's main opposition party has elected nelson chamisa as its leader it was the 1st congress held by the movement for democratic change since the death of its founder morgan china last year the party has been plagued by divisions since his death or reports from where or in central symbolic way. after months of infighting over who will be leaders of opposition party nelson chamisa is the elected president of the movement for democratic change he ran unopposed after some who wanted the top job list the party or dropped out of the race. with sean zimbabwe africa that it is possible to be democratically disposed to renew it is possible to. nonviolent peaceful

contests internally and that is what we've shown the world look at the number of people. are watching him closely to see how he plans to put pressure on president innocent of a rising inflation and unemployment along with fuel and casualties nelson chamisa narry lost last year's presidential election to president innocently with a result he has significant support. but whether he can appeal to a broader audience remains unclear. his in d.c. party also has to show it's different from the ruling zanu p.f. i mean there's a lot of common ground between the ruling party and the ideological frameworks and propositions. both pro free market business and. he may differ in terms of world leaders. but fundamentally.

when it comes to his party or has cheated i thi opposition is the 1st congress since morgan tsvangirai died from cancer last year. soon after the death of the m.d.c. founder the party split over who should replace him. the next election is she in 4 years jimmy so will need everyone to work with him if he should oppose the only party minisub audience that even know. where. the head of the military council in sudan. has visited the u.a.e. as crown prince for talks on sunday the united arab emirates has said it still supports a secure and stable sudan as protest against the military continues in a cartoon the protesters have been worried about interference from countries like sudan and sanjay arabia as they continue to demand a transfer to civilian vor meanwhile one of sudan's main opposition groups has

rejected calls from other process leaders to organize a general strike on tuesday and wednesday it's the latest sign of divisions between opposition groups trying to force the military to give civilians for control of the country imran kahn reports from saddam's capital khartoum. the national party have made that announcement asking people not to take part in the nationwide strikes all the people here are listening from the ones that we've been speaking to certainly notes they are wanting to take part in the strike the national mall party seems to have misread the mood of the country the game seems to have changed they know the policy that they once were it's the sudanese professionals association that are now the key players they're the ones calling for the strike they say that they've been forced into this strike action because the army isn't negotiating in good faith they're also saying that they want everybody to take part in the strike action

because they want the sudanese people to see them and to take part and to join in with them now the sudanese professionals association is actually representative of quite a number of industries including lawyers don't and people who work in the petrochemical industry communications industry it's a very middle class movement so it will have some impact certainly here in the capital halting but actually a lot of these protesters also very angry because of what they see as being the transitional military council acting as the defacto government of sudan in the last few days we've seen the vice chairman of the sudanese transitional military council meet with mohamed bin so man the crown prince of saudi arabia we've seen the chairman meet with abdul fattah el-sisi the leader of egypt and also with the current prince of abu dabi mohammed bin zajac and that's angering people

here so also i mean they have been divisions within. actual opposition movement and they seem to be now coming together to say actually it's time for us to call the strike it's time to put the army on the box and put ourselves in a stronger negotiating position now to the west side. nation been in which says it's working with the french government to a razor return of precious artifacts stolen during the colonial era but one of the challenges is the capacity to look after the items one still returned. tang reports from album a region that many of those items are thought to have been taken from. this is what remains of the palace of what was once the most powerful kingdom in french speaking africa we were given rare access to the album a palace of 48 hector maze of compounds rich in history and culture dating back hundreds of years. ago it is himself

a prince mature who is explaining how the apple makings conquered their enemies sold their people to slavery and took hundreds of wives. then in his asking france to return thousands of artifacts looted from the country during the colonial wars many of them thought to be from the kingdom of apple me these stars represent the spirits of the other making and they date back to the 1600s the obama people considered these and other stolen artifacts to be at the heart of their culture and that's why they want them back. the current king holds a position still steeped in ceremony we have to kneel while he grants us an audience and gives his view on the issue. when these objects are back we will perform so roman used to recover their powers this will allow peace to reign in our country we've suffered so much since the reign of my father shot by jew we have only seen pictures today i am king and if they carry past. it would be a great joy for us. in december 28th in france as president announced the return of

just 26 pieces but that hasn't happened yet because been in is not ready to receive them the government admits it needs resources and expertise we have in where you. ministry of culture in france for training health professionals here the curator is. fair in our sights and museums and the professional courses has already started hearing been in the french institute in order to have a really nice exhibitions we have to modernize. eyes. museum and we're working on that really the french side because passages to preserve the country's culture and history is a challenge that extends beyond me in the capital city of portland the best museum in town is also in need of support along with iconic buildings such as the central

mosque built in the early $1900.00 to the world to much to the president of his people's past is his passion but it's going to take time before you look at the chance to see his kingdoms artifacts back on home soil i'm aborting al-jazeera uppal me. you can find much more news as always on our website at al-jazeera dot com the very latest on all of our top stories on their al-jazeera dot com. hello again i'm fully back to deal with the headlines on al-jazeera provisional results in the european parliamentary election show probably europe centrist bodies have suffered heavy losses populist far right parties delivered some of the biggest election surprises including in france and italy and the european elections have given a boost to austria as chancellor sebastian currie sop to the coalition government collapsed because of the so-called it bisa gate scandal is people's party won

around 34 percent of the vote losing just one seeds curses to phrase a no confidence vote in parliament on monday the u.s. president says he's not seeking regime change in iran he's also reiterated his willingness to hold talks with the iranian leaders and says he wants to do a deal with iran over its nuclear weapons donald trump made those comments during the 3rd day of his visit to japan. and i'm not looking to hurt the room i'm looking to have iran say no nuclear weapons we have enough problems in this world right now with nuclear weapons no nuclear weapons for and i think will make a deal i think a room again i think iran has tremendous economic potential and i look forward to letting them get back to the stage with a can show that i think a room i know so many people from iran these are great people it has it is to be a great country with the same leadership we're not looking for regime change i just

want to make that clear dozens of passengers and missing feared drowned after a crowded bold sank in a lake in the democratic republic of congo and he said people died in lake my don't buy around 180 survived the disaster on saturday night as saw the boat was ferrying around 350 passengers some were teachers travelling to collect their salaries fighting between prisoners in brazil has killed at least 15 inmates some were stopped others were strangled during visiting hours nam analysing amazonas state at least 56 prisoners were killed during a rebellion in the same jail 2 years ago brazil has the world's 3rd largest prison population and overcrowding is a serious problem in the sudan the head of the military council abdel fattah albritton has visited the u.s. crown prince for talks a trip follows where han's visit to meet egypt's president on saturday a move that has angered protesters in sudan who are worried about foreign interference in the country's transition to civilian rule those are the headlines

on al-jazeera coming up next it's outfront to stay with us. just back to yemen what was the glimpse of the country that could go we listen that children are deeply affected because of war we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter now does a run. on up from today we'll debate why turkey is rerunning a major election but 1st i'll challenge nobel peace laureate and former liberian president ellen johnson sirleaf on corruption nepotism and the prosecution of war crimes. ellen johnson sirleaf thank you for joining me up front it's been more than

a year since you left office as president of liberia you came into power off the back of a peace deal that followed decades of war and violence and. you ended your mandate with liberia's 1st successful democratic transition in 73 years you're the 1st woman to lead an african nation a nobel peace prize winner and yet some might say you've been more popular abroad than you have been at home what do you say to them. well you know i think your point really went around the country where i spent a lot of time going into rural areas being able to work with farmers and role women . and trade is you know i found that i was very well connected with them but also it's in the cities some of the positions i took maybe not popular then that's fine but i also know that i had to be out in the global community being able to mobilize the support for liberia being able

to reach to my peers credit worthiness. being able to make sure that the partnership that we needed ok you know was put in place to enable us to achieve our development goals i'm very happy with what i was able to do when you became president in 2005 you pledged a war on corruption you called it quote a national cancer and called public enemy number one but then you yourself were hit with a variety of scandals your government and you later said you quote underestimated the cultural reach of corruption but surely liberian culture isn't to blame for corruption librarian politicians such as yourself and others are to blame for corruption well let me tell you politicians are part of the culture politicians are part of their the system but it's also how blaming the public the country for the actual knowledge lamie anybody nonono i think you you're just talking what are listening that's not what i'm saying i'm saying dependency dishonesty.

institutions to point to corruption. you mention the institutions and yet you did have an independent corruption what started the general auditing commission which found 20 government ministers accused 20 government ministers of corruption and you failed to prosecute any of them why. well let me tell you something all of those records were sent to our liberia anti-corruption agency they were also sent our legislature we all got a particular unit in the presidency to be able to look at all of those cases and to be able to send them power to the ministry of justice where ever people prosecution was necessary why would they pressure let me let me well because our system is like that you have if you want to really understand liberia you

need to dig deeper you need to understand culture our values our systems and the way to tackle it is not always to just make a whole lot of noise. but to quietly build those institutions that are going to go on last what is it about your country's institutions and values and culture led you to appoint 3 of your sons and your sister to top government positions something that led to your fellow liberian nobel peace laureate leymah bowie to resign from her post as head of liberia's peace and reconciliation commission to she you know understand liberia. less lead no less let's put it this way 1st of all when i took office talking about one of my sons was always in place in place couple of ministrations before i took place and i did. yes i didn't think it was

necessary to do so if you're talking about where i needed a specialized skill to be a way she objected of trying to mobilize resources to tackle major development programs that's what i did and frankly where you place look around today as some other countries that have found themselves perhaps in similar position and happening able to put in place those particular which varies. leave that to you to do your research i've done my research at the british prime minister has been appointed then a canadian prime minister has been appointed in family members the french president has appointed any family members the german chancellor as an appointed any family members i could have going going to have an early good there was that oh well you were saying look i don't reason i'm saying it's not a common practice for president or prime minister certainly not in democratic nations to appoint a bunch of family members to run this very very low level let me put it this way we

really got this you know let's just let's deal with the real life you. can help this well and i'm going to see you say let's deal with the matter is really at our letters i know you said you said you say you are going to i mean is that a special skill set your son robert sirleaf was appointed chairman of liberia's national oil company that company went bankrupt in $30.00 to $40000000.00 us dollars disappeared what special skill set did he bring to the national will be no no no no no no let me just say what you just said. i i lie you look at the red cross that is nothing about. that company. no problem little international company nassau or company ran into because. 2 companies that were trying to x. . x. so more well chevron could not point.

that this company could not continue it's a simple as that and the record how about the liberia central bank you appointed your son charles deputy governor that. i suspect has officially declared assets and 2 months ago he was ordered to be held in jail while awaiting trial for having unlawfully printed local currency worth tens of millions of us dollars did you know he was doing that. well i didn't know you wanted to have an interview just a comma with just statements i mean it's apples and i'm confused it was you know. that i thought you know that you know as you know i you know 2 i mean it's not wrong if the ad is not true that is not true that is not true he was. just applied. literally. and so he was charged i mean not your that was initially you're not going to charge a i'm just ask you to comment on him being held for trial you're saying that didn't

happen clearly you're not know what you're trying to do what you're trying to do is to ship now that's what you're trying to do we do that we need to have a civil exchange i'm very civil very simple question you accuse me of making a living i've been accused of anything i simply asked your son who has been ordered to be held in jail while awaiting trial for having unlawfully printed local currency worth tens of millions of dollars what's your reaction to that there's nothing uncivil about that question. look i was system requires that when we have a when we have a limited jurisdiction the court we're not supposed to talk about it tell that matter settled by the courts so you're trying to make me do things that i'm not right not legal please don't do that ok how about what happened on your watch you suspended him for defaming to declare his assets am i lying about that as well.

what i have to do you have to realize how i read what i read and i read it up maybe i will try to work out what you want to know how did you run the government you appointed family members suspended some of them just wondering how that works. well i don't think you want to. i do i don't think i don't think you want to go there because i'm asking questions that are very legitimate questions i would ask any former president on this show about corruption allegations on their watch the fact that i happen to be your children is neither here nor there. so you don't want to comment on anything about corruption ok one of the other things critics lined up against you for your criticized for your former support of charles taylor your predecessor who's of course a convicted war criminal in 2000 and you formally apologized for having stood behind him that same year the liberian truth and reconciliation commission made a set of recommendations saying that a compensation scheme should be created a dedicated war crimes court should be set up you never took action on those things

why not we have that. we have. all of those. that characterize country like. it's. best for all of those things that have kept us down that have to. happen. well it will not be referring consideration for to get past eventually. reconciliation has gone to the courts. it's left the courts it has transformed into law. that process has started a process of contrition and forgiveness all of that has started

and i don't you know the mission on truth and reconciliation which also accused you of financing informing quote the warring factions in liberia's civil war the report said people including yourself should be banned from occupying public office for 30 years. but then made that up to date on the west country maybe you forget that after that came out i won 2 elections because you ignored the recommendation that said i shouldn't be allowed to run around or no no no that went to court you see you don't have enough information for the things you say ok that's really unfortunate ok this matter went to the courts i didn't put it it went pretty in court and the decision was taken you cannot visit glad you did not have the legal powers to be able to judge people given the right of self-defense was in my

case it was somebody else's case if you just take a little bit of time to understand the truth and the facts then you won't have to say some of the things you say. it's not true than that the recommendation was for people not to run for office for 30 years i just made that up. and you totally missed the point. we'll have to agree to disagree with the reports of people to look it up one last question you're one of the few african leaders to have led a peaceful democratic transition when you look at the state of democracy and some other african nations and see how so many others libya zimbabwe others have failed to do the same of have repeatedly contested elections what's your advice to those other african countries or other african leaders i think africa is on the right track when it comes to democracy i think what we need is to make strong institutions to show that democracy is implemented.