arabia blamed iran but so tensions are high it's a massive task ahead of them all right thanks so much as a bake there is bring in our iran analyst our in the rock he joins us live from the british capital london good to have you with us so 1st of all do you think it non-con can pull this one off. i think it so it remains open but there is more of an appetite for. increasing detente between iran and saudi arabia than there has been in recent years namely because with the campaign of maximum pressure which trump has introduced sanctions. has that iran to want to exact a cost on those sanctions and that has including included attacking u.s. facilities exxon mobil and bads or as well as allegedly saudi oil refinery facilities in the saudi kingdom and the u.s.

hasn't responded and interceded on saudi arabia's behalf on this saudi arabia is now pursuing negotiations because it's feels that things are getting too heated and it is try and it doesn't want to see further escalation by iran juta the sanctions fall on its own territory i'm glad you mentioned that last point because it is much of this really linked shall we say as much of the saudi appetite for what it does visit iran link to what saudi perceives to be the u.s. approach and appetite for action against iran. so at the moment there's a lot of rhetoric about action against iran in the us but i think it seems that trump's instincts are to be pulling out of the middle east entirely and i don't

think he wants to. support saudi arabia militarily he's happy to send troops to as as a public relations gesture and. to terence however i think saudi arabia feels that it's on its own a little bit now the yemen war has been going terribly the leader of the u.a.e. and these ads is pulling out of southern yemen saudi arabia despite dropping a lot of ordinance on yemen hasn't really changed the political situation that. the syrian war is driving to a close and lived which is some of the rebel groups in remaining rebel territory are supported by saudi arabia and these these will be on the agenda if imran khan manages to facilitate any direct bilateral talks but at the moment despite this despite iran being extremely weakened economically strategically this is a fairly strong position and while one other thing i would like to add is that.

there has been no talk between iran and saudi arabia in the last several years now before 201617 there was some talks but they were between the old guard of the saudi elite king abdullah died in 2015 and then there was a handover of power rests and johnny in iran died in 2017 and he was generally considered the major. go between between iran and saudi arabia so i bet awk into a fresh group in saudi arabia and this is why they really need to feel each other out a lot more so. the stakes are high but also viz guys haven't the same people are meeting as they were a few years ago. all right thanks so much for your analysis on that back up on the mall still on the news out to come including ecuador on the curfew

the president deploys the military after a violent demonstration is wrong for capital but offers to talk with protesters and could the world supply of government soon run out will speak to farmers in sudan about their concerns and it's more whiles maintain their winning run as they head into the knockout rounds of the big world cup. now tunisians are voting to choose a new president in a runoff election the 2 candidates are political newcomers who would be more than 20 other presidential hopefuls during the 1st round last month the new leader will have to deal with pressing issues including poverty and unemployment. take a closer look at the 2 remaining candidates then their business tycoon abele cutaway and retired law professor need holloway was recently released from jail after being

arrested last month on charges of money laundering and tax evasion his party heart of tunisia is the 2nd largest and came 2nd in last week's parliamentary vote his opponent highside is run as an independent candidate backed by the party which secured the majority of votes in sunday's elections if he wins side says he wants to change the system and allow elected regional representatives to choose national leaders. is at a polling station in tunis how him how does it look there. was sami the election committee says or the voter turnout about 2 hours ago was at 18 percent but however they are confident the voter turnout would surge late in the afternoon and could read 50 percent more than 50 percent later in the evening at least they say this could be one of the highest voter turnout in the last few years

and this explains how this has become a crucial moment for tunisia not only because there are going to elect the 2nd democratically elected president in the history it is year after the 2011 revolution but because the issues at stake here are very defiant diverse decisive and particular when it comes to the need to tackle the economy unemployment which has been on the rise and also inflation and tunisia and say that they want the next president to be able. to reach out to all the political parties ensure there's no political divide ensure there's no political divisions for the country to be able to move forward because he has huge obstacles to overcome in the coming. months. is widely seen as leading the vote the ticket because of his delivery during the performance during the debate when he voted came out of the media and said that his

imprisonment was politically motivated. by the political establishment to undermine his chance to become president of tunisia asking his followers to turn out in huge numbers and vote for him. they're giving us an update from tunis joining us now here on set is him for a how to associate professor of conflict resolution of the dosa to graduate studies good to have you with us thank you sam so how do you read this do you think that it is going to clinch it well it looks like a theory is making you know the best sense actually all the election season started and the very interesting thing is that he comes from outside but of the couple establishment. he is and he ran as an independent he's not affiliated with any political party he maintained his position coming the 1st than all the polls

and their action so far is that in fact the good news looking at the 2 front runners now is that neither of them are from the same lab the dean been ighly era of establishment it is that can we read some good news into the relative success of the revolution in tunisia in my view actually carried excellent nords because even in the bill keller we he is representing. tunis party which was formed in 2019 so this. was just for him to run for they make show is the old guard completely out of that one that's one part of good the north as a whole the guards there are no longer part of the sea and once during that time of then ali and bookkeeper but not all of this but the flexibility of the political system that allows for the 2 main front runners that the one is coming from as an independent case and and the other one just for the party and you know he's running

in now for competing for the presidency so the flexibility of the political system and this gives a good indicator on the transition from dictatorship to democracy in tunisia the democracy is flourishing in tunisia specially that we're seeing this is the 2nd time of election and usually in the literature of on the. ocracy is that they measured it with like running 4 times election right and freedom fair elections so in the loser going to last is this something of a comeback here for another since the course is an independent but he's been backed by and not the party yes i mean he is he's still in the independent he is he's a lawyer he's norn for has clean because of actually he is what he did not accept the fund that the state give him for to run for hadn't thought of a fiction and he funded his election campaign on his own. and in a very simple humble way he's seen as you said the close to not but these official

in the model doesn't have to go by that one. as kids will and the program that i don't know how to have that's kind of the model that he did not make it yes they are they did very well with the parliamentary elections but they had a competitor the computer came 3rd place or 4th person some of the polls and now you have chris aid that he's not he does not have to abide by any political party programs or and he distinctions well strong message does this send to a region that is still really struggling with the question of how to digest the arab spring the question of democracy and the and dictatorship this sends a very strong message and in the past i said commenting on the transitions of the markers if tunisia was not exist in the arab world then the arabs would have to invent tunisia because given all the must that we are seeing in the region to see

that there is a police you know not place where one player seems to be worry as there is a bright spot somewhere it's not enough and that's why also i flop on a 2nd statement by also what the arabs need you know for tunisia is that they need another tunisia in order to make critical. be able to influence the things in the you know the politics of the region to give hope for about the future. as an alternative for the conflict the wars and the civil wars in the region all right thank you so much truer thoughts and coming in to analyze things for us thank you sam now a nationwide curfew remains in effect in ecuador as the 1st talks between the government timed indigenous groups ascent to begin later on sunday president lenin moreno has said he's willing to reassess the law ending fuel subsidies that sparked protest more than a week ago on saturday thousands more demonstrated in the capital by no apollo reports from quito. unrest has continued on the streets of the ecuadorian capital

on saturday thousands of people flooded downtown quito. demonstrators calling for the resignation of the country's president once again clashed with police officers who were pretty diverse up front that this president is using public funds to kill us and shoot at us but we want to run away if we have to give our lives then so be it. was hundreds of women from across the country joined in the demonstrations and held a march of their own in solidarity with indigenous demonstrators. they called all the government to end but they say is a violent repression of peaceful protesters does not exist. that women are protesting for life because we are nice we've had enough of the brutal repression against ecuadorian demonstrators and indigenous ecuadorians. throughout the day smoking tear gas filled the air as more and more demonstrators filled the streets once again today i take it or it appears as though many are people are showing up

to participate and showing the frontlines of these demonstrations these people are coming from all parts of the country to change in these demonstrations carrying i lived only 2 or 3 squares id cannot make their cities that they say are damaging for the country. was at one point demonstrators set fire to one of the government's main administrative buildings another group of protesters set fire to a local television station many here have a deep distrust of the national news media with unrest spreading to other parts of the capital ecuadorian president lenin mode endo announced a mandatory nationwide curfew sending the military to restore order to city streets and public spaces in the book today we have declared a curfew in quito and the valleys which is already having tangible results and we have established a calm in a large part of the city. with a curfew in effect many of the capital city streets have emptied although there are

still plenty of people who remain defiant for most the hope is that an upcoming national dialogue will finally return peace to the country. and. now japan's merger is deploying tens of thousands of troops to help with rescue and cleanup efforts after a powerful typhoon swept the eastern coast at least 23 people were killed and many are missing the storm brought damaging winds and heavy rainfall causing flooding and landslides in hey has the latest from tokyo. those living in the path of typhoon were told to expect a short sharp burst of violent weather it soon became clear that the main feature of this storm was a huge amount of rainfall some areas saw around a meter of rain in 24 hours and waterways simply couldn't cope one of the worst hit areas was not good no prefecture west of japan's capital tokyo where a 70 meters stretch of the levee gave way many homes and businesses were flooded

and japan's famous bullet trains were surrounded by water and going nowhere fast or slow. the major typhoon has caused extensive damage far and wide in eastern japan one point the special warning for heavy rain was issued for as many as 13 prefixes there has also been emergency relief from various dams and flooding of various rivers it turned out to be a record heavy rain the coastal areas were battered by huge waves and winds exceeding 200 kilometers an hour or so i cut them off the building shook in the elec tricity went off for a moment that was really scary as the typhoon approached a tornado made landfall in chiba prefecture destroying houses many communities here was still recovering from a typhoon that struck last month. for most in the path of the storm it came at night. the streets of tokyo were eerily quiet as businesses closed and people were

urged to stay home by day it became easier to assess the damage and carry out search and rescue operations millions were ordered or advised to evacuate but some chose not to leave their homes or couldn't get out in time. the storm was compared in size and strength to a typhoon that struck tokyo in 1958 leaving more than 1200 people dead modern japan has become well drilled in dealing with the threat of natural disasters and it seems this time it was as well prepared as it could be. was japan's 19th typhoon this year but those who experienced it say this was one of the most intense in decades many are relieved it was relatively brief allowing the recovery to begin quickly wane hey al-jazeera tokyo or it's time to get over whether his everton. thanks very much sammi well as well a messiah in their typhoon was relatively brief but it was big frankly it was quick so it sort of rainfall totals that we've had could have been much worse tokyo 210

millimeters of rain in 24 hours further north 365 in this same time period and just to the east of mt fuji a staggering 142 millimeters of rain many a major of rain coming down in the space of 24 hours making this japan 2nd the wettest day on iraq or as i said it was brief look how quickly it sweeps out of the way clearer skies coming back in behind a systems now out into the open waters and the winds of weaken quite significantly and with the widening of the i suppose he can see how those winds of weakened a lot see across much of japan at least for the time being lights about to for now you can see the waters do remain high but the skies are clear there is some write in the for customer fred as we go on into tomorrow but hopefully not too much many people will be spending nights in the next few nights in shelters just as these people are here then you can see house quickly the sisters making its way out of the way clear skies do come back in behind as we go through monday we have got some

showers coming into central parts of honshu thankfully sammy choosing looks fine and dry. still ahead an al jazeera the mystery deepens over an all spill but it's a fact that $150.00 beaches in northeastern brazil. and the world beach games are underway and it's featuring a number of events you probably wouldn't associate with life from the storm. to strengthen do good you have to shore do good all the more with your game still fight against corruption. destroy new cheero which heroes like know who are about to refuse to $15000000.00 brian the achievement of heroes like him to showcase by the international ace award it shines

a light on these heroes because the best way to fight a dark used to shine a light let's make a rule to better plage nominate your anti corruption miro now. al-jazeera . swear every.

welcome back you're watching out 0 time to recap our headlines turkish forces and that allies are continuing to push into kurdish control towns of northern syria ankara so. as they've now entered and they say they've taken control for us and i. pakistan's prime minister is trying to mediate between iran and saudi arabia he's met iran's president hassan rouhani into her rant and he'll travel torrealba on tuesday says he's hopeful of a breakthrough sued. today's inns of voting for a new president in a runoff election choosing between 2 political newcomers business tycoon a bill law professor i. bring you some breaking news on our top story now we're getting word concerning turkey's military offensive in northern syria the u.s. apparently will withdraw up to a 1000 soldiers from the area resident jordan live for us in washington d.c.

1st in all the details here osland. well sami this is the word from the u.s. defense secretary mark asper he's been appearing on some of the sunday public affairs shows here in washington he said that because of the ongoing turkish advance 1st he has indicated that from what the pentagon understand turkey wants to expand its incursion it wants to move further south into syria as well as further west and that would theoretically put more u.s. forces in between the turkish military and forces so that's one reason why markets were says that the president trump late on saturday night told him to start a deliberate with a droll removing all troops as well as their equipment from that part of syria he other reason mr asper a saying why they're pulling these u.s. forces out of the country is because it does appear that the s.d.f.

is talking with the syrian government and with the russian government to work on some sort of military alliance in order to fight off the turkish advance now of course that is raising eyebrows here in washington because the idea that the s.d.f. which had been working so closely with the americans on fighting eisel but suddenly team up with the countries that the u.s. does not consider its allies or partners in any way but the argument at least as mr esper understands it is that the s.d.f. does not want to essentially be sitting ducks for the turkish military he also is saying this point which may also raise eyebrows around the world that even though the u.s. and the s.d.f. had a working partnership in order to fight eisel forces he kept stressing that the u.s. was not inside syria to protect the s.d.f.

or the kurdish people in general from turkey he said the u.s. . does not want to be in the middle of a conflict that is somewhat some 200 years old and he basically said that his 1st responsibility and the president's responsibility is to protecting u.s. troops from harm so about a 1000 forces as well as their equipment will be pulling out of syria it won't be instantaneous according to secretary expert but that process is going to be starting very very quickly thanks so much rather than jordan the saudi arabia has denied any involvement in friday's attack on an rainy an oil tanker iran's national oil company says the vessel was hit by 2 missiles off the coast of saudi arabia saudis minister of state for foreign affairs as a legit bio says the kingdom did not engage in any such behavior he says people should wait to find out what happened before jumping to conclusions iran says it's

discovered a new natural gas field equal to about 2 percent of its current reserves the oil ministry says the discovery was made in the southern province of fatness and has a reserve of more than 530000000000 cubic meters iran has the world's 2nd largest gas reserves but it's not a major exporter because of international sanctions. anti-government demonstrators in hong kong are staging a sit in at some more they once again defied the ban on face masks when they gathered in the shot in district rallies are also taking place in several other areas it's the 5th month of protests that began in response to a controversial extradition bill but it has since turned into a demand for political reform adrian brown is in hong kong. well this is a snapshot of sunday in hong kong we are in monk cock one of the most densely populated areas on earth here on this side of the street

a group of local people who have been hurling abuse at police just on the other side of nathan road one of the busiest thoroughfares in hong kong this standoff has been going on the some time now the police have to be careful here because a lot of people live in this area and if they start firing tear gas and of course that's going to affect a lot of innocent people the protests on sunday have been following a familiar pattern with the protesters targeting businesses that they say have mainland connections once more a starbucks outlet was vandalized we also witnessed a confrontation between a mainland man and a group of local people also the light rail transit system has also now been shut for the day after several lines were vandalized and the other rail system the m.t.r. has had to close 3 of its stations it's a reminder that 4 months on feelings are still very high in this city. kyrgyzstan

wants to change the way religious schools operate it plans to introduce laws to regulate studies in an effort to increase state control over faith schools. need reports from bishkek. evening class at the green cheek at the school one of the nearly 130 religious schools and institutions in kyrgyzstan some of the students like annette come from remote areas he joined to school 6 years ago i finished my normal school and they have. said. that they can use this school and now i study in when you're city and here together we're here. we're here you didn't read here. and. it's our 2nd 2nd class students have to be at least 16 years old before they can apply to come here. the constitution guarantees freedom of education and religion

under the system whoever wants to learn about religion has the right after finishing secondary school level. religious education is supervised by institutions that are mostly funded by charities both local and international kyrgyzstan being a secular state did occasional system doesn't include any religious studies whatsoever for that district in must go to the privately run religious schools but now the government says it will introduce reform to bring them more in line with the national education system. religious education was banned during the soviet rule the government says it recognizes that interest in religion has increases the fall of the soviet union. but after a few 100 kyrgyz citizens joined the ranks of in iraq and syria the government has national security concerns suddenly because you don't know where this charity or this financial come from and boredom in

a year's of these financial support of the leaders of the occasion should be this teaching program this will be the teaching plan what hand-off subjects or be in the occasional brawl and who have the teachers does and do they have the sufficient indication of religious fear critics say students who only go to religious schools are ill prepared to enter the workforce and the less says is what he learns in the religious school combined with his general studies in financial accounting that will make him successful in life the government is promising students like him didn't you build will merely provide the framework for religious education one that will be in tune with the secular identity of the country but at that had me. in kyrgyzstan. now fish farmers in northern malaysia are calling on the government to tackle marine pollution which they say has caused them huge

financial loss florence louis reports from the state of penang. there have been fish farms here at the mouth of the korean river in penang northern malaysia for more than 40 years but owners say the quality of the seawater is degrading and they believe that's causing their fish to die and they blame a nearby landfill for polluting the water. we depend on the sea for living if all fish can survive we are going to have to shut the farm. fish in the waters will be out of job. on the northern shores of penang island. says his caged fish have been dying as well he too blames the water quality the state government says the polluting of sea water may be caused by runoff from an

illegal quarry operated by marine research as say the increase in jellyfish off the coast of penang is an indicator that the sea water is becoming more polluted but say their studies suggest that that's not enough to cause fish to die as the same basic know is difficult for us to actually pinpoint on one factor the ocean is a very dynamic environment. is a ball and. affects as well as. the climate change that causes course the pollution it's not just those in the fishing and aquaculture industries who are affected. waterfall operators as well as hoteliers tell us that on some days the pollution from this river is so bad that a foul smell hangs in the air and the water turns into a dark almost black color on those days they tell customers to avoid swimming in the sea. the local government says residents have to do their part to leave so

cross illegally sash into the really system the people does not do the oil for duration because of support for the solution slow and check out the whole system but the people here tell us that they don't think enough is being done to ensure there's proper and viral mental monitoring nor tackle coastal pollution florence italy al-jazeera penang malaysia. also ahead an al-jazeera. in sports host japan have reached the quarter finals of the world cup for the 1st time in history. to strengthen the good but you have to shoulder court all the more with the come still fight against corruption. news hero heroes like no who are about to refuse to $15000000.00 brian the achievement of heroes like him to showcase by

the international ace award it shines a light on these heroes because the best way to fight a dark used to shine a light let's make the world a better place nominate your anti corruption miro now. didn't the u.s. treasury or just a few months ago say that no child was going to neglect we bring you the stories and developments the dramatically changing the world we live in what's behind the rise of piracy. counting the cost on al-jazeera.

now sudan is the world's main producer and exporter of gum arabic it's used in many products from soft drinks to cosmetics but farmers are worried of losing their livelihood ever morgan reports from north korea the fun. these fields of acacia trees have been tended by any means to a man's family for generations for 30 years he's been planting harvesting and tapping them for their sap the liquid flows slowly for days before drying into gum arabic it's been the main source of income for his family for decades but he's concerned that may not continue much longer. and we'll lose the ones.