least 89 it happened close to the border with mali violence across west africa sahil region has been increasing with the u.n. describing it as devastating and all flights out of manila as international airports have been suspended as authorities warn a large volcanic eruption could be imminent they tell volcano speed massive cloud of ash that drifted over the philippine capital on sunday thousands have been forced to leave their homes australia's prime minister has expressed regret over his handling of the bushfire crisis ravaging the nation scott morrison also said the unprecedented fives may become the new normal for his country talk to al-jazeera is coming up next with a conversation about the ideas that are shaping our times that's just in a minute. it's

called. the ability. the middle east peace process is a term spin used by world leaders time and time again he refers to efforts made by the international community to end the israeli palestinian conflict. one of the most significant events of the past 50 years is the oslo accords a set of agreements that were 1st signed in 1993 by the governments of israel and the palestine liberation organization to put in place a series of procedures based on un resolutions for the eventual goal of an independent palestinian state and to oversee this agreement the un established the office of the special coordinator for the middle east peace process. the coordinate

his mandate is to lead the u.n. system in all political and diplomatic efforts related to the peace process but nearly 30 years since its establishment what impact has it had the palestinians and israelis and the broader region the u.n. special coordinator for the middle east peace process nicole i'm allowed in off talks to al-jazeera. nicol i'm leveling off u.n. special coordinator for the middle east peace process thank you for talking to al-jazeera can i perhaps start with fact your job title you are the special coordinator for the middle east peace process is there actually a middle east peace process right now not. i seem to be the only one stuck with it on my business card. there is no middle east peace process i don't think either the israeli or the palestinian side. for the various different reasons are in

a position to actually currently engage in meaningful negotiations we've seen over the last few years the international architecture for supporting israel opposed to negotiations or saw threatened and under pressure and i feel the a lot of our work current lee has focused more on preventing war in gaza are focusing a lot and preventive diplomacy preserving the consensus internationally as much as possible on how the israeli palestinian conflict can be resolved. and really working quietly to build conditions for the future leadership or on both sides to actually hopefully come back to the negotiating table in a meaningful manner. president trump seems to think there's a middle east peace process is put it is son in law jarrett cushion or in charge of it what do you know of the plan is there a question

a plan even but we haven't seen anything it i stay in touch with our american friends quite often i meet with jerrold and others and my position to them has always been very clear if you want to. come up with a plan that is meaningful one should start by saying that israelis and palestinians must separate into separate states that's a very basic premise and it is not just because that's the consensus in terms of u.n. resolutions and international law and bilateral agreements but it's also the only way to. achieve the nat natural if you wish aspirations for both peoples to have statehood secondly it must be in line with what un resolutions another documents include and that is pretty much what the consensus for the rest of the world is and how to resolve israeli palestinian question and thirdly it must be done in a way that it brings the parties back to the table because i don't and perhaps this

is just me coming from the balkans into the middle east but i feel very strongly that outsiders can help but they can never do the job for for for for other people and if that we have a role to play in this conflict that is to facilitate to help but never to impulse and i think this is constructive advice to our american friends we still haven't seen any proposal on the table but we continue talking to everybody what do you think the american position is on that basic idea a 2 state solution there was that economic conference in bahrain and there was no mention there from the american side of an actual sovereign palestinian state there was no mention but if you read the conference documents carefully and the proposals that they came up with for the economic development of palestine you could perhaps see the outline. that if you implement all the projects that were put on the

table particularly some of them that link the gaza to the west bank and others you could see the outline of a future state what i'm concerned with is that when the us officially does not want to say the 2 states is the core of the position. that they hold that they depart from the consensus that has for a very long time. ruled internationally how this conflict is resolved and it also feeds unfortunately into the situation on the ground because what we have on the ground is you know some people say it's a one state reality i will say it's a one state reality of perpetual occupation and anger and frustration and that's not a good situation for us both for palestinians or israelis you also see a lot of people today question the very idea that it's you can untangle palestinians and israelis into 2 separate entities 2 states and say well you know we have to go in

a different direction no longer should we have the goal of 2 states perhaps we should have one state. that has equal rights for everyone arabs jews muslims christians everyone. in these discussions unfortunately i feel very easy to take hold in the public sphere but if challenge to they really don't answer the very basic questions that both you know israelis and palestinians to face i remember about 2 years ago asking your boss the secretary general tony terrorists about the viability now of a 2 state solution he said yes it's still just about viable that was 2 years ago do you believe it's viable now or have the israelis built on it well i suppose i should say it's just viable. but the reality is changing on the ground every day and that reality is at all levels if you look at the. the facts on the ground if you see the expansion of settlements and i don't mean just the physical building of

houses but the infrastructure that accompanies a settlement. if you look at the rate of demolition of palestinian structures in area c. area sees the area which is under civilian control by israel of the west bank. you see less and less land that is available for of people if you look but it's not just the land it's also the national narratives of both israelis and palestinians have gone in very different directions if in the early ninety's they'd ninety's early 2000 people were enthusiastic about reaching out to each other and having joint projects and working together now there's a trend to not talk to each other. and this is very dangerous and thirdly i think very importantly is the continuing level of violence which undermines the basic trusts between people and also undermines the ability to return to negotiations and hence on this really side i've hardly met an israeli who doesn't

believe that another peace process. doesn't end up in more violence for them for the israelis and i've hardly met a palestinian who doesn't believe the move the peace process ends up in more losses for the palestinians of loss of land or loss of dignity it makes it a very complicated situation and i will admit that one does need to think out of the box on how to. constructively reengage you talk about out of the box thinking clearly the question a plan if there was one certainly with regard to the 1st part in bahrain was get the money flowing 1st get the economy flowing 1st but if seen that philip figures in the palestinian authority were very dismissive of that hamas said palestine is not for sale that whole idea is dead in the water isn't it. well i don't i don't think you can really. how to put it i don't think you can really convert the

political issue into a just a humanitarian or a or a an issue of salaries and economic opportunity certainly the economy is a very major part of it. and if i look at just gaza as an example of what we as the u.n. together with egypt and others have done over the last. 2 years we've actually approached it in a different way we've said look in gaza and let me expand a little bit on that we have a very serious set of problems that may lead us to war we've divided these problems into 3 sets security issues that need to be addressed humanitarian issues development and getting jobs for people and couple has been critically important in providing support for the u.n. in that respect and thirdly political issues unity rational unity and a way forward we need to admit that there is a very serious security challenge on the ground both for israelis and for palestinians whether it's in gaza or israel proper and the west bank very serious

security threats ranging from terrorists rockets and arrests and all kinds of other incidents the very serious economic challenges because when the current system that's an place for the palestinian economy it was designed in 1904 it's quite a long time ago and we're constantly running into bottlenecks for palestinian development as you know president trump sees these things in very black and white terms he's a transactional president he talked as you know about the deal of the century the point man for this working for him and shared cushion or was jason green blass he clearly doesn't see there's a deal of the century any time soon because he quit his role in september you'd think he'd want to stay around for a deal of the century given that this question of plan if it exists has been perspire on because of the israeli election and we now are going to have a 3rd try at the israeli election that then gets us into the u.s. . it's election calendar do you see any possibility of the u.s.

presenting this plan before president trump leaves office very long century i think american friends must really work hard on any proposal that they put forward if and when they put it. to you supposed to be the international community's man in charge of this well it's up to them and they want to show it to us i would prefer very much and we've said this often enough is that whatever proposal was put forward that would be shared with. the quartet which includes the u.n. the russians and the european union that we all feed into it so there's some ownership of it that it's consulted with arab countries who are critical for any implementation whether it's from becoming perspective or to the political. prospects of it and that is done in a way that actually brings the sides together if that happens whether in the beginning of the century in the middle of the century of the end of the century i'd

be all for it but we haven't seen that at this stage and it's very speculative to say what the plan includes because none of us have actually read it we've had many discussions and we've exchanged lots of views and ideas on what and how it should be should be in it as you look at the situation on the ground and i think it's pretty clear that it is deteriorating you sit in your office used to be called government house an old colonial building on the green line between what was described as east and west jerusalem you can see buildings that have been built illegally i'm sure from your office there with the sunken garden tell me as you look out on that settlement building how the pace of those settlements has changed let's just choose one time period the last 3 years has changed i would say it's been it's been fairly consistent it's increased perhaps in terms of them. announcements by the governments of plans to build settlements but in terms of the

construction rate it's been pretty steady. over the last few years. it is. you know it's a very you know because of the israeli election cycle now we're into the 3rd election and just over a year it's one of the most politicized issues if you wish because some political parties believe that more announcements in terms of service and construction and such are wins them votes in upcoming elections. and i think this drives a lot of the narrative in that sense where i see a danger coming up rather rather quickly that is in debates which we've heard over the last few months of the possible annexation of the jordan valley and more than that sea area now if that would happen that would certainly go against all bilateral agreements or un security council another resolutions and pretty much you

know all aspects of international law and it would not be constructive. at all because it would certainly create an environment in which the very prospect of a solution which is so much under threat these days and people are fearful that it's slipping from us as you said in the very beginning you know there's practically no peace process. if that were to happen it's. i'm not sure we can preserve that prospect but this is an idea that prime minister netanyahu is even come up with a mouth it shows that they would annex 20 to 23 percent of the west bank but it's not just him his rival benny gantz is also talking in favor of the idea of an exception it seems that whoever if it's one of those 2 is elected as prime minister this is something you're going to have to face well you know between words and deeds there's a quite a few steps to take and a lot of complications in between now we're in a 3rd election cycle in israel so i expect

a lot of things to be said but i do also expect all of us to understand if we want to preserve peace in a very volatile region of the middle east. the whole region is quite volatile these days we need to make the extra effort not to create the reasons for further radicalization and for further angering of people whether that's in the west bank whether it's in gaza which is currently very much a focus or anywhere else for that matter has not the israeli government current israeli government in fact the whole israeli politically elite been encouraged in all this empowered by the trumpet ministration when earlier on i said 3 years the last 3 years you've seen an increase it seems to me to me the figures i've seen and i'm looking at statistics from peace now quite a large increase in the last 3 years that's the 3 years since president trumps been in power. well i suppose you know there are some people in israel who do feel that

the fact that this u.s. administration has sided you know 100 percent with israeli positions on a number of issues whether it's settlements or the annexation of the golan or moving the embassy to jerusalem etc i suppose that that encourages some people in israel to think that they can do more but also ultimately if one stops for a 2nd and looks around you have 2000000 palestinians in gaza and what's 3000000 in the west bank they're not going anywhere. as much as israel has the right to have a state in this in the land between the river and and the sea so today. and if you think that in the future you could have some formula would actually denies them not just that right but denies them the very rights that citizens in

any democratic state you either end up with a state in which your democracy is undermined. or you end up in a state in which. ultimately you know. you can't call it a democratic state that the you know part it says and i think you said that's where a lot of israelis are thinking now these days that well indeed if you. the current status quo. which is far less violent than many other parts of the region but still unstable and moving in a negative direction if the current status quo were changed. to a situation where you have citizens of we who have different rights that's not a good thing do you fear that it could become in a party like system it's not for me to label what happens it's my reflection on what i hear from people in israel of the fears that they have for the future and i

hope that actually we will be able to to to to to get back into what is the what is what is the right track to address this this this issue you've mentioned some of the recent actions by the trumpet ministration they recently overturned 40 years of u.s. policy and said settlements while they're not necessarily illegal they there are taking a position that goes against international law would you say that's definitely a case though that's just as we've said through security council quite quite clearly and secretary general has been very outspoken on that. indeed even if the future of settlements is an issue of negotiation the. expansion their existence their development is against u.n. security council resolutions and international law and then. an exciting part of the golan again that is a violation of international early years ok and the recognition of jerusalem as

israel's capital again which you say that is a violation of international recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital by the u.s. is taking a position on one of the final status issues as they've been defined by the israelis and palestinians was for a very long time and the final status issues include druce of them and settlements in the. and. borders and based on the 67 line and access to water and refugees and all of these issues so when when the us changed its position in terms of jerusalem as in all of these other examples that you quoted it didn't change what the international consensus is because if you go to the security council meetings which we have monthly on this on the subject. and you hear the rest of the security council members and you look at the votes in the general assembly and you look at you know the discussions in europe etc

elsewhere in the arab world certainly. the consensus is still there the future of the future status of jerusalem has to be decided in most haitians let's move we've talked a lot about the americans and the israelis let's talk about the palestinians and this endless talk of trying to get. the 2 palestinian groups together there's talk of elections do you see any progress at all. what i see progress in the talks. i'm still skeptical that elections will happen and i'm very much fearful that this division which has existed between gaza and the west bank within fatah and hamas and for what teen years now. i'm sorry to say it it's like a cancer. it's a cancer eating away of the very palestinian national course and i hope that now

after all the discussions all the efforts that we put in place to prevent another war in gaza and all the work that we've done to get fatah and hamas to make compromises on the road to elections the we will actually see a vote and palestine that elects a new legislative council in the next new presidential leadership this is the agreement and this is a promise that president abbas made and this is a promise that needs to be delivered upon how could the palestinian cause change if there was one unity and 2 younger more vibrant leadership president abbas is 84 years old he is currently serving the 15th year of what was supposed to be a 4 year term and there's no legislative council which was disbanded recently there are issues with the judicially and finances are problem finance is

a very serious problem. if you actually managed to get back into sort of a normal democratic election cycle through elections. then then it least the legitimacy of the institutions will not be questioned and the government that is elected both by the people in the west bank. and in gaza will have a legitimate claim and will need support to be able to govern both i think that would be a fundamental change to the equation. right now i fear that if we leave things an attendant the way they are now. they'll be just more illusion more and more and more anger more disillusionment with the future and i'm really really fearful and i see this. very carefully that if you look at the rest of the middle east if you look at iraq for example if you look at syria leaves

if you leave a community long enough marginalized and this empowered and disenfranchised and segregate and closed that community collapses and becomes a breeding ground for radicals do you fear another all we don't want to see that happening in palestine do you feel you know you're feeling all day we've seen we've seen 3 wars since 2008 in november there was a couple of days of very serious violence do you fear that they could be another war in gaza i fear every single day that we're just days away from another war in gaza i hope that we can we can you know become that we have now the relative calm that we have now we can use to to to to consolidate what's been achieved over the last few over the last year. and move away from this constant cycle fearing that every week every friday every monday an incident may happen and it may drag

a sore back into another devastating conflict that conflict will not just be terrible for the people living in gaza extremely damaging for the people who live in israel particularly wrong with communities around gaza but but but really. i think really devastating for the rest of the region it's now 27 years since the oslo process started that was a time of great hope as you now look at the situation which you follow and monitor so closely every single day can you tell me one sign of hope even. well we're still there and i don't mean we as the u.n. but the people who have really really invested in this quarter of a century that you've just quoted in building institutions. you know one i went to ramallah maybe this was more than a year ago for some for some meeting and people were getting very angry and saying

well you know what we'll just throw away the keys and invite is released come back and take it all over it cetera et cetera. you know you're not renting an apartment. it's your own land you don't just throw away the keys the amount of effort that has been made in moving from where the p.l.o. was when the. also agreements were signed to actually building up state institutions and functioning state institutions is immense and it's an immense achievement for the palestinian people they can't give up on that they shouldn't give up on that and we as the international community shouldn't give up on that. u.n. special coordinator for the middle east peace process thank you for talking to us.

frank assessments the one good thing about these bush bars is that it's really wiping out all of the climate change informed opinions economy i think is actually what's keeping donald trump afloat right now critical debate sequel almost to school children know what the law is all about this argument is astonishing the part rising in depth analysis of the day's headlines this is the beginning of the new iraq of the new conscious and aware of youth about struggle against an ethnic sectarian kota inside story on al-jazeera. we understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the wound so no matter how you take

a al-jazeera to the news and current affairs that matter to you. down to 0. the or. the or. hello i maryam namazie london with a quick look at the headlines now cattles and there is calling for a dialogue between the u.s. and iran to ease tensions in the region after the iranian government admitted to accidentally shooting down a ukrainian passenger jet the emir is the 1st leader to visit the iranian capital since the assassination of the powerful military commander qassam saleh money on january 3rd iran's president has said rouhani said the shooting down of the jet was a disastrous mistake and spoken to the leaders of ukraine and canada where many of the passengers came from geology to walk has this.