timing of it all coming on the very day that china is due to conclude a major trade deal with the european union that's been calling on china to free all the activists to both the hong kong and central governments though this case will serve as a warning to others facing charges over last year's unrest who may also try to abscond adrian brown al jazeera hong kong. this is al jazeera these are the top stories several people have been killed after an explosion in the southern yemeni city of aden last happened as members of the new yemeni government arrived at the airport on hama to a lot of the gives us more details by phone from yemen's capital sana'a there were powerful explosions have been heard in the studio. according to some sources that the number of casualties also what many people have been killed

and injured. being. looted according to. the sit back to riyadh. by you to meet the current the 7 countries council and also the yemeni government the u.k. house regulator has approved the oxford astra zeneca corona virus vaccine for emergency use the government's already preordered 100000000 doses paves the way for a huge expansion of the government's inoculation program it has implications of around the world a being by far the cheapest vaccine to buy of all those approved so far. british members of parliament are meeting for an extraordinary session to vote on the e.u. trade deal negotiated last week it's expected to pass comfortably but the main opposition labor party supporting the agreement scottish national party m.p.'s are opposing the deal calling it a disaster the vote comes just a day before the u.k.

automatically leaves the e.u. single market i historic victory for women's rights in latin america where senators in argentina have passed a bill legalizing abortion after a marathon session $38.00 senators voted to allow terminations up to 14 weeks $29.00 senators voted against it up to $520000.00 women seek illegal abortions in argentina each year 40000 of them end up in hospital because of complications during the procedure. there have been several aftershocks the central croatia a day after a 6.4 magnitude quake killed at least 7 people it struck near the town of parts of 50 kilometers from the capital zagreb the local mayor says half the town has been destroyed. those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after inside story of life and.

reigning in the armed groups and they're out the prime minister is under pressure to deal with pro it on militias recent attacks are putting myself i'll call them his leadership to the test is he capable of confronting the problem and how much of a threat do these groups pose this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm. since taking office and made it up to prime minister myself i would call that me has been tackling a number of international and domestic challenges however his main policy has been to reduce the stranglehold iran backed militias have had

a large parts of the country's security forces since the fall of saddam hussein in 2003 but i'll call them is ability to succeed is being questioned on december 20th at least 8 rockets struck because the heavily fortified green zone one worker was wounded and a residential complex and cars were damaged the arrest of a senior leader in. that huck militia for his involvement in the attack has opened up the possibility of a confrontation between the government and armed groups. meanwhile tensions are escalating between the united states and iran u.s. president donald trump blamed it on for the budget that attack and threaten to respond militarily the claim was dismissed by the new chief of tehran's elite quids force part of iran islamic revolutionary guards corps on a recent visit to their capital is my if on the replaced qassam so they money who was assassinated in a u.s. drone strike in january the white house is now concerned about what iranian backed forces in there up might do ahead of the anniversary of solar mani's death will discuss this shortly with our guests but 1st let's take

a closer look at the main iran backed militias in there and up the popular mobilization forces was formed in 2014 after a call from leading shiite cleric ali assistant for at all pleased to join the fighting us eisel its members are mostly shiite muslims and many of them are supported by you dons government of hezbollah was set up in 2003 just before the invasion of it up by the us and its allies during the war it carried out many attacks against american and coalition forces and has longstanding ties with iran. who is on the u.s. terror list heads the iranian backed shiite militia as. his forces fought in syria alongside president bashar assad's troops. all right let's bring in our guests michael prejudgment is senior fellow at the hudson institute and a former adviser to the security forces he joins us from washington d.c. and in tehran we have ali a rainy a researcher at the center for strategic studies welcome to each of you michael let

me start with you today just how precarious is the position that of the prime minister mostafa called me finds himself in right now and is he going to be able to confront those iran backed armed groups in the country. well thanks for having me it is it is it difficult position for anyone who becomes prime minister to go after these militia members when the militia members themselves wear the uniform of the iraqi military so in several cases from mr connerly has has put counterterrorism sir our counterterrorism forces at risk by having them capture militia members only to release them within 2472 hours after economy was pressured by members of the militias to include fog of catawbas law case because ali osama hoch so it is a very sensitive for iraq when the prime minister cannot use the iraqi security

forces because there infiltrated by these militias to go after militia members responsible for rocket attacks against the u.s. mission in iraq that not only hurt americans they also killed the rom's so it is a very difficult situation for the u.s. to continue to say that it has a partner in baghdad are they from your vantage point in tehran and how difficult does the situation look for that off the prime minister right now. prime minister is finding himself in a difficult position he has to play a very delicate role on one side he has to deal with the united states on the other side there is a growing public a position to u.s. troops in iraq the iraqi parliament has already called on u.s. troops to leave the country so he's trying to to play a delicate role at the same time as far as you know iran is concerned iran has

made it very clear when in recent days iraqi prime ministers advise a visit to tehran. iran's message to him was very clear iran is not seeking to create tensions in the region and supports the iraqi prime minister's call that there is no room for adventurism michael where does it arcs relationship stand right now when it comes to the u.s. . well right now baghdad has has a very tenuous relationship the united states and 80 percent of the rockies will have better relations with the united states and they say things like iraq iran between iraq is free and you iran stop interfering me get out so right now

is some fortunate because the incoming administration is not going to take this militia seriously. and they're going to likely try to re engage with iran too which will only embolden militias and embolden iran slower in my favor so this is that moment between election and a change in the u.s. an inspiration in d.c. where our adversaries and geo political foes take advantage of this space by positioning just pieces on a chess or ready to do some ready to do something after january 20th and that's where we find ourselves in iraq the militias are testing us to solve these rocket attacks iran is encouraging these attacks iran is funding training including these militias and these militias are working on behalf of what is called the alliance of parkie the revolution time to the islamic republic of iran and it the united states needs to be aware i mean 'd we're supposed to be fighting isis and destroying isis

in iraq yet the biggest threat in iraq is not from isis it's from his militias trying to tehran and i do believe the united states will conduct some strikes against militia leaders and the end of january 20th based on the rhetoric and based on the fact that it will just be over by a team or what 'd ridge inside of iraq and and in dealing with iraq to to to target some of these leaders that are now really chilling the rockies that are threatening the u.s. and nato mission. and i saw you shaking your head in response to some of what michael was saying in his past answer did you want to add to it. trumpet ministration is deliberately escalating tensions in the region including with iran and just to intimidate iran and iraq iraqi groups but this is a symptom. the real reason the root cause of the current situation is

the fact that the trumpet ministration has failed on his goals in the pats for years when he pulled out of the j.c. p.r. way in 2018 he stated 4 goals 1st it was to get iran to renegotiate the nuclear deal on his terms 2nd it was to get iran. agreed to a better deal that will eliminate iran's uranium enrichment program met iran's missile program and the 4th was to limit or restrict iran's original influence has he succeeded in achieving any of those goals no now he is living the white house in 3 weeks time battered and broken without achieving any of those goals so that's why it's not surprising that the but the trumpet ministration is

increasing tensions but iran has been following a policy of restraint towards the united states iran does know that the trumpet ministration is not happy with the with the expectation that the incoming biden administration will rejoin the j. secure way and iran wants to give the biden administration an opportunity to return to the near to the nuclear deal and lift the sanctions and undo what the damages that the trumpet ministration has done so it is the united states that is seeking tensions with israel and saudi arabia even provoking the. us to to instigate chaos and tensions in this region michael look to me like you may want to jump in before you do i also want to ask you when it comes down to the possibility of reentering to go she ations between the u.s. and iran over the nuclear deal if that were to occur with the incoming biden

administration putting aside what that does when it comes to iran how does that affect it up oh iran has used iraq are upset u.s. sanctions never been more clear the islamic republic of iran house primacy in iraq they decide to prime minister they have influence within the security and intelligence apparatus they have penetrated all of iraq's economic sectors so. going back into the iran do all your current 2nd of behavior and lifting sanctions as the last thing we want to do this is actually given them by the ministration by roots in renegotiating and you're on 0 but what i would say is there's no appetite in washington d.c. of the sanctions on this regime there's no appetite in washington d.c. joining back into the iran you know where that address of illicit missiles sunset clauses inspections of sites that have been carved out of the g.c.c.

here were and of course regional behavior and if you listen to the regimes rhetoric the regime caved on any of those demands a ballistic missiles some say clauses of recent behavior it would actually collapse that regime is a regime decided that his job was optional it would collapse the regime that's how we this regime is and that's the effect that an excellent pressure campaign has actually been on the islamic republic of iran ali let me ask you also from your perspective do you think that some sort of a clash between government and those iran backed paramilitary groups is inevitable at this stage. first of all we have to differentiate between the popular mobilisation forces known as hush the shabby and the many numerous groups that are unknown or newly formed groups who are operating independently. it's it's very unrealistic

and naive to attribute anything iraq to groups due to iran simply because iran they do not take it advice from iran but in recent weeks we have seen the imagines of new groups with no clear affiliations but as long as far as the popular mobilization forces or russia shop is concerned. iran has encouraged him to not to give the united states a pretext to escalate tensions iran has condemned the attacks on the us embassy because it does not approve attacks on diplomatic compounds but military installations or military bases is totally a different story so. i believe that the most popular mobilization forces

have no inclination to escalate tensions but it is the us that is looking for such an excuse and there are unknown groups that may do that but at the same time we have to be careful about the very explosive situation you are dealing with a with an unpredictable president in divided house and unconventional presidents who who may take decisions out of a sudden without consulting with his with his advisors. and. you have strong lobby groups from israel answered arabia who are provoking the united states to. seek tension it's better ironic that a president trump who was elected in 2017 on the platform of ending wars in

the middle east is now escalating tensions and even looking for war in the final days of his administration michael looked to me like you want to jump in go ahead. yes your solution to melissa's our guest interrogatives are about recruited by the irish secret source were created by a small car on the members of each of these new groups are prone to talk is a law a militia tied to the to the islamic revolutionary guard corps there come from a subtle hot another licious. and the thinking in tehran is if these groups aren't doesn't it then the us cannot attack them and they have to stop thinking that way the us will defend itself the us will defend itself in a proactive way as well if the united states sees an end in attack and do something but here's the problem is the baghdad government that denies its airspace u.s.

intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance assets at the requests a militia leaders like how to operate and own father koki talks a lot 'd is not is rather who said it this week that the hospital xabi are tied directly to the army secret that they are trained equipped and funded by iran and this is the leader of the level he says will last us so these militias are directly tied to iran and customs so long as one year anniversary of his death is coming up and they are testing us result of the head of that that's one of those we had a rocket attacks last week and we expect more of the united states is ready for it and there's a target package on case there's our father on 55 sites inside of iran tied to dire g.c. and the iranian people are ok with i receive being targeted as long as the u.s. isn't target civilians that's how unpopular this regime is in you are that's all a popular guy or to see in it could force are in iran and iraq level are syria and

yemen and as you heard michael mention it's almost a year to the day since the killing of qassam so they mani. what's the view from tehran on this is it expected that there will be more tensions in the days leading up to the anniversary that there will be more attacks. from the arraigning. point of view iran slapped the united states in the face immediately of. the trumpet ministration ordered general salim on his assassination and that was launching missiles into al asad air base but that was the beginning not the end iran has vowed to take revenge and punish all those responsible for this brutal assassination in breach of international law including trump himself but iran has plenty of the time to do so and it has no intention to provide an excuse for

a battered and broken trump to create tensions now this is the iranian viewpoint but what the iraqi groups are going to do is their own decision. that's the problem general. had had any fluence over these groups and the united states targeted the head of rationality and now iraq a groups have been wounded there david leaders have been killed on their own soil how do you expect them what do you expect them to do. the united states has killed their leaders and they have every right to take revenge but iran is encouraging them not to do so at least now if they want to take such a revenge so but it doesn't mean that they all of them listen to run big big they do not take advice from iran but as far as you know. i expect that the

popular mobilization forces are not going to to engage in escalation unless there are unknown groups without a clear affiliation to do so in the. eye at least. until january 20th when trump leaves the white house michael i'm going to let you make your point just a 2nd but i also want to ask you you know where are things right now when it comes to u.s. presence in there when it comes to u.s. troops going forward when it comes to diplomatic staff going forward what's going to happen. well 2 things are going to happen to me if you rock continues down this path i mean we're looking at election 2021 'd one where former prime minister nuri al maliki believes the to be prime minister and he had to step down in 2014 as a precondition for the united states providing air support to iraqi security forces

to take on isis now he had to step down he thinks he can win the premiership in 2021 if he does united states should just stop all and gauge the new side of iraq in mid iraq was a failure start punishing baghdad and its economic sectors to tehran continue the next new president but not i'm saying you know this but abiding destruction is you doing it that's why destruction is going to act like everything's ok inside of iraq allow the militias to grow primacy tahmima support prime minister nouri al maliki reengage with iran until the sanctions and for the next 4 years conny tehran and these militias are going to be able to do whatever they want until the iraqi people inside of iraq say enough and the iranian people have already said enough inside of iraq a regimes collapse on the run of the us can't accelerate the collapse of the regime

it's always the people and within the poetry in iraq and poetry inside of iran and the music in iraq in iran you see the beginnings of that collapse those are the same things that happened with the fall of the soviet union it again music began to poetry and we're already seeing it there. the next 4 years underlining ministration the regime will likely collapse on its. when it comes to shia clerics religious leaders in iraq ones who have strong ties with iran where is their support going to right now are are they supporting the prime minister in this confrontation what's happening with them. they do but the point is that the iraqi prime minister wants to to have the backing of the united states at the same time while trying to you know

appease its own population and he finds that very difficult to do so because these 2 cannot go together. unama just you know a few months back that there was a call for them on a strangeness and hundreds of thousands of iraqis took to the streets denouncing the u.s. . deployments of the u.s. military presence in their rock these are the facts and not not the other it was not n.p.r.'s are it russell crowe if you call on the iraqis to take the districts today you will see that they will do they don't want u.s. troops and their soil because they remember that you know the boots of the of the u.s. troops and their carpets they do not forget that blackwater committed crimes

against iraq a civilian and now donald trump pardons those killers those murderers so it's not difficult to imagine how the iraqi people will react to that but let me point to another key issue what is the root cause of all this the united states is following the doctrine of the cold war. and this towards iran. not the no conservatives and the in the united states have been looking for an enemy and they find iran as a replacement for the soviet union the u.s. policy has been one of containment of iran and this policy of containment sometimes it has got close to regime change i am sorry to interrupt you we only have about a minute and a half left i saw that michael also wanted to jump in someone to give you the last word here please go ahead. sure the of the iraqi people 80 percent of the

population is under the age of 30 and this is a person who is shia population you are rich he doesn't run away she has stood no 2 iran has as told the americans yes you need stakes but this is how you get it right i'm not encouraging us talking about a relationship with the west while it is built initiation in finance military support but not boots on the ground necessarily but an ally that can rejoin the middle east and not be a puppet state of tehran so it is the iraqi people that are saying no to come to me support the us get away from iraq and this is the militias that have come to me so for a date there he releases them after he catches there's too much control the members of the parliament already militia the c.e.o. our own will not decide to maliki is basically militiamen in a suit deciding what iraq just should be when the publisher wants

a different outcome in 2021 elections are so were the iraqi people have to help themselves by destruction will not unfortunately alright we've run out of time we're going to happily the conversation there thanks to our guests michael prejudgment and ali akbar that amy and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story from a mama jumped on the whole team here bye for now. discover kazakstan that has a new strategic location at the crossroads of europe and asia. develop and grow your business. in the leading logistics trade in business harbor in 1st

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in the conclusion of the 2 part series people in paris vesta gate's allegations that irish catholic nuns facilitated the traffic with babies the church realized that babies that are the could be sold to america a scouting quite they use and reveals shocking new evidence of how and where when to just orders disposed of those who died thank you torn in a system like this fund church and state or collude to keep the food from coming years islands mother in baby scandal on al-jazeera. in december 2019 the 1st coronavirus case was reported in china within months of local outbreak became a global pandemic one year on week sam and the devastation caused by covert 1000. with more than a 1000000 fatalities and economies crippled vaccines now offer hope of protection from the virus but how long will it take for the world to recover the corona virus and then the special coverage on

a 0. 0 . every. your child is there with me still raman in doha a reminder of our top news stories several people are being killed in an explosion in the southern yemeni city of aden now the blast happened as members of yemen's new unity government arrived at the airport from saudi arabia the ministers of all reportedly being transferred to safety how many more on the phone from yemen's capital sanaa. there were. explosions have been heard in the city of aden. the according to observers the sit back story on. these fires.