the united states has brokered a peace deal between israel and the united arab emirates. world leaders have given it a cautious welcome but the palestinian president says it is a betrayal of his people's cause. tens of thousands in belarus staged more protests against alexander lu kashenko‘s disputed election, and a police crackdown. the government has announced the release of more than a thousand detained protesters, and apologised to injured bystanders. mexico's health ministry has reported the total number of coronavirus cases in the country is over 505,000. the number of deaths has risen to over 55,000. but the government says the number of infected people is probably significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

now on bbc news it's hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. one of the world's most sensitive conflict zones is heating up again. last month, armenian and azerbaijani forces clashed, and at least 17 people were killed. it is the latest twist in a long—running dispute over nagorno—karabakh. well, my guest today is armenia's prime minister, nikol pashinyan. is armenia preoccupied with fighting old battles? prime minister nikol pashinyan in yerevan. welcome to hardtalk.

thank you. hi. it's more than two years now since you swept into power with very high hopes for the so—called velvet revolution. when i look at armenia today, it seems many armenians feel that those hopes have been dashed. what has gone wrong? i wouldn't agree with your impression, because all armenians — all citizens of armenia — they are seeing and they are living in a democratic country, and with... in 2019, we had the biggest economic growth in europe, and we had big economic success. and our country made tremendous progress in all international ratings in terms of democracy, freedom of speech, independent judiciary, anti—corru ption policy. and international magazines, two years in a row, recognised armenia as country of the year,

like, not only in terms of democracy, but in terms of economy, as well. yes, of course, the pandemic situation interrupted our fly, but we will continue. yeah, ido... i mean, economically. i do want to talk about the pandemic, because i know it's been very difficult for armenia to deal with it. but, before we get to that, i want to look at one other aspect of your administration which perhaps hasn't seen the change that some people expected. you came to power talking about finding a path to peace with azerbaijan. and yet, in the last month, we've seen new fighting, new conflict in nagorno—karabakh. we've seen at least 17 military personnel killed on both sides. it looks as though it's

business as usual, not change. peace can't be achieved through the unilateral actions of armenia, because we will be able to have real peace if azerbaijan will reciprocate armenia's efforts. becoming prime minister of armenia, i proposed a new formula for peace, and the formalised following. any solution of the nagorno—kara bakh conflict should be acceptable for people of armenia, for people of nagorno—karabakh, and for people of azerbaijan. and i'm the first armenian leader ever saying that any solution of nagorno—kara bakh conflict should be acceptable for azerbaijani people, too. but... but unfortunately, the azerbaijani president didn't reciprocate

to my proposal. but actions speak louder than words, prime minister, and what we saw in mid—july was armenian forces shelling villages across the line of conflict. and we saw, according to the azerbaijanis, a 76—year—old civilian killed, which then, of course, produced a tit—for—tat response, and the prolonged military clash. i put it to you again that your policies do not appear to be designed to achieve peace. azerbaijan started military attacks against armenia, and it wasn't a separate action. within a long time, the azerbaijani president... ..developed bellicose rhetoric, saying that he is going

to solve nagorno—kara bakh conflict using military force. as a result of that bellicose rhetoric, azerbaijani government is facing the challenge to explain to their own society why they can't, they couldn't solve nagorno—karabakh conflict through force. look, you say that the azerbaijanis started it, and they, of course, say that you started it, and i dare say i'm not going to resolve that on hardtalk today, but what is quite clear is that you, over months, have taken a series of provocative actions which have heightened tensions in nagorno—karabakh. for example, why, last year in august, did you go to stepa na kert in nagorno—karabakh and make a speech saying, "artsakh" — which is what you call nagorno—karabakh — "is armenia, period," and then, led a crowd in a chant,

a nationalist chant of unification? that was clearly a provocation to azerbaijan. first... ..i can understand the situation of the international community, every time hurling accusation — mutual accusation of each other. who started the... who violated the ceasefire? that's why — and this continues again and again, within a long time. and that's why we're proposing to establish international mechanisms for ceasefire — for investigating ceasefire violations. and this is a valid proposal by armenia. second, why i said that nagorno—karabakh, artsakh is armenia. first of all... ..nagorno—karabakh, for several thousand years, is populated by indigenous

armenian people. and, by the way, artsakh... artsakh‘s name is aged for several thousand years. prime minister, prime minister... second, we are mutual — we are common. . . to be honest with you — we can't go through thousands of years of your history. what we can do is address the realities of today. the un general assembly, as you well know... the reality is... hang on, hang on. the un general assembly has adopted a resolution which quite clearly "demands the immediate, complete, unconditional withdrawal of all armenian forces from the occupied territories of the republic of azerbaijan." now, that's from the un general assembly. under international law, your forces are a force of occupation. you choose to go there and talk about that territory being yours. you clearly are not a peacemaker. the document of un security

council didn't mention republic of armenia or armed force of the republic of armenia. there is written about nagorno—karabakhi, armenia's self—defending forces. it's first. second, you proposed to look at reality. the reality is that, in the moment of the start of this conflict, i9%, 18% of population of nagorno—karabakh, were armenians and azerbaijan tried to claim this land from armenia and conflict started from this moment. but my question, prime minister, is about how you make good on your initial promise to pursue peace. for example, i note that your government plans to build a new road from armenia into nagorno—karabakh following a southern route

which goes through a whole swathe of azerbaijani territory. now, a group of meps in brussels who've looked at this plan and who specialise in caucasus politics, have described it as a violation of international law. "it will symbolically entrench the illegal occupation of nagorno—karabakh. we very much deplore this initiative." will you stop building that road? it isn't armenian government to build any road in nagorno—karabakh. it's the nagorno—kara bakh government acting in the framework of interest of her own population. and, you know, in karabakh, people are leaving. human beings are leaving. and they have needs. needs for supplies, needs for food, needs for mobility. and azerbaijan, by the way, is exercising the policy of isolation and blockade for nagorno—karabakh.

and, by the way, for armenia, too. prime minister, i began this interview by saying that you came to power with a revolution with very high hopes of change and reform. but on this issue of armenia, its nationalist position on nagorno—karabakh, the strategy that you are pursuing — which looks, frankly, as though it doesn't have a meaningful peace element to it — you seem just like your predecessors. you don't seem any different. where is the evidence that, on this core issue for the armenian people, you're bringing something different to the table? i won't agree with you naming our position nationalistic because armenians of

nagorno—karabakh are under existential threat — and what are we proposing? we are proposing azerbaijan to renounce any possibility of use of force... ..for the nagorno—karabakh conflict solution. we should agree on a very simple formula. there is no military solution for the nagorno—karabakh conflict. all right... and in... yeah, i understand the point you're making there. let me just flip this debate around a little bit. you came to power after a career as a journalist, as a human rights defender, and you even spent some time in prison as a political prisoner. you care about human rights. so, i wonder if, to reach out to azerbaijan and to indicate that you really are different from your predecessors, are you now prepared to say that in the past, particularly in the early 1990s and late 1980s, the armenian forces committed some major human rights abuses, crimes of war inside

nagorno—karabakh? many independent observers have catalogued those crimes. are you now prepared to acknowledge them and say sorry for them? any war is a chain of tragedies. that's why we're saying that let's renounce... let's refuse any possibility of, er, using force for solution of nagorno—karabakh conflict, and any peace is compromise. and armenia always was ready and is ready for compromise. but from the other side... but i'm asking you a very specific question. in the... i'm in the spirit of truth and reconciliation, are you now prepared to say sorry for, for example, the european court of human rights‘ catalogue of violations of human rights on the part of the

armenian military? will you say sorry? the european court has a similar catalogue on azerbaijani's atrocities... but i'm not talking to the azerbaijanis, i'm talking to you. let me answer your question, please. and we should mention the sumgait events that happened in the late 1980s, when the azerbaijani government and azerbaijanis. .. ..initiated its pogroms against the armenians of sumgait city in azerbaijan. in azerbaijani capital... yeah, prime minister, i... and this whole issue is the issue. ijust wanted to know whether you're prepared to take responsibility and apologise for those abuses and crimes

committed by armenia's forces. it's quite simple. yes or no? it should be proved who exercised these atrocities. and i think armenians of nagorno—karabakh and azerbaijan are victims. and we can prove that. mm—hm. anywhere, any time. clearly, you're not going to say sorry. and i just wonder whether you feel that right now, it's helpful for you to raise the tensions in nagorno—karabakh with azerbaijan to take some of the scrutiny and pressure off your government's handling of the covid—i9 pandemic. because, frankly, looking at the way your government has handled it, it hasn't been a success, has it? indeed, it has been a real failure of your government. i think it is too early

to have conclusion because, unfortunately, the pandemic is an evolving situation all over the world, and we adopted a strategy how to fight the pandemic in our country. and this strategy should have been and it was and it is appropriate for our country. and let's make a conclusion when, globally, the pandemic would be... when we fight it. but, prime minister, your own people are drawing conclusions already. they see that your death rate from covid—i9 is approximately six times higher than neighbouring georgia and, indeed, significantly higher than azerbaijan's. if you look at the region as a whole, armenia has suffered much more severe impacts from covid—i9, which suggests that your government failed to control it. we are in the process of overcoming this pandemic.

and, as i said, it is too early to make conclusions on that, because unfortunately, all over the world, the pandemic is continuing to grow. but prime minister... but now, armenia is in the process of... ..people judge you on your specific actions. for example, in late may, you attended a dinner which was actually to celebrate the inauguration of the self—styled president, leader of nagorno—karabakh. it was a dinner where you were seen amongst many people socialising, not wearing a face mask. and, only a few weeks later, in early and mid—june, your country was in the midst of a terrible crisis with more than 600 cases of covid—i9 per day. and you castigated your own people, saying, "people simply disobey the rules on facemasks." but you've done it yourself. on that day, we were acting according to the regulations

that existed — i mean, legal regulation — that existed in nagorno—karabakh. and so, we were following after rules that that is under way in our country or in nagorno—karabakh, or elsewhere. well, it didn't look like leadership. you know that your opponents in yerevan are now saying, and i'm quoting the republican party, who have issued a statement, saying, "one does not fight the coronavirus like this prime minister with livestreams, selfie pictures and jumping around. you are" — that is talking to you — "you are the responsible one for a disgraceful situation and you have made so many mistakes, you should resign." and armenia is a democratic

country, and the opposition is free to express himself. and i'm very glad that now, opposition in armenia is acting much easily than before, than before revolution. you talk of democracy in armenia being strengthened under your administration and i referred to your past as an independentjournalist and a political prisoner. however, human rights watch, in its report on your country in 2020, has concluded that "investigations into past violence and excessive use of force by law enforcement remain very limited. "violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, discrimination against and segregation of people with disabilities, all of these things persist in armenia today." freedom house, a renowned organisation, announced in its report that armenia

made the biggest... ..two years‘ progress in democracy, rule of law, human rights protection... ..ever, within the whole existence of that kind of report. well... freedom house, internationally recognised organisation, said that armenia made the biggest progress ever within two years. yeah, and i'vejust told you what human rights watch have concluded. there are people inside your country who fear that your agenda right now isn't so much about rooting out corruption as hitting back at some of your political enemies — in particular, the decision you've taken to suspend three judges on the constitutional court who were blocking investigations into ex—president kocharyan. that looks politically—motivated. is that what's driving you right now?

as far as the constitutional court is concerned, i should stress that we tried to... ..have that constitutional court fully compliant with our constitution because we had a description of constitutional court in our constitution, but we had a totally different constitutional court in reality, so we are going and we are doing that, to have the constitutional court fully compliant with our constitution. as far as criminal cases are concerned, or arrests, etc, i should stress that we have courts, we have investigation bodies, and we have prosecutor offices. and it isn't me to decide who should be detained and who should be released.

mm. our purpose is rule of law, independent judiciary and anti—corru ption policy. and international community recognised our huge success on all those areas. let me end, prime minister, with a strategic question. armenia is in a tough neighbourhood, and you basically have a strategic choice. you can continue to look to moscow for your main partnership and alliance, or you can perhaps begin to look much more toward the european union and nato. the choice is yours. which way are you going to take armenia? russia is a strategic partner of armenia, in terms of security. we are a member of the eurasian economic union, which is an economic union, and we have a comprehensive and enhanced partnership agreement with the european union. and, by the way, now the european union is our main partner in our reform agenda implementation. we have quite effective cooperation with nato and, by the way, we are participating in peacekeeping missions in afghanistan, in lebanon, in kosovo,

in mali... but, prime minister... and we have quite an effective military cooperation with the united states, too. let me stop you for a second. geopolitics involves some tough choices. if you really want to be close to the eu and nato, you've got problems, because you have a toxic relationship with turkey right now, and you have a relationship with the united states which is troubled because you insist on maintaining trade relations with iran when the americans have asked you to impose sanctions upon iran and you have refused, so you have choices to make and i ask you again —

is your fundamental choice to stay loyal to moscow or are you ready to embrace a different direction? saying strategic partnership — that means it is for a long time. but we have good relations with iran, and we are doing our best to keep our good relations with the united states and with iran, and, in the same time, be fully, fully devoted to our international commitments. all right. well, i appreciate your time, prime minister, and i thank you very much indeed for being hardtalk. thank you very much.

hello there. top temperature on thursday was 30 celsius. nowhere got above 30. that's the first time in over a week we've seen that, so temperatures are falling now over the next few days and we'll have a north—south divide. southern parts of the country will feel most humid, with the risk of thunderstorms over the next few days, whereas further north, higher pressure will tend to bring a lot of dry weather with some sunshine. but there will be some mist and low cloud across more eastern areas. so, for friday, we've got lower pressure to the south, this weather front generating the showers and thunderstorms. higher pressure, though, across the north, which will bring the fine and settled weather, but we will start off with that low cloud and mist, across many central and eastern areas, which will tend to burn back to the coast through the day. best of the sunshine western scotland, northern ireland,

northwest england, where it will feel pleasantly warm. and further south, these thunderstorms could be quite vicious again, with the risk of localised flooding in places where they occur. not as warm as it has been. in fact, the extreme heat will have gone. we're looking at temperatures around the mid—20s celsius at best, but cooler down the east coast, with onshore breeze and where it stays quite cloudy. as we head through friday night, it looks like those thunderstorms will continue to rattle on across southern areas. again, the risk of some localised flooding in places, drierfurther north. it's going to be another warm and muggy night for many, particularly england and wales. now, into saturday, then, it's a similar story — higher pressure to the north, lower pressure to the south, so this is where we'll see the showers and the thunderstorms continue. again, some of them heavy with the risk of some localised flash flooding. further north, we'll start off with a bit of grey mistiness across eastern areas. the best of the sunshine for western scotland, northern ireland and northwest england. it could stay quite grey along some north sea coasts. top temperature 25 degrees in the southeast, the low 20s further north.

subtle changes, though, as we head on into sunday. it looks like that thundery low will drift a little bit further north as this high—pressure retreats away, so it looks like we could start to see some thundery showers edging northwards into north wales, the north midlands, perhaps into northern england, as we move through the course of sunday. but again, some of these will be on the heavy side. top temperatures, 2a, 25 degrees. again, cooler in the north and east with that onshore breeze. as we head on into next week, it looks like things will stay on the cooler side, with temperatures close to the seasonal average, with a mixture of sunshine and showers.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm karin giannone. belarus begins to release some of the thousands detained in protests against alexander lu kashenko‘s disputed election. israel says it will temporarily suspend plans to annex the west bank as part of a new peace deal with the united arab emirates. britain imposes a two—week quarantine on travellers returning from france and the netherlands after a surge in coronavirus cases. and wildfires north of los angeles spread rapidly as firefighters try to contain the blaze.