depicts dramatic crazy world. forgetting we don't get anything i didn't go to university to kill people i think the impact that really pain. people feel for their cars their future so they seek refuge abroad but become a. place to start to their sixty's. long before the massive explosion tore into beirut last august lebanon had been following a path that led to only one way to self-destruction. as the smoke rose over the city around 200 people a day 2003 the victims of corrupt even competent politicians who for generations

have allowed their citizens to sink into poverty and despair. the explosion was a terrible symbol of that neglect the cause a highly volatile quantity of ammonium nitrate that it sat for years in a warehouse port officials warned of the dangers posed warnings that were systematically ignored but would anything change in the aftermath would anyone ever be held to account for and sympathy arrived in the shape of france's emanuel macro when he brought an uncompromising message there's no blank check he told people if your political class fails we won't come to the left of the state and fail it did days later the government resigned not only did the politicians have no answers they had like so many before the simply given up who would now fill the vacuum.

hello and welcome to this special edition of conflict zone over the last 4 years we've interviewed several senior lebanese politicians about the inexorable breakdown of vera qana me and their state institutions what they told us provides an unusually clear insight into the reasons for lebanon's intractable crisis we saw it on says to some key questions what had gone wrong who was to blame for the sinking economy and how could the country move forward but instead of answers we got promises of progress of clarity and commitment even transparency that in most cases came to nothing in february 26th seen i caught up with gibran bassil then the country's foreign minister who acknowledged the central feature of lebanese politics in demick corruption as well as all the other contradictions that have made it impossible for the state to function. yes we have corruption and our

country but this is where we need to have strong leaders to fight corruption corruption and different factions playing politics with a nation that can ill afford it i mean even the patriarch spoke of erosion of your state institutions at the moment as of course the collapse is real there are the states collapsing. depends how do you how you define the collapse we still have at least a family in lebanon we still have values values of how we live how we think towards the other we're well aware that this is fading complete in other parts even strong and prosperous countries you don't see this kind of cohesion that we still have 11 or coalition you failed during the presidency most years when it cohesion is that almost 35 attempts to get a quorum in parliament you have managed to do it you haven't passed the budget since 2005 you have a parliament is mandated 2013 and i had to extend it twice without recourse to the

public you have to have legislative elections since 2000. yes there were again this is a complete paralysis of the political body isn't where i guess or this but when i'm here i'm very much a balancing on the other the family against i'm not defending the politics and the ban on the politicians not of you know one of the silly ministers you are living and defending something that belongs to all of us and humanity and defending the idea and the more that we stand the prism of diversity of living together accepting each other where we are different this is what i'm defending and this is what i'm saying the importance of lebanon if we have this model birth is the model of what do you choose you choose the model was dash or you still have lebanon where people can still live together because what else can you get so you can get the dash model to how much of this living together was apparent when you see the people protest on the streets of level of this they have done over the last year and they get so.

subjected to unacceptable violence by the security services. can and tear gas but you know in a lot of bullets you know i was among the protesters so i well know who's of violence myself to the street because i refuse the situation to who's in china. geniuses the government at this is in charge we are we are in jail they're in jail of power because we cannot leave again you're a government that doesn't control your security services is that what you're telling me. even with the security level we're still fine there for you compare us to other regions other countries around us and that egypt so again it is a situation that we have to fix how by not imposing. lucian that is ready for that idea recipe by allowing the libyan east let's let them go to elections and allow them to truly learn how to elections reported since 2005 and we were against this we can continue on because i think as your prime minister said

the levels of force used against demonstrators was unacceptable he's the prime minister can do you do anything about this yes he stopped it but was there the person who was prosecuted as soon as i'm telling you i was the prosecutor i was myself on the street nobody who was probably where you 3 times 2 for the service because they are if you're the situation minister you refused the situation but people got beaten up people got hospitalized dozens of people were taken to hospital people were injured all those injuries let's not portray lebanon as a country where you have a you know you don't allow people to express themselves the we have in excess of them are crazy and and liberal and people are allowed to speak out whatever your security organizations are out to this culture all the sunbury this happened again 11 of the bacon of our freedoms in the region and this happened once we don't take this incident and extrapolate it on our minister they laugh when you claim to be a beacon of freedom when the allegations of torture carried out by your security

services are widespread in june last year there was a leaked video showing members of your internal security forces torturing inmates in roomier prison north of beirut the interior minister confirmed that the video was authentic this is the kind of big. of tolerance and coexistence that you say you have where torture is widespread not human rights watch said this was just the tip of the ice a perception confirms the rule no we don't have the stomach this is an incident that happened there if you say the this is what happened in the guantanamo does it mean that in the us to live the torture this is an incident that happened once and that confirmed that with this is not the case and that you know you know very well mr know it me this completely because it is we have so many things that we are not satisfied about alone but we don't turn it into being a place where people are tortured and yet the reports credible reports of torture

have continued to surface in the 4 years since that interview was recorded no change there no change either in any of the sectarian carve ups and political patronage that have acted and still act as immovable roadblocks to reform ever since the civil war the complex power sharing system spawned many factions and warlords who empowered enrich themselves at the expense of the people they shared between them the spoils the top jobs the lucrative contracts and even as they watch the country disintegrate and default the last thing they wanted was to give back the money and relinquish their power in june this year the combative foreign minister at the time not if he was still repeating the same vegas sure and says and the same good intentions consistently lead nowhere. here intentions your public sector has been looted for decades by the same sectarian powers that still

dominate as were you trying. to finish the phrase i'm listening to you now you have to tell me what i have you finished perhaps you haven't finished the question you think these warlords and power brokers are what you are never letting me finish the answer you've been giving me ok answer for a couple of minutes and you think do you think these warlords and power brokers who control so much in lebanon will just sit around while you shine a light on all their dirty dealings and then they'll just say sorry and hand back all the billions that they've stolen you really think that's going to happen. we are not going to think so thanks for putting this question we know it's an uphill struggle we know it's a key challenge and you have to stand up to the challenge or fail i know the difficulties i fully agree with you about the seriousness of the challenges about how heavy they are weighing on us since years but we have to come out with an answer otherwise you will not be taken the road that you promised to take that's a very important matter i fully agree about the challenges the nature of the

challenges and the magnitude of the challenges but you have to come out with an answer to these challenges and create a sort of rapture with the past and get on a start on a new foot your your country's wreck or doesn't inspire confidence does it since the civil war lebanon has promised 4 times to reform in return for 4 it seems to enjoy something about the power you about the future if you want to go into the past you can have a lesson in history now that you have why should anyone try to tell you we know the stories we learned the lessons we are trying with telling the international community look at look at us and let's see if we succeed we are. planning to succeed we are committed to success because we have to save our country again i agree with you about your description of the situation which i already know we all know and i again am saying it's a major challenge let's see for you if you can succeed in facing up to it and this is the challenge that you are taking on us is to succeed in this matter with the

cooperation it's our primary sponsor ability and his government it's not an easy matter i fully agree which is a very difficult matter because of this well established well entrenched system that you rightly described and with which i fully agree with you but this is the only road that we have to take to create a rupture with the past the challenges are very important very deep but we have to take this is the only road to get out of this messy situation but 2 months later mr hitty took his own road and resigned. contradicting all the firm assurances he'd given in the interview and declaring that the government he'd so briefly served had shown a lack of will to reform of course it had to many lebanese the system had long since passed the point where it could be effectively reformed it now needed to be replaced from top to bottom but how to convince the power brokers of that even the slow motion collapse of the state signposted some often and in so many ways still

wasn't enough to persuade them that the old game was finally ending your prime minister warned last year that lebanon risk becoming a failing state even the most basic services don't get provided to people why did you let it get so bad. i wouldn't call it love on the failed state when he was able to cope with 50 percent of its population as refugees $200.00 syrian displaced to lebanon per square kilometer in that he said last october i've warned we are moving towards a collapse if matters katie yeah but when when solid state and successful states like in europe were not able to receive more than 10000 refugees and live on on that was one a half 1000000 i wouldn't we have a very successful mordred but if it fades i want a model of the diversity and coexistence then everything will fade and ministers

not successful when you can leave cope with the rubbish on the streets clearly the rubbish you can blame the refugees for back any no but this is this is our responsibility i cannot deny it but this is a system that has become the activists say so inefficient and corrupt that it can't provide basic services if that's how you how you measure the success of a society you can have a very democracy and prosperity but no cohesion and society so everything gets this integrated into society that currently of the rubbish will come clear the air for its people puts their health in danger shouldn't be governing she had not defending this but i think you have also political garbage and you have the war garbage that we are witnessing everywhere and i think this is still less costly than having to dealing people as garbage and killing them like when we have 200000 people and and syria and in the region we are enforcing it but

a government that cannot provide basic services isn't worthy of the label of a government this is why don't you reserving because of the 5 find somebody who can clear the rajar you are right on this but the problem that we have vacancy and what your goal is are you stated we cannot resign we are obliged. because there will be no government there will be complete void and in lebanon if we had results stay and gamble with the health of your people no no we should elect a president who should be a representative of his people a strong president was strong popularity and then we will have another government instead there are a few infighting manipulation. and you say this is a model of cooperation more than of coexistence this is a model of political paralysis is something there's yes it is so so will the value of the religion or political paralysis and the talking of cooperation of talking of call existence because an 11 on somehow muslims and christians are still living

together in the power sharing more than and peggotty where this does not exist anywhere else in the world and certainly is and despite all the tensions around us are still not fighting and there's no leadership and there's no decisions yes this is from another central bank governor this is guy and also of the perlis is that we have in the whole region because in lebanon on this somehow reflected in politics this this will of eliminating the other but you know to blame your part of the system of the system that is most broken down a lot of politically among the denying there were aware of global and collective responsibility last october thousands of demonstrators angry and frightened called for an end to political corruption and for a new untainted set of politicians to run the country to topple to the stray she's in rapid succession. the protest movement cuts across religious and political lines

with demands for the recovery of stolen funds and for the corrupt to be held accountable and there was plenty to account for years of squalor in the streets as politicians bickered over garbage collection contracts and electricity failed for hours on end month after month among those being called out for criticism was that hezbollah movement self-styled party of god financed by iran and they didn't like it. let's talk about only long massive street protests that we've seen in lebanon in recent months one moment you seem to be listening to them then you claimed with no ever. dence that they were being exploited by the u.s. and israel and then last october you sent your thugs to beat up the demonstrators because they dared to criticize your leader an absolutely no. i'm no i'm sorry i'm sort of i don't know you like that i'm not i don't know that he was sure that we send our people do you have the proof for that it was widely reported that were

going on that we were against the you know term value and likely you know the media show you what in the media i mean the media this is a massive photo measure the air we don't make it out i can tell you i live in the most i would know about it get up and i live here and i tell you. i tell you do it we're not part of those who suppress the people and we are with the masses we are with those who are the ones that i think we want to protect them we have the same issue actually we consider mr mousavi into somebody your supporters attacked an anti-government protest camp in central beirut and the army had to be called in to disperse the groups around the same time you and your allies from amal targeted other anti-government protest camps in different parts of lebanon so much for listening to the demonstrators unheeding there the months you beat the mob. i can simply say this is not the way as well or whether you like it or dislike it to represent a large component of the very society it's

a main political party political actor and and on and everybody is welcome to join and help us and this whether directly being involved directly supportive or not supportive of the government let's see for the observers turner observers and external observers like you if you succeed you say this and i hear what you say why should the west lift a finger to help a government that's effectively being constructed by hizbullah which is widely viewed around the. rink as a point of view so it's not absolute reality is widely seen around the world as a terrorist cell and is now ization is not seen around the concert by some but it is not what this some i don't agree with this view you may disagree either logically politically strategically with a lebanese political party or libya's national movement that's your right to do so

but it's a major represent a major component of the of any society social component and political component what i'm saying take us to task as a government telling our western countries with which you are committed to develop the best out of relations culturally politically socially economically strategically with the western countries are very close to most of those countries who have very good relations are trying to develop to deepen strengthen and a lot of these western countries take us to test about what you are doing what you are planning to do that in about what is said here or there or about any ideological sloganeering or at the logical views according to the drug enforcement agency has been increasingly relies on criminal revenue from sources that include the lebanese diaspora group members affiliates and such or the organization is even competed for money laundering contracts in the same. as colombian drug cartels and other criminal organizations so you belong with some shady new groups on the

international crime scene don't you. your god continue to mention only if you want to continue this episode as long as you want you can continue to mention as much as you want of examples but this is not going to change the truth that these are things are put in the most of the western media against hezbollah against any. religious stance move against any resistance group in order to distort the image in order to justify any sections against it you asked for examples i gave you so let's talk if we about your support for the assad government bashar al assad in syria despite its shocking disregard for human life especially civilians you could hardly claim ignorance of what they've been doing or don't you the party of god have anything to say about policies of rape torture and extermination. on his forces

have been carrying out you've got no principles no red lines as far as that sort of behavior is concerned. let me ask you about the western media about your government of the western governments of the united states governments and what they did to the israelis who crush the people every day who are star and who buy parts of lebanon who buy parts of the golan heights and who continue to occupy also they want to annex part of jordan parts of of other places i mean if we ask those questions in other programs i'm talking to you or not hezbollah i'm talking to you about hezbollah because you represent hezbollah and i'm asked why you are silent why you support hezbollah regime in syria will the faeries out extermination policies towards its own thing i want to cause we are fighting we will we will we will fight think clearly groups who beheaded people who took the hearts of people who caused gee the children who made an illusion this is we will fight things that

are clearly groups it is a priority because they came and they got it digressions against our part of the country you know we had wide open issues against the north lebanon is lebanon mr those are wheels the critically important thing is that by lending mr assad's your support you became complicit in everything he did and these are crimes against humanity the un high commissioner for human rights in syria got a torture chamber they are complicit they are complicit with the with mohammad been said about all of those there are threats that this is making in yemen. the united states and britain and all governments who are complicit so it's the west's fault along with everyone else's lots of blame to be shared around so much in fact that it doesn't actually stick to any one party's take responsibility in name only and they stay in their posts whatever mistakes all crimes they've committed it's

a system of accountability but with 0 consequences except of course for the people who have to live with all the criminality and incompetence poverty and now hunger small wonder that their patience is close to exhausted. how long do you expect people to wait for these rights that you're probably seeing these reforms that you're probably seeing the end to corruption and has apparently. our looted money give us back looted money this is what they say when one of the people of lebanon going to get back i know we are very much we are very much aware and committed to that it's not the government that lot of the money before it's not this government that created the situation that was before but however we are committed to do all what we can with our friends again saying inside and outside preaching to everybody in order to get out of this vicious destructive circle that lebanon found itself in i understand very legitimate frustration as well as the very legitimate demands of

the iranian population of which i'm a member i believe any citizen before being everybody's official we understand these problems we have to get together and try to get out of this very difficult situation at least we have a commitment and the clarity that we need to get out of this difficult situation so i ask where are the reforms why aren't you pushing for them you blame the system i'm asking the king of also the point of having you in government if you don't bring it out for this ailments i'm talking talking about the ailments of this is stuff that has been going on going on for so many years i mean for decades now we have reached really reached we should be held responsible for what happened about these are responsible those who are in the government we are part of the government we don't deny our responsibility we have to embrace our full responsibility of this and we're ready to take part in the small responsibility but the still when you

talk about the kind of reforms that we want to do they should be structural we are one component of the mosaic of components of course the u.s. is in the lebanese society we take our share of the others to say the responsibilities and they should be blamed. they did if even just a few of those comforting words from our politicians had been turned into action then lebanon might look very different from the way it does today but no single political figure or faction appears to have the oath or a teacher bring about fundamental change and there's little chance of the different groups agreeing on a single course of action as for the people many say they believe if they could food prices have skyrocketed unemployment is life the banks are severely limited access to save. for now 2 important questions hang on so that over lebanon can the cash strapped west afford to give it the emergency support it needs and then i highly volatile region like this with conflict never far from the surface

come it really afford not.

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a world without beethoven i can't even begin to imagine. in 15 minutes on t.w. . we're on the road in the us 8 meeting people across the country listening to their hopes and their worries folks looking with them sure it's election day. one of the big topics of this election is migration and we're meeting our young men and quibble colorado who's call america home for 20 years and still might face deportation for the tory ford wus. the from. conspiracy to sorry console a. body that will never be. connected to the highest levels of government. why do journalists. have to die. was threatened

by this for. 2 years later the reasons are still unclear the case of german player starts september 30th on t.w. . reach any is full of surprises. cut it all out. to some simpson one day in the footsteps of the great we've. been hearing her most around the fleet street played. 3 times won the film very much alive. to specialise in germany. recognizing where exactly. was fun the last car sculpture history in. detail travel

extremely worth a visit. places . this is data news live from the end a leading pro-democracy figure charged in hong kong activist joshua wan was taken into custody on suspicion of joining an unauthorized assembly last year he's been released on bail also coming up 2 police officers a shot dead and wounded as racial justice protests erupt across the united.