keeps israel away in the war in syria has pulled off fought successfully on the side of president bashar al assad helping to keep him in power. back home in lebanon the group has emerged stronger than ever the more they're fighting to defend is the model of bashar assad which this is it's a ship. so to what extent does hezbollah determine the course of politics in lebanon. even before the beirut explosion the city still bore the scars of a civil war that for more than 15 years crippled the capital and the country as a whole. was among those who fought back that. he was 16 years old when he 1st held a weapon in his hands. the lebanese civil war erupted in 1975. beirut became a battlefield as did virtually the entire country. the war initially saw christian militias fighting against the palestinian liberation organization or p.l.o. which was threatening to take control of beirut. the hostilities then escalated into a broader conflict between christians and. arab nationalists. eventually in 1902 israel invaded and occupied southern lebanon in order to expel the p.l.o. from the country it was during

done by the lebanese parliament changing the constitution in august 2004 the syrian president mr bashar al assad effectively ordered mr hariri to support mr la hood's mandate extension stating that syria alone would choose the president of lebanon. in the months before his assassination mr hariri zz allies were publicly calling for an end to the syrian political military and economic dominance over lebanon on his supporters held 3 meetings in the bristol hotel in beirut and issued coals for the indus syrian domination of lebanon on these occurred in september and december 2004 and a final one just 12 days before his murder that occurred on the 2nd to fairbridge 2005 they's matings came to be known as the bristol group meetings there was also an attack on the lot of mr hariri as political ally and friend mr mollenhauer day on the 1st of october 2004 when a car bomb exploded outside his house mr ahmed a escaped death and was seriously injured in the attack but his bodyguard died another person was seriously injured. witnesses testified that the attack on mr hama day could be construed as a warning

perilous journey came from syria where 4 years of civil war had forced them to flee president bashar al assad's forces had increased their attacks on opposition strongholds and the so-called islamic state was gaining strength but people from many other countries including afghanistan iraq pakistan eritrea they also left their home in search of a better future in europe faced with an unprecedented wave chancellor angela merkel's government decided to open germany's borders and almost a 1000000 migrants claimed asylum here as part of our series looking back on that summer 5 years ago we met up with 2 of those micro. look into how. to live my name is burkholder. i was born in 1980 sure and. i fled eritrea because i could no longer stand the never ending military service at the us about how much. you know my name and i'm 31 years old. i arrived in germany in 2015 and i don't think i had to leave syria. and then after 2 years of military service i came home for the 1st time i had only seen my daughter once at birth and never again after that when i got home i walked right past her i just didn't reco

the most of syria's oil producing fields in the north east the government of syrian president bashar al assad does not recognize the kurdish self-proclaimed rule and calls the move illegal a statement from syria's foreign ministry condemns the agreement to quote steal syria's oil under the sponsorship and support of the american administration which damascus says is quote no and void and has no legal basis the official u.s. narrative about its involvement in syria has been about helping its allies the syrian rebels in the fight against the islamic state but last year president trump contradicted the official narrative by publicly announcing that the u.s. mission in syria isn't really about securing its oil fields unbelievable. draft dodger donald trump told the truth he told. the reality of why we're there i've got news for you people the only reason we have an interest in the middle east is oil it's always bad blood for oil and i encourage people when it comes to these war situations please read general smedley butler is book war is a racket let me repeat that to time congressional medal of

civil war in syria had been raging for 5 years in its fight against the insurgents president bashar al assad's army had laid waste to entice it is. amid the chaos the so-called islamic state that seized control of great swathes of eastern syria. putin did not want to see another arab dictator toppled he decided to intervene. save the bus for us with a thought probably a minute by which flash are all assad it wasn't about supporting him personally siddique of the cause the problem was keeping the syrian state going. what is u.s. and european intervention in other states internal affairs ever achieved e.u. battle with this excuse of teaching you about democracy in your way of life and we've been used to when democrats you know which moves each bribe you know. only chaos and collapse when. you're asked by the maker of this with us is applies to afghanistan iraq and libya you know it that's aids and now in syria russia was saying stuff like that that's enough that stuff which. on the 30th of september 2015 russia launched its ass strikes officially they were targeting islamic terror militia. bruto

biden on the seventh anniversary of the biggest failure of joe biden's career when in syria, bashar al-assad gassed children after the obama-biden team said they would do something about it. we saw this gassing of children, a by all accounts, and nothing was done. so i find it really troubling that this group which really pushes war inc. in so many ways wants to somehow say that the return of joe biden and the return to the status quo is going to be better. it's really troubling to many americans. we know longer have a problem of republican versus democrat, we have a problem of washington versus the rest of the united states. >> martha: interesting way to put it. we all remember president obama talking about the red line have they started moving chemical weapons around or using them in any way and then that redline went unanswered which is a significant moment in that administration. here is john kerry the other night at. watch this. >> for the eight years of the obama-biden administration, we lead by example. we eliminated the threat of iran with a nuclear weapon, built a 68 nation coalitio

they were willing to put necessary force to keeping bashar al-assad in power.ling they have the same feeling in lebanon and willing to use the same type of tactics? trey: absolutely. the iranians are willing to do whatever it takes to keep their proxies in power and i would give you examples across the middle east where we've reported, reporting on the ground in gaza city talking to islamic jihad and hamas, when we were reporting in baghdad talking to militia members from hezbollah, they want to see that continued support from the iranian regime and they are willing to do whatever the regime that iran asks. excuse the profanities, you can tell people are upset. the woman speaking about lebanese president michel aoun. she said she didn't want him to be president anymore and that's what we are seeing, similar sentiment across the city. leland: trey, your perspective of control iran has from gaza to where you are in beirut to reporting in baghdad is invaluable. our thanks to you, you and your crew stay safe throughout the night and obviously we will be back throug

bashar al assad, the dictator in syria, announces 98% of the people have voted to keep him in power. really? tell me more. the castro brothers in cuba, 99% of the vote. kim jong-il in north korea, 99% of the vote. saddam hussein, 100% of the vote. you know, these guys working it hard enough, they could probably get 110% of the vote. in the right precincts. but, you know, after going through those kind of motions, you know, voila, the dictator says to the world and to his own country, look, i've been overwhelmingly democratically re-elected to my post. the people love me. i'm not pushing myself on anybody. they've asked for me to stay. they love me. this weekend in belarus, the guy who has been the dictator there for more than 25 years, the first and only president that country has ever had since the collapse of the soviet union, he stood for re-election, and there's no reason to think in a real election that he would be re-elected. he has badly botched, for example, his country's coronavirus response, which has led to widespread anger and criticism. the economy in belarus is circling

bashar al assad what i saw was a party pro-criminal justice, pro-immigration, pro-woman, loves dr. a party to vote for that believes in that stuff, that party's called the democratic party. what you saw tonight was the republican party pretends that they're us, and i think the most bizarre part of it, the best part of their convention is pretend that they're us. >> the conventions you paid attention to. all i can say is, i have to make one quote, yeah, one comment. and that is that what the republicans focused on a lot -- and you guys have criticized them is, you know, on the strength of donald trump and the economy. why? because we're in an economic difficulty right now. we're in an economic difficulty not because of donald trump. let's be honest about it. we were hit with the coronavirus and everybody wanted -- >> and how he handled. >> wanted the country to shut down. >> yeah, but he botched it. >> no, he didn't botch it. what's been botched is the reopening of the country where democrats have continued to shut -- >> no. >> if you look where the highest unemployment is, it's in