the founder and president of the american iranian council thanks for being with us thank you. or i polls have closed in south africa in what is being called by some the most crucial election there in more than twenty years with a vote count still in its initial stages the ruling african national congress party is in the lead a record forty eight parties threw their hats in the ring with three considered front runners polls published last month suggested the african national congress would continue governing the country the centrist democratic alliance despite a strong fight is expected to fall well short while the far left economic freedom fighters are expected to double their vote since the last election the co-founder of the champion south africa movement predicts the incumbent president will be given a second chance. it could well be the first sign of the ruling party this one in every election since one thousand nine hundred four may well lose hold of the election that means either gets below fifty and be voted out of power or get very close to that and have to form a coal

well for more on this we can speak to trita parsi he's the founder of the national iranian american council and professor at georgetown university he joins us live from washington sir welcome to al-jazeera and i was just reading there some of the e.u. commitments that the well that the e.u. signed up to in that agreement have they lived up to it. not really i mean it's not for a lack of desire on think the europeans in any way shape or form and to disagreement with bad intent but the problem is that as a trumpet in a stray ssion has really pressured the europeans they have almost on every account caved to that pressure and as a result iran essentially is the only country in the agreements next to russia and china that actually is living up to it so i'm not surprised that the iranians took this step i think what is surprising is that it took them so long to start reducing some of their collaboration with the agreement mindful of the fact that the un the us is not doing so i mean i guess the e.u. and many of the countries there find themselves in a slightly impossible position because they ne

of middle east politics at georgetown university and the former president of the national iranian american council trita what's your take on this it is one thing and we're used to rhetoric from this white house in particular from the likes of john bolton. but to send an aircraft carrier in but sending that's right to think things up to show up well trump administration have been ratcheting things up from the very moment they got into office i mean ever since trump got into the white house we have seen provocation after provocation in an effort to not only destroy the iran nuclear deal but it clearly they're trying to get the evil audience to leave the nuclear deal as well because right now the iranians are continuing to abide by the agreement which is part of the reason why the international community remains very sympathetic to iran and not towards a trumpet ministration it seems like they want the iranians to leave that agreements that they can pave the way for a broader assault on iran so it's interesting when you read this statement by john bolton which incidentally came in just a couple of mi

of middle east politics at georgetown university and a former president of the national iranian american council he says the u.s. national security advisor is trying to start a war with iraq. trump administration have been ratcheting things up from the very moment they got into office i mean ever since trump got into the white house we have seen provocation after provocation in an effort to not only destroy the iran nuclear deal but clearly they're trying to get the iranians to leave the nuclear deal as well because right now the iranians are continuing to abide by the agreement which is part of the reason why the international community remains very sympathetic to iran and not towards a trumpet ministration it seems like they want the iranians to leave that agreements that they can pave the way for a broader result on iran so it's interesting when you read this statement by john bolton which incidentally came in just a couple of minutes before everyone here in america started to watch game of thrones he actually calls provoke provocations in the region by iran to the best of my knowledge we hav

we go now to washington, d.c., where we're joined by trita parsi, founder of the national iranian american council. author of "losing an enemy: obama, iran, and the triumph of diplomacy." trita parsi is an adjunct associate professor in the center for security studies at georgetown university. welcome back to democracy now! can n you talk about the significance of this u.s. military deployment to the region of iran? >> the deployment of this woworship toto the persian gulfs in and of itself not very significant. it is everything else that has taken place around it. we talked about it on the show before that t john boltonn has n trying to move matteters towarda military confrfrontation with in . hehe appears to be getting closr and closer to that. we have to keep in mind john bolton has been trying to start a war with iran, has advocated a war with iran for more than 20 years. in those 20 years, his best shot yet is probably the one that exists right now because we have a public that is much more focused on tax returns, the mueller investigation, russia gate. we have no secretatary of defene right

. >> joining me now is treata parsy, former president of the national iranian american council and authorhe triumph of diplomacy." malcolm nance, author of "the plot to destroy democracy," mehdi hasan of the intercept and colonel lawrence wilkerson, former chief of staff to secretary of state colon powell. >>> i want to start with you, because i feel like we're watching a rerun. you have john bolton, who's been spoiling for war with iran for a very long time, in charge of our national security policy. i'm not even sure, do we have a secretary of defense yet or an acting like a boeing execute? and you have donald trump who doesn't know a whole heck of a lot about foreign policy or the world, which was the situation we had with george w. bush. are we setting -- are we being set up for a rerun? >> i think we are, joy. there are two possibilities here. bolton is the being, i've got my finger on the trigger rocket man for donald trump, trying to intimidate rouhani and zarif and the other leadership in iran and then he's going to get negotiations because they're going to beg for them, or we're

iranian threats against american personal interests are activated we must deliver an overwhelming military response all right kimberly how can lie 1st in washington thanks kimberly back now to the u.n. security council we think on libya in new york it has just started. let's go live now and listen in in accordance with the rules so to someone of the console's professional rules of procedure i invite the representative of libya to participate in this meet the if you so decided. in accordance with the rules of denial of the consulate professional rules of procedure i invite the following brief 1st to participate in this meet the list of hands on salami special and present that the if and head of the united nations support mission in libya. with their smiles charity african union commissioner for peace and security would be so decided because jerry is joining fairfield your conference from. the sacred council will now begin its consideration of item 2 of its again agenda all right so you're listening to the start of the proceedings there the u.n. security council here in the president of the security council from indonesia. beginning proceedings for us james bays is following all of this live from u.n.