bobby west blames bashar al-assad, u.n. investigators find evidence of nerve gas and only for attacks. the united states puts the blame for the latest attack on russia, saying moscow is not willing to restrain the regime and it is costing innocent syrian lives as the russians stop a u.n. -- week, the head of the united nations called the security council to revive efforts to punish those responsible and france called for a fresh multinational initiative to preserve evidence of chemical weapons attacks. >> and unity cannot be an option. option,ity cannot be an those who use the weapons, state or nonstate actors must be punish and those in may consider using them should be deterredd from doing so. >> a 29 nation groups meeting in paris increaeasing pressurures n bashar al-assad and russia to protect the regime. hase has ordered -- france ordered asset freezes over 25 individuals and groups inspected of helping serious use of chemical weapons. >> for more, i am joined by benjamin. a senior fellow at the foundation of strategic

bashar assad in power but because they like bashar al assad as has said but because actually they believe that bashar assad in fact got an interest geopolitical interest in this and this bought off of the world so. in my opinion conference light now might be turned into another. beast process in syria because as you said we have geneva we have and now we are having sochi so i sat down at. she was designed from the very beginning to deal with military issues the cease fire that the escalation zones and so on and so forth. right now sochi is going to be dealing with more political issues like the quest to to chanel's the elections and and and the likes so now we are having a field actually process which makes things even much more complicated for. her to kick place in syria because we can see some sort of a competition between these different processes in fact the americans they want very much to focus on geneva the americans i'm talking here about france but then. jordan and saudi arabia who actually came up with the no paper paper the other day talking about their vision of the political.

it's one of the reasons they have propped bashar al assad up so maintain their presence.yria is their toe hold in the e critics are right they have gained more influence because the united states has ceded influence and didn't just start under president trump. i understand that. but they have definitely now sort of controlled the table with respect to the future of syria. and just today, christiane, you may have even the russiass are calling for a meeting in sochi of the u.n. security counsel members to discuss the civil war in syria and potentially solving this diplomatically along the u.n. lines. think that is unfortunate, that russia now is being process ut in the driver's seat diplomatically. this administration while i praise them for the work against iceness iraq and syria, up until recently last week there's been no discussion out of the trump administration about how to solve the syrian civil war diplomatically. how to drive it forward, the way that secretary kerry tried to do while in in office. they have given that to the russians. it's not a good place for us o

of peace but now it is stained with blood it's also the one is extending the olive branch to bashar al assad in syria who once used to be his allies said it was upmarket this operation is an attempt to massacre the kurds opus we hope that statements like this one by jimmy are dangerous right now in the past days the turkish government has detained dozens of people including politicians activists and journalists for criticizing the military operation in syria the official charged terrorist propaganda. the journalist who knows servile colleagues who got into trouble with authorities over reports criticizing the offensive he says the government gave editors of turkey's leading media outlets directives on how to report patriotically. with congress i mean have you noticed how all of the newspapers have similar headlines. this is actually government propaganda. for their journalists my sense of themselves to avoid trouble. unfortunately i can't do you proper journalism in turkey anymore. but mahmoud a columnist for the government friendly daily sabbat disagrees he says the government is not influe

we are nothe in a fake news era, as bashar al-assad says here we are, rather, in an era in which the authoritarian impulse is reasserting itself. to challenge free people and free societies everywhere. it our own country from the trivial to the truly dangerous, it is the range and regularity of the untruths we see that should be the cause for profound alarm, and spurred to action. add to that the by now predictable habit of calling truth things false and false things true, and with a recipe for disaster. george orwell warned, the further our a society treats fm the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. any of those who have spent time in a look like have endured news coverage we felt was jaded or unfair. but in our positions, to employ even idle threats to use laws or regulations to stifle criticism is corrosive to our democratic institutions. simply put, it is the press obligation to uncover the truth about t power, it is the peoples right to criticize their government. and it is our job to take it. what is the goal of laying siege to the truth?ri president john f. kenned

we are not in a fake news era as bashar al-assad says. we are, rather, in an era in which the authoritarian impulse is reasserting itself to challenge free people and free societies everywhere. in our own country, from the trivial to the truly dangerous, it is the range and regularity of the untruths we see that should be the cause for profound alarm and spur to action. add to that the by now predictable habit of calling true things false and false things true, and we have a a recipe for disaster. george or well warned, the further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. how any of us who have spent time in public life have endured news coverage we felt was jaded or unfair, but in our positions to employ even idle threats to use laws or regulations to stifle criticism is corrosive to our democratic institutions. simply put, it is the press' obligation to uncover the truth about power. it is the people's right to criticize their government. and it is our job to take it. what is the goal of laying siege to

scared about the idea of what another syria without bashar assad how can you convince the international community this time that a syria without bashar al assad is good for everyone. well the international community doesn't have a problem with that the problem really lies with russia itself had there been russian will towards implementing un security council resolutions be they the geneva communiqué orders aleutian two to five for i think the geneva could have a chance how about i want to just refer back to what your guest from moscow are calling for most of the guardian a stunner stunna was meant to be a military and humanistic matter just for deescalation and for the detainees to be released for a cease to be lifted and for aid to get to those besieged. and none of those goals were achieved as they intend they were intended to be unfortunately however russia wanted to use also the platform of a stana to politicize it when they introduced the constitution asserting constitution in one of their rounds and it was rejected and it found just a stunt to be to be not quite helpful in just going into that political track and that's why this m

forces in north and syria at least the offer in a regional authority called for help cold on bashar al assad to intervene and help protect the syrian border against the turkish military so this shows you how complex the situation can get and how messy it is actually on the ground and despite the fact that it is messy there i mean it does have broad support among turks back at home right why is that. well patriotism and nationalism are really running deep in turkish society and that's what political leaders are using and appealing to when mobilizing when actually preparing the population for such a military offensive and there is a strong enemy image here i mean for i'm current the syrian kurdish fighters are practically the same as the outlaw p k k that is fighting a war inside turkey since decades so there is a strong am enemy image here and of course media reporting has been very much in favor of this offensive so this is shaping public opinion you barely hear any critical voices let me show you what i mean i follow the reports here from istanbul let's have a look at this. war on every cha

people have fled in the past three weeks russia and iran backed the forces of syrian president bashar al assad while turkey supports opposition fighters. the u.n. says it's concerned about the number of arrests chairing anti-government protests in china's ear more than seven hundred seventy people have been detained in nearly a week of sometimes violent demonstrations over plans to raise taxes on the price of basic goods the government has deployed trying to help contain the unrest with prime minister. tom german chancellor angela merkel and her conservative party have struck a deal with that social democrats rival's to open government coalition talks the attempts to try to revive a power sharing agreement that's been in power since twenty thirty a few approved by s.p.d. members next week the parties have found common ground on account for refugee arrivals and is own policy there's a headline stay with us al-jazeera us scapes next. twenty first century africa a continent undergoing great change and finally seizing control of its image but it's been a long pants on that years ago photography wa

people have fled in the past three weeks russia and iran back in the forces of syrian president bashar al assad while turkey supports opposition funny to you. and the united nations has expressed its constant over the latest escalation in fighting with a warning that deliberate attacks on civilians could be considered war crimes more than eighty five people have been killed in the past twelve days had a huckster reports. this has become the norm in east. l.a. to civilian casualties as the syrian government steps up its attacks and flushing out rebels in the damascus suburb was this is the last rebel held and clay and regime forces backed by russian strikes have been intensifying attacks in recent months russia has rejected accusations it's been targeting civilians. turkish president spoke to his russian counterpart putin on thursday stressing the strikes needed to stop for peace talks to succeed an unnamed turkish source said ankara had summoned iranian and russian ambassadors syrian president assad's backers to express its discomfort those airstrikes are in what was meant to be a deescalation.

last three days as government forces and their russian allies intensify their attacks president bashar al assad's troops are also battling opposition fighters in the northern province of it one hundred twenty thousand people have fled from rebel held areas in the past few weeks tim geithner who has more from the raw refugee camp in the northern syrian village of kufa loosen. this is rama refugee camp in northwestern at led by the turkish syrian border there are five thousand refugees here who came after december fifteenth when the syrian regime started its a a strike on civilians and is there in hama also those people are from is and how much and they are mainly very poor families you see the kids they are walking even on barefoot they don't have shoes to wear and people need immediate humanitarian assistance we have been talking to the people who have been residing here and the people in charge of the camp they're telling that the medical equipment they have is not enough the food they have is not enough for those people they need immediate extra medicine they need immediate extra food to feed t

we're not in a fake news era as bashar al assad says, we're in an era in which the a authoritarian impulse is reasserting itself to challenge free people and free societies everywhere. in our own country from the trivial to the truly dangerous. it is the range and regularity of the untruths we see that should be the cause for profound alarm and spur to action. add to that the by now predictable habit of calling true things false and false things true. we have a recipe for disaster. george orwell warned, the further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. any of us who have spent time in public life had endured news coverage we feltwi was jaded or unfair. in our positions to deploy idle threats to use laws or regulations to stifle criticism is corrosive to our democratic institutions. simply put, it is the press's obligation to uncover the truth about power. it is the people's right to criticize their government and it is our job to take it. what the goal to the truth. president john f. kennedy on the 20th anniversary of the voice of america was eloquent i

its version of political talks on syria's future and one of the key backers of syrian president bashar al assad the main opposition groups and the kurds are not attending the talks in sochi. yemen's prime minister is accusing separatists backed by the united arab emirates of an attempted coup fighters have taken over the government's headquarters in the port city of aden at least ten people have been killed and one hundred others have been wounded in battles between southern secessionists and yemen's government you are going to there is no difference between the these and anyone else rebels against a legitimate government no matter. if he's not with the legitimate government then he's ripped balin against it and considered an enemy to the entire country. sudan egypt in ethiopia to meet on the sidelines of the african union over a controversial dam project trying to find a solution after months of deadlock over the great ethiopian renaissance dam. reports from addis ababa. it clouds of uncertainty hangs over the african union's annual gathering in addis ababa. a dispute between some of its membe

syrian president bashar al assad's key backer russia is holding talks aimed at a political solution to the civil war about sixteen hundred syrian business and politicians rebels and members of civil society have been invited to the black sea resort town moscow says it's bringing all sections of the conflict together however the main opposition groups and the kurds they are boycotting the talks world powers like france and britain are also staying away a small section of the opposition groups who are in sochi are refusing to leave the airport they say they are offended by the presence of official syrian flags in the terminal building more now on our top story let's continue discussing this go to rory chalons who is live in sochi so war as we just said there's a small segment of the opposition that won't leave the airport there are other opposition members that simply refuse. where do things stand with the opposition and they seem to not only be on different pages they seem to change their minds often as well. it's been one of the perennial problems with the whole syrian peace process ha

president bashar al assad's forces have stepped up their assault on this last opposition stronghold in the north of the country in recent weeks. against them this coalition of jihad east and moderates don't stand much of a chance. troops backed by russian airpower launched intensified attacks on northern hama and southeast about a month ago. that's led to the biggest wave of migration we've ever seen. one hundred thousand people have already fled the fighting in southern this is raised fears of yet another humanitarian crisis in syria we are extremely concerned that amid this escalation in fighting up to two million people may be at risk this is an area where tens of thousands of people have already been displaced and their own going fighting could provoke even further displacement of civilians. that meat and doctors are exhausted. there are so many injured people we can't take care of them or. no hospital in the world could treat the number of patients that come here after their neighborhood has been bombed. it is a war zone and that's all they russia iran and turkey designated it as

leadership which boycotted the event at the conference merely serve the interests of president bashar al assad the u.s. france on the united kingdom also stayed away. australia chance us about in courts as welcome to hungary and prime minister viktor orban to vienna for talks on migration those are called suspect hungry and other countries who oppose you migrant quotas and want increased border security the chance of conservatives or governing in coalition with a far right party. kenya's government has outlawed rather a dangerous national resistance movement after the opposition leader took a symbolic presidential oath of office at a mock ceremony in nairobi was a danger has disputed the country's presidential election results since last august the supreme court ordered a rerun in october which boycotted describing it as a sham after the ceremony mr adiga a dated his twitter profile to describe himself as president of the republic of kenya and in a tweet showing him at the market no gration it is dr himself has graciously accepting the mandate given us by the kenyan people. thousands a symbol

will be great interest in this matter in the coming days but it's one thing if the opponent is bashar al assad or terrorist the p.k. k. it's another thing if the united states is on the other end of this operation well i think we need to continue to bear in mind that the two countries have been operating closely together in the fight against in syria and iraq for now many many months and so they are accustomed to paying attention to deconstruction and they're accustomed to to really staying in close communication so that there are actions are transparent to the other and i i only see that continuing thank you very much thank you. deputy secretary general of nato rose gottemoeller speaking to the w.'s tara schultz in brussels or we're going to stay with the theme of syria a more uplifting one albeit the berlin international film festival opening next month is known for showcasing movies that address the social and political issues of the day while last year's program was devoted to refugees and migration and this year a well known shift from syria and a refugee herself will be cooking for guest

and also based on the assumption that they will turn this territory over to the government of bashar al—assadfterwards. it is a bit interesting because it is conflicting with previous news at court into which he was condemning the attack and it also raised the question of why turkey is getting involved. there is quite a lot of involvement from turkey because of the kurdish group which is according to turkey, linked to the pkk which is not really well—received in turkey. the group itself, the ypg, is denying that. we will see the un security council talking about this later today. we have seen france, the us and other powers edging turkey to restrain its actions and ta ke turkey to restrain its actions and take care that they wouldn't be any civilians involved —— urging. 0f course syria, as we have seen over the past couple of years, a very messy situation. so complex. he mentioned america because they have actually armed to the ypg because they were fighting is. it is complex. geopolitical in its consequences but more importantly, for the people of syria, with all of these different armed gro

islamic state group and russia on the other hand the strongest supporter of syrian president bashar al assad is controlling the end space of both offerings and the russians have now said they will demand in the united nations turkey to stop this oh peroration so we're going to see if turkey really is is backing down or is continuing no matter what you leon thank you very much now to some of the other stories making news around the world the taliban have claimed responsibility for a deadly siege on a hotel in kabul security forces say the standoff is now over after more than twelve hours of fighting on saturday evening three gunmen stormed the landmark intercontinental hotel killing at least six people. the iraqi government has condemned a german woman to death by hanging after finding her guilty of belonging to the so-called islamic state of baghdad court said the woman who was moroccan descent had traveled to syria and then to iraq to join the terrorist organization. u.s. vice president mike pence has arrived in jordan on the second leg of his first middle east tour pense is defending presi

people have fled in the past three weeks russia and iran backed the forces of syrian president bashar al assad while turkey supports opposition fighters. the u.n. says it's concerned about the number of arrests during anti-government protests in chin is even more than seven hundred seventy people have been detained in nearly a week of sometimes violent demonstrations over plans to raise taxes on the price of basic goods the government has deployed troops to help contain the unrest with prime minister yousaf childhood tom german chancellor angela merkel and her conservative party have struck a deal with the social democrats rivals to open government coalition talks the attempts to try to revive the power sharing agreement that's been in power since twenty thirty a few approved by s.p.d. members next week the parties have found common ground on account for refugee arrivals and eurozone policy there's a headline stay with us al-jazeera us case next. twenty first century africa a continent on the going great change and finally seizing control of its image but it's been a long shots that he has a g

will be great interest in this matter in the coming days but it's one thing if the opponent is bashar al assad or terrorist the p.k. it's another thing if the united states is on the other end of this operation well i think we need to continue to bear in mind that the two countries have been operating closely together in the fight against in syria and iraq for now many many months and so they are accustomed to paying attention to deconstruction on their custom to to really staying in close communication so that there are actions are transparent to the other and i i only see that continuing thank you very much thank you. nato's the deputy secretary general there speaking to the w.'s teri schultz in brussels all right before i let you go and remind you of our main headline all right now. u.s. president donald trump has delivered closing remarks to the world economic forum in switzerland he told the audience that america first doesn't mean america alone he said he supported free trade but added that it must be fair and reciprocal. and it does it for me a little rock n roll and now we'll see you a

leadership which boycotted the events of the conference merely serve the interests of president bashar al assad the u.s. france and the u.k. also stayed away. there's no chance of a suppressive courts is welcomed home gary and the prime minister viktor all bowed to vienna for talks on migration charles loquat says but hungry and other countries who oppose migration quotas and want to increase the border security chances conservatives are governing in coalition with a far right party of. plastic and sex crimes experts charles that she is having to show it to investigate a bishop who victims say covered up abused by a paedophile priest pope francis came under fire earlier this month during a visit to the country he'd say the bishop from punishment and criticized victims for speaking out. it is government has outlawed rollo dingoes national resistance movement to the opposition leader took a symbolic presidential oath of office at a mock inauguration ceremony in nairobi yesterday disputed the country's presidential election result since last august the supreme court ordered a rerun in october whic

the last three days as government forces backed by russia intensify their attacks president bashar al assad's troops have also battling opposition fighters in the northern province of italy as they tend to take over a major base under twenty thousand people have fled from rebel held it live in the past three weeks alone. those were the top stories but stay with us next up is al jazeera while the holy one five. zero zero zero zero . indeed there were over forty charges as i recall but primarily it was material support to terrorism and would you say they use a social welfare activity to win the hearts and minds of the palestinian people exactly what they do well i think this material support statute is a guilt by association statute i couldn't google you and find out anything about your work background is that correct i've googled this morning i thought i'm in finance and. i will lead with the had a limb your corn and that with a watery them i'm ready to do most of the land foundation justice department is alleging that the holy land foundation is supporting terrorism because they're working wi

islamic state group and russia on the other hand the strongest supporter of syrian president bashar al assad is controlling the airspace above our friends and the russians have now said they will demand in the united nations turkey to stop this operation so we're going to see if turkey really is is backing down or is continuing no matter what you leon thank you very much. bundesliga club hamburg has fired coach marcus crystal the move comes a day after the club lost to cologne the league's last place team the two no loss of hamburg in the relegation zone and seventeenth place because they all took over the team twenty six team and the club narrowly avoided being set down last season after the defeat to cologne because the told reporters he'd give it his all for hamburg with quote passion and heart staying with the bundesliga freiburg have been showing a bit of muscle lately giving themselves some distance from the relegation zone on home turf they've proven hard to beat and on saturday the league's second place clubs like sick came up short as they travel to germany's black forest today whit

macron says that bush are all aside should remain in place, at least included -- bashar al-assad shouldemain in place, at least be included in talks. recognition ofe jerusalem as the capital of israel. and turkey and paris have agreed to improve economic ties to boost trade levels as turkey experiences unprecedented growth. reportthank you for that from the presidential palace. next, north and south korea will hold official talks next week. this after pyongyang accepted seoul's offer for dialogue. this will be the first inter-korean talks and two years. area willthe border host the talks, the first and tw's. it was here that a cease-fire was declared during the korean war in 1953. >> today, north korea sent us a letter regarding the dialogue. the agenda includes improving relations and north korean dissipation in the olympics. reporter: earlier this week, north korean leader kim jong-il un said that he wished his country could participate in the olympics. they agreed to suspend all military maneuvers throughout the generations of the elevator spirit these exercises have often contribute

major sticking points remain, namely the face -- fate of bashar al-assad. i spoke to our correspondent. >> the delegates, dozens of delegates who turned up at the or part oft night the sysyrian oppositioiowho are vevery much opposed to bashar alal-assad.. they are in n the p process of g , whwhich is where they werere flown in from m last night.t. they were angry and had been n negotiatioions with the rurussin governmentnt representatives abt ththe logo behind me. at is becacause it has t the syrian flag on it and these representatives who are are upsethar al-asassad the syrian flag isis around the. representatives o offered to tae down the emblems and not use the logos around the a airpo. but ththey are everywhere and unavoidablble. thatat is one of the majajor is. it means the peace talks are not representative.. we saw the opepening of e e pres coconference, when the foreign minister of r russia was speaki. a represeseative in t the hall t up as hehe was speakining and accused moscow of killing thousands of civilians using its aircraft. a difficult day fo

will bashar al assad be the leader next new year's eve?you predicted, when we come back. i tried hard to quit smoking. but when we brought our daughter home, that was it. now i have nicoderm cq. the nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release technology helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. it's the best thing that ever happened to me. every great why needs a great how. i've been a lot of things over the years. your blind spot... your loose satellite dish... the literal deer in the headlights. but it's a new year and i'm making a resolution. no more mayhem. this year i'm everything that helps keep you safe. like the fuzzy, yellow tennis ball dangling from a string. helping make sure you pull the car in far enough... but not too far. ♪ >>> it's a new year and everyone's wondering what the future will bring. last week, we told you about a project we have with good judgment open, a crowd sourcing platform that asks every day people to forecast the future. some 2,000 of you have gone online to participate in the global judgment challeng

reading from the story, quote, in february, syrian president bashar al assad brshushed off a international report that 13 people have been killed in one of his military prisons saying you can forge anything these days, we're living in a fake news era. in the philippines, president rodrigo duterte has been plagued and demonized by fake news. with our president, quote, laughing by his side, duterte called reporters spies. the world media has spread lots of false versions, lots of lies about his country, adding this is what we call fake news today, isn't it? there are more, the state official in myanmar said there is no such thing as rohingya, it was fake news, he was referred to the persecuted ethnic group. leaders in singapore, have promised fake news legislation in the next year. and on and on and on. this feedback loop is disgraceful, mr. president. not only has the past year seen an american president borrow despotic language to refer to the free press, it seems he is now in turn inspired deictators and authoritarians in his own language, that is reprehensible, we are not in a fake news

the syrian president bashar al assad is not mentioned in the files either however the fact that his cousin rami makhlouf is mentioned aloud does so though it's as i to newspaper to publish a shocking headline. shell companies helping us sounds war. have known that information will be weaponized in certain hands and what made him approach the journalists noble motives financial greed wolf if it is life. and his job. who do you think dan. journalist and political scientist pepe escobar remains convinced that the panama papers targeted certain countries from the start. and ask about states to conceal the investigation's real purpose references to a political celebrities like jackie chan emma watson and you have no truly were included. down there on the other side we're talking about sixty act of the big brother to a. racing driver ya know truly retired long ago the exchange the smell of burning rubber in the roar of engines the fresh mediterranean area and his own fragrant winery. these are called tono how many people in all body ok the bikes is normally age wine but the journalist wouldn't l

welcome to the news hour syrian president bashar al assad's top ally russia is hosting talks aimed at a political solution to nearly seven years of civil war the meeting in sochi is also backed by turkey and iran but doubts loom over the outcome of the talks the main syrian opposition groups are boycotting that meeting the rebels want russia and the syrian government to stop bombing parts of it glib province the strikes have killed sixteen civilians including women and children in the past twenty four hours alone and elsewhere in syria a russian brokered cease fire rebel controlled eastern ghouta near the capital damascus seems to have collapsed and the activists are reporting repeated violations by the assad government killing at least eight people now the kurds who control almost twenty percent of syria are also not there at the talks there the focus of a turkish military operation in northern syria views their fighters as terrorists well joining me on on the program now our correspondent rory challenges in sochi but first let's join stephanie decker from the turkish syrian border n

tell me about the process that led to the president actually delivering a wicked punishment to bashar al assador using chemical weapons, which much of the world applauded. >> there were two factions in the white house. the presidentclined to respond to this. steve bannon was not inclined to respond to this. but it was the -- the president was just of a mind which was what do i get out of this? and it was his daughter and other people, dina powell, who were very concerned about this, and saw this as an opportunity for this white house to act what you might call to have a normal response. and it was very hard. they went through a whole series of efforts to focus in, to get his attention, and finally they have to do this with a set of pictures. >> but it was very important, particularly after president obama did not cross a red line. >> it was important, yes, it was important to them, but the interesting thing here is how they had to move and manipulate this president. because one of the major things, perhaps the major issue in this administration is how do you get information to the president? b

is far from guaranteed let alone agreement on issues such as the fate of the syrian president bashar al-assadthey see a future for syria in which he plays no part. of c course his regime strengthened by the support of are verery sure of their position. presencehis continued in the near future is nonnegotiable. genie: the vienna talks backed by the u.n. come days before russia is sponsoring its own syrian dialogue in sochi. who is involved in those talks and are they helping or undermininu.u.n. effortsts? are another indicatioion ofof the challenges surrououndig reresolving the whole syriaa conflict. has its own geostrategic interests which it has been representing since it entered the conflict on the side of a bashar al-asassad and have cropd up his regime. they have been promoting those interests for the past few years. the conference in sochi is going to bring together the key playayers. it's going to bring together representatives of the regime. it's going to bring together regional representatives from turkey, iran. it''s a parallel procesess. on the o one hand you have countries like fra

numbers are negative, but according to some estimates, they spent tens of billions supporting bashar al-assad since 2011, and people are naturally angry about that when their living stances have just circumstances have deteriorated. laura: karim sadjadpour, thank you for joining us. karim: thank you. laura: of course we will continue to follow that story of the iranian protests, which are about to enter the third week. china's government aims to lift 43 million people out of fixing poverty in just three years. president xi points to close the -- wants to close the gap between china's urban rich and the country's rural poor. as john sudworth reports from a remote mountain village in the southwest, it is an ambitious goal. john: it is best not to look down. step-by-step, heavily laden, this is the only way to the village at the top. but the 2-hour, 800-meter climb is easier and safer than it used to be. the old homemade wooden ladder, still visible here and there, has been replaced by a spectacular series of steel ladders. remote mountain communities like these, languishing so far behind china'

damascus it's clear that they don't agree on many issues including the fate of the president bashar al assad but still they have something in common the willingness to talk. we are here now to negotiate to sit in front of each other to fight each other to shout at each other to talk to each other to talk frankly we hope that here in sochi we can achieve what we couldn't achieve in geneva after eight rounds of talks now with the syrian government cannot just avoid these negotiations they will have to meet all the participants of the congress face to face that is a step forward that was not made in geneva it will be useful for geneva. and i'm at the head that our sochi europe regarding sochi should remember there are many problems both on the ground and political the syrian army with its allies has liberated large areas and eliminated terrorist leaders anyway the geneva negotiations lead to nothing in order to please other parties that happens with other negotiation platforms too and that's where sochi comes in but we shouldn't expect too much maybe some expect the situation in syria will be r

. - [narrator] in syria, iran is supporting the government of bashar al-assad by sending malicious to counter-rebel groups including daesh who seek to unseat him. - iran under khomeini set the course for what is happening today. when we see iranian troops in syria, iranian malicious in iraq and other iranian-supported shia, malicious in lebanon and bahrain and even in saudi arabia, they have what is called the hezbollah and the hijaz. - from their perspective, syria, was always considered a trojan horse for the iranians. if they lost iraq to the iranians, we need to take syria back and i think, that probably what made syria a win or lose situation for them. - what they do want is to see the emergence of at sunni led government which would be friendly to saudi arabia and hostile to iran and what you've had since 2012 is essentially this spiraling, escalating regional proxy war which is basically so intense because it's so thoroughly penetrated be regional politics. - [narrator] saudis are the dominant power in the gulf cooperation council. the military alliance has carried out an inten