hashem thank you hashem what a life for us there in. the shah is educate a senior political analyst he joins me now in the studio to talk more about this so . the u.s. secretary of state here in qatar the latest stop on his nine nation tour of the middle east he's got his work cut out for him has any absolutely. too many challenges and person from recent declinations and previous the clinician's have left many in the region dumbfound for answers as to what exactly is the u.s. policy in the region and i think some of what's called a fight a lot of others was left not necessarily clarified them in some big u.s. but i guess you could say this is. a process of sort of a walk in progress as it were and certainly the gulf region is an important one and the resignation of anthony zini that they separate their pompei are arriving in the region of course. many red lights as to what exactly is the policy in the gulf and visit and visit the the so-called middle east's its strategic alliance is this all failed or not well we've heard from secure th

hashem thank you now the u.s. president has denied accusations he concealed details of his meetings with russia's leader vladimir putin the washington post reports donald trump took back the notes made by his interpreter after a meeting in hamburg in twenty seventeen those are the headlines iraq today we're back in half an hour as always there is lots more on our web sites get the latest on all the stories we're following for you there right now it's the crusades and our perspective. in the history of conflicts between east and west. the mightiest battle between cristiana to slam. a holy war in the name of religion. for the first time. the story of the crusades. from an arab perspective. the crusades began with the goal of capturing the holy land for christiana. over the years it evolved into something entirely different. in a sense one last thought is india. and the relevant is that he has a you must win the war and the man that. has it. in the power see what russell. is that he had by only now has the whole mess

born in new orleans to protestant parents and inspired by the 1979 islamic revolution, hashem icon verted to islam and changed her name. her colueags are demanding her return. hashemi's boss says she's being mistreated while in custody and hasone dno wrong. >> this is not acceptable reason to make her as a political pawn, in a political war with iran. >> hashemi is a fierce critic of u.s. policy, but we know little about her detention. >> she was shooting a documentary in st. louis, missouri, and as she was heading back to denver she was apprehended in the airport there. there weren't any charges that were mentioned at that time. unsealed court documents u.s. officials say hashemi is being itne in an undisclosed federal investigation adding she will be released after testifying before a grand jury. the fbi has declined further clent. five americans are being held in iran including veteran michael white arrested a few months ago. with the u.s. vowing to exert maximum pressure on iran this year, this latest episode adds to a sea of trouble and tensions between these two old enemies. ali aro

pursuing peace in afghanistan and bringing american forces home there's still much work left to do as hashem now reports. an apparent breakthrough in negotiations taliban sources say their leaders are paving the way for around fourteen thousand american troops in afghanistan to leave within eighteen months it return groups such as and i still will not be allowed to use afghanistan as a base to target u.s. forces that will only actually be implemented if the other items are also agreed which are for the taliban much more difficult including direct negotiations with the afghan government reaching agreement with the afghan government and moving into some kind of interim or transitional ministration but after repeated and failed attempts to the seventeen year old afghan war the peace process has a long way to go afghanistan's president has voiced his skepticism a soft money warning the terms of any agreement bus include approval from the afghan government so i surely will basically be thinking ok my work starts now all this follows the appointment of one of the taliban's co-founders as leader of

in doha now hashem obviously this is a war that's been going on quite twenty years but not far off it there have been negotiations officially or unofficially now for a while now do you see this as a breakthrough. it will have to depend on what happens in the coming days because the draft agreement will have to go through for example the institutions of the taliban we're talking about the leader. and then the council of the taliban do they all of a forgive me i'm going to have to stop here right there because the venezuelan foreign minister is speaking now at the u.n. security council let's listen in because we have a text and i will not reflect your need for that i want to share some thoughts with . mike we can even thank mr mike on it because. in the face of the failure at the. organization of american states and less on the twenty fourth of january they didn't have enough weight to impose a resolution will they. convene a meeting of the security council in fact we present i do or thought of peeling did this body not only to debate not only the case of venezuela but rather the. blata

fight against extremism and the fight against eisold alongside its arab allies the second one is hashem was just mentioning there in his report this needs to have cohesion within the gulf cooperation council despite the fact of course that qatar is currently under all located by some members of the g.c.c. but it's the third element iran that is going to attract the most attention here in as we know the u.s. regards iran as a destabilizing force in the middle east that's a view that's held by several other countries in the middle east on the western side of the gulf for ticket only of course particularly saudi arabia the reason why that's going to be so important here in oman is actually geographical a few kilometers over to the left is the straits of hormuz and right in the middle of the straits of hormuz oman shares a maritime border with iran for about a thousand kilometers know to the west of the country it shares its western borders with the u.a.e. and saudi arabia and with yemen to this side of that has meant that oman for decades has retained a very delicate balancing act between

us an indication that this is an this could collapse and it's time now just to compound all that hashem yesterday the man the u.n. put in charge to monitor the cease fire and had data literally walked off the job i mean his role looked like a bit of a poisoned chalice didn't it widely widely go what he said well his convoy came under fire when he was in her data and he faces the delicate task of trying to convince all the parties to implement a ceasefire this is fire says the agreement says the should pull out from the port city of her data and hand over control to the u.n. . saying they will only do that if they have guarantees that local authorities of her there will take over the government is saying you know the we are the ones who should take over the whole thing is should pull out and this is something that has been rejected by the hoses and this explains why we're seeing an increase in fighting and i think he realizes now that is absolutely going to be difficult for anyone to impose that's absolutely and and i suppose the big question now is where does this all leave the peace de

the man on this post was named yet all are hashem said day he was an officer in the revolutionary guard who was killed in september two thousand and sixteen in syria. the revolutionary guard corps created in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine is the most powerful security organization in the country it's the tehran regime's praetorian guard and. no one knows how many soldiers iran has lost in syria probably several hundred from the beginning of the popular uprising against a basher in the spring of two thousand and eleven to run has taken the side of the syrian regime a regime that it has always considered to be an historical and strategic ally. to appreciate the importance of this relationship we need to go back to the iran iraq war. in september nine hundred eighty saddam hussein decided to invade iran just months after the revolution the fledgling islamic republic was threatened with destruction. that hard to tell if you are in the iranian collective memory syria was the only country to support us during the war against iraq. and we've never forgotten that that hard to the more wh

forces home but there is still a lot of work left to do as hashem reports. an apparent breakthrough in negotiation taliban sources say their leaders are paving the way for around fourteen thousand american troops in afghanistan to leave within eighteen months if we turn goof. and i still will not be allowed to use of got it as a base to target u.s. forces that will only actually be implemented if the other items are also agreed and which are for the taliban much more difficult including direct negotiations with the afghan government reaching agreement with the afghan government and moving into some kind of interim or transitional ministration but after repeated and failed attempts to the seventeen year old afghan war the peace process has a long way to go afghanistan's president has voiced his skepticism a soft money warning the terms of any agreement bus include approval from the afghan government so i surely will basically be thinking ok my work starts now all this follows the appointment of one of the taliban's co-founders as leader of the group's politic

iran war in yemen war in syria and also the fight against i said in the region for the moment to hashem about our life they're hearing that. director of the gulf study center qatari university joins me here now to talk more about this good to see you again so let's talk about some of those issues then first of all syria. we seem to be getting mixed messages once again from the u.s. administration that abrupt decision from president trump a few couple weeks ago about withdrawing troops from syria now they seem to be walking this back the u.s. secretary of state saying there's really no change here awards going on. let's not forget that this administration is suffering of the surface were they are making a decision regardless the implication on the ground i mean it was obvious that the secretary of defense was not in the in the favor of the draw and was drawing from syria so the president made the decision and now the star bushman to intervene to said by the way we are in the other troubles so that's the reason why the president says ok let's calm down let's try to think differently and t

reiterating that call for the members of the gulf the gulf cooperation council to stick together as hashem was talking about in the face of the blockade against khattala but it's the third element of this these messages that is most closely going to be paid attention to here in amman the u.s. has made no secret of the fact that it regards iran as a major destabilizing influence in the gulf and of course that is a view that is held by other gulf countries including of course saudi arabia the reason why that is going to be so important when the secretary of state is having those negotiations with omani officials is predominantly because of a man's geography just a few kilometers away to the east of there is the strait of hormuz and right in the middle of the strait of hormuz is a maritime border but oman shares with iran to the west it has its western border again just a few kilometers away and it's shares that border with the united arab emirates and with saudi arabia and with yemen that means that oman has had decades to achieve a very carefully balanced diplomatic situation between severa

officials here into the full story now with hashem. it's one of the worst attacks by the taliban says the group was pushed from power by u.s. forces in late two thousand and one a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into a military compound what followed was carnage officials and witnesses say several dozens of people have been killed recently it was a very dangerous incident and the sound of the explosion was very loud the windows of our house and other houses close to the area were broken and the wounded ones were taken to different hospitals here and leak out of. the facility is a brand by an elite intelligence unit in charge of training tribesman to fight the taliban. the attack is another indication of the armed groups growing influence last year taliban fighters launched a series of attacks across the country including a suicide bomb attack in the capital kabul in january at least one hundred people were killed mostly civilians analysts believe the taliban is increasing its attacks to gain more leverage in crucial

heading to riyadh as he tries to ensure a recent deal reached in sweden is fully implemented more from hashem. peace in yemen won't be easy but the united nations envoy martin griffiths remains confident it will one day become a reality griffith's is triggering the region to ensure all the parties will implement the agreement reached in sweden last month the deal calls for the who are these to hand over control of yemen's red sea port of her data of the warring factions remain divided over who should step in and run the facility where much of the food aid comes in. the exiled government says it's ready to take over and move dismissed by the who these who don't recognize the government of president opt out of the muscle handy. we hope peace efforts kick off a gratian comes to an end debility prevails in airports reopen. the un wants to bring yemen's rival factions to a new round of talks to discuss ways to improve the economy and tackle the deteriorating humanitarian situation on his arrival martin griffiths was shown children affected by the almost four year old conflict. the war has killed t

i'm joined now by kawther hashem from the charity action on sugar, which works to raise awarness of the with tooth decay which we often forget, but it is the main reason children are admitted to hospital to undergo general anaesthetic, because damaged teeth need to be extracted. and in terms of fizzy drinks, that is a key contributor to hide sugar intake in kids, it is the main reason white excess sugar intake needs to be cut, because it is contributing to type two diabetes risk. the focus is on switching heads from high sugar products like sugary cereals to low sugar alternatives which are out there. it's sort of looks and await when you talk about the things you are buying in the supermarket like it is pinning the blame on the manufacturers, who are changing formulations as a result of changes in policy from government. how much is it the responsibility of manufacturers? i think they have a significant responsibility. of course some pa rents significant responsibility. of course some parents have responsibility, government has responsibility, government has responsibility to get the g