issue peacefully right my guest today is timothy called us he's in on resident fellow at the institute for middle east policy he joins us now from cairo welcome to d.w. africa let's start off with what is at the heart of this disagreement over the stem the most pressing issue is the period of time that if you if you will use to fill the reservoir behind the down those faster they fill it the less water rule will flow out of us downstream to sudan and egypt and so egypt concept here as long as possible to allow for water to reach it right so we now know that ethiopia's prime minister went ahead an os of africa's president to negotiate this while washington is also mediating talks between the players which also includes the done my question so you say is it does president asked made not necessarily think that much will come out of the mediation by washington why go ahead and ask south africa's president to also come in and mediate. i think i think both egypt and if you know if you're looking for leverage when they don't have any directly over one another and so the hope that for haps prime minister ahme

for today's "washington journal." we are going to bring you live to the middle east policy council. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] >> there are still a few seats up front. up. on good morning, everyone. and welcome. thank you for joining us this morning for what i am sure will be a very, very interesting discussion on a very timely topic. my name is richard scherrer and i am the chairman of the board of the policy council and we are holding our 99th capitol hill conference. isyou know, the topic today u.s.-iranian confrontation, domestic, regional, and global implications. we have a full house and there if a few seats in the back, you want to try to find one over there. we do have a full house, so i apologize for those who are not able to find a seat. inore we begin, as you saw the announcement, i'm a former wouldador to oman, and i like to note the end of an era in the region, and that was the passing of his majesty on january the 10th. for almost 50 years, he was a source of gre

for us in tripoli thank you matthew. in the body is a non resident scholar at the middle east institute and he doesn't have high hopes for this summit. the conference was initially it had agree that was essentially focused on actually tapering interventionism by foreign states and also in forcing the arms embargo unfortunately now it's optics have become really bad and also it seems to have completely altered its goals from what was initially envisioned so it's no longer about enforcing the arms embargo it's no longer about focusing on tapering interventionism it's actually almost the reset may be able to political landscape that would be essentially legitimizing the status quo and sweeping under the rug the fact that after a lot of this offensive 10 months ago on the u.s. backed government ahead of a national conference in the presence of the secretary general of the united nations i think this has really tanked europe's at the ability at this stage and unfortunately the dynamic is the no one wants the aljunied the u.a.e. the united arab emirates which is the partners main backer and we've seen in statements continuousl

for the national democratic institute. he contributed to the chapter on governance. and then we have a. kadir yildirim who's a fellow for the middle east at the baker institute at rice university. he researches both pluralism in the middle east andas interplay between religious authorities and foreign policy. he contributed to the chapter on islam. we will try to keep the conversation lively, and i will interrupt to keep everybody from not n just going on and on and . we will talk for a while and then open it up to questionsqu from the audience. so to start i'm going to start with michael and ask you, what's special about this book? what you think was lacking in the scholarship or the analysis that required this kind of approach? century of the market interaction in the middle east combining in a metric like you said in your introduction, u.s. hasn't been successful has brought a democrat or republican thing. what we wanted to do is number one, get away from analysis based on the u.s. political calendar. that is is it too easy and it doesn't work. for more broadly do a more fundamental rethink from the issues and drivers in the region.

color joins us live on skype from arlington virginia he is a senior fellow at the middle east institute thank you so much for your time so this key meeting in washington includes 2 israeli leaders and no palestinians how valid in your opinion can a peace plan be without input from the palestinian side. well obviously it's not really it's not a real peace process that we're talking about i think if we look at this. from the perspective of the normal peace process where there are 2 parties to the conflict. then it doesn't make any sense since both parties would need to be present rather than simply the 2 main political factions of one party so this is not a serious peace process i think it really isn't intended to be. a serious conflict ending process what it's really designed to do is to consolidate the status quo basically permanent israeli occupation with the possibility then of formal annexation of parts of the west bank. and that is very much in keeping with what we've seen so far the trump administration has completely abandoned they say ground rules of the peace process as we've known it declaring that

middle east. now we see the same geniuses in the swamp thing takes and institutes for strategic whatever greatly expressing their concerns about how president trump's actions will hamper the prospects of the middle east piste in the fight against isis or some other illusory goal. what planet are they on and they are are no prospects in the middle east peace as long as we are there. we never will defeat the ideology of islamic terror as long as all these countries are basket cases but one of the main reasons they are basket cases is that our preposterous foreign policy establishment is monumental arrogance treated the middle east like some chess game. splayed out in the borders of washington and london but they are a joke. nothing they ever proposed has ever worked. everything has failed. the west involvement in the middle east has been a disaster from the start finally with president trump america isn't a a position to bring it to an end we don't need that oil and we don't need their problems. finally we have a u.s. president who get that and wants to get out that doesn't mean doing nothing but it means in

let's bring in michael o'hanlon at the brookings institution and paul salent at the middle east institute. good to see both of you. there's something for everybody in what the president said i'll never allow iran to have nukes. we have the best weapons and we don't want to use them we want you to prosper michael? >> overall, becky, i certainly liked the message compared to what it might otherwise have been i think it was the logical message when iran signaled it didn't want escalation by probably deliberately missing any targets to cause civilian or military casualties and logical next step and in terms of additional sanctions, i think that's more for show and rhetoric than anything else and not that many ways that we the united states can sanction iran's economy, not that i can think of we have comprehensive sanctions already. so i saw this as about the kind of speech you would expect and hope for but still leave it is question of the end game. how do we get out of the confrontation with iran when the demands are maximal? tactically, i think it's a de-escalation and a welcomed one. >> paul, the difficult question, how do we get out of

for america's relationship to nations in the middle east. joining me earlier to breahe it down wasormer u.s. ambassador to the united arab emirates. she is now at the washington institute for nearast policy. given your d experience, how do you work out the request from iraq's prime minister for the u.s. to send a 50ntingent to talk about withdrawing thos troops? how with the u.s. navigate tant, given theyto stay in the region? >> is important to go back a way. there is a larger political theater or drama taking shape in iraq. you see the acting prime minister caught in this squeeze play. you had a sensible move by the iraqi parliament last week to call on the government to expel coalitn troops, u.s. troops. there wasn't even aat quorum in counsel, because the kurds and the sunnis at all boycotted it. in effect, the acting prime minister, who has no power of his own, he is democrat, he resigned under pressure from the street, has picked up this call. e it is ast he can do in these circumstances. nada: i also want to turn to what you make of president trump an' administration' justification for what started all this, the targeting of general soleimani. they say an attack

she's a senior fellow at the centre for middle east policy at the brookings institute, and joins me nowtime, and i'd like to pick up on some news we've been bringing viewers just some news we've been bringing viewersjust in some news we've been bringing viewers just in the last few minutes or so that there appears to be a letter — and i don't know if you're aware of it, that the us military has informed its counterparts in baghdad that it was preparing for movement out of iraq. can you tell us any more about that? because as far as we us any more about that? because as faras we are us any more about that? because as far as we are aware, the pentagon has not confirmed this.|j far as we are aware, the pentagon has not confirmed this. i have seen a copy of the letter circulating on social media, both in english and in arabic. and i have seen some suggestions that in fact, both the pen to pentagon and iraqi forces have authenticated its authenticity. waiting to see how the iraqi government might implement the vote taken government might implement the vote ta ken yesterday government might i

bilal wahab is a fellow at the washington institute for near east policy, a foreign policy think tank. and kirsten fontenrose is director of the middle east security initiative at the atlantic council. she previously served as senior director for gulf affairs othe national security council staff during the trump administration. bilal, how connected is hezbollah to iran? >> the closest any militia can get to iran, that is a documentary that iran has made celebrating the leader of h hezbollah in which he clearly says that he sees himself as a member of the larger iranian-led resistance against the united states and israel. >> schifrin: so christine krists that believe iran is attacking the embassy? >> we believe it is a direct relationship. we also know the number two deputy announced yesterday that they have the backing from tehran, the thumbs up from tehran to go full throttle against our forces in iraq. >> schifrin: let's talk about the last couple of days, the strikes on sunday. we were talking to you earlier. you said the u.s. is falling into an iranian trap, that there's now a proxy war between the u.s. and iran inside of iraq. >

offensive from warlord really for hafter the arab league has warned of foreign influence in libya we've got him a bad day with us now nonresident scholar at the middle east institute he's with us on skype from florence him out thank you for your time. when we talk about foreign influences i mean it's very vague what is being said there but who are the specific players involved there are definitely a lot of players libya doesn't like any regional or world players even dollar curiously intervening in the country you have right now the primary players however or turkey and russia i would say on the ground and in the air it's predominately the u.a.e. actually the air artie's with logistical support from the egyptians that are in interrupted leave from the capital libya's capital tripoli since april what do you think of the claims as well that aside from turkish forces coming in that there are actually syrian fighters coming into libya as well well these are there are well sourced reports are actually show the syrian forces have already been deployed to libya on behalf of the government of national accord however it is unclear how many they are so far and the russian m

a nonresident fellow at the middle east institute is joining us from new york. thank you forng with us. amongst all those names you just read out, the name of greece does not appear very highly. what is haftar paying this visit to the greek prime minister? guest: that is a good point. the greeks are big players on the mediterranean or middle eastern stage. they have been dealing with their own economic crises over the past decade. but, what happened is ever since haftar attacks tripoli in april 2019, the nature of the civil war in libya changed. for the last four years before that, you had a proxy war. the different libyan coalitions were fighting with outside actors supporting one side or the other. but now, what's happened is it's really the outside actors who were running the show and the different libyan coalitions are fighting. and, haftar has many supporters. you listed them. egypt, russia, the uae, saudi arabia, jordan, and to some extent, france. whereas, the gna has not been able to get military support from its traditional allies. the u.s., u.k. and italy. so it has

for riskier assets in the middle east. we have more with the head of institutions at demand securities. >> we are still sensing some sort ofr in the region, specifically in the uae. to be more specific, in dubai. react toeen investors the international sentiment and fear worldwide caused by the coronavirus. ds is raisingike all profits on the year. they are 0.5% above what the year has begun with. we are still waiting to see. everybody is coming up with more concerns. the death rate has been increasing. investors locally and even businesses in the region are concerned about how things are going to turn around postcrisis, post that issue with the disease. we will have to wait and see how the whole issue will be dealt with. emerging-market futures saw the biggest drop in 10 years. our markets relative to that, one could say moderately unscathed. we have run through. a whole set of numbers when you break that down -- a whole set of numbers. when you break that down, a slight increase in npl. net interest margin also under pressure. clear, theyvery came up with a huge headline yesterday. 44% year on year increase in net profit

for the middle east security program. also michael rubin, american enterprise institute scholar. watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern sunday morning. join the discussion. ♪ campaign 2020 coverage continues sunday, live at 3:00 p.m. eastern with senator michael bennet in bedford, new hampshire. end at four: 15 eastern, mayor pete buttigieg from las vegas. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two tuesday, president trump is in milwaukee at a keep america great rally. watch coverage on c-span and c-span two, on c-span.org or listen on the go with the free c-span radio app. >> we have the votes, once the impeachment trial has begun, to pass a resolution, essentially the same, very similar to the 100-0 vote in the clinton trial. >> under rules for the clinton impeachment trial, house managers in the president's impeachment lawyers had 24 hours each to present their cases. senators were able to ask questions for up to 16 hours before debating and voting on whether to dismiss the case or call witnesses. once all the evidence was presented, senators deliberated behind closed doors, le

for the national democratic institute. he contributed the chapter on governance. himself and the middle east at the baker universe. he researches in the middle east between religious authorities and foreign policy. he contributed the chapter on islam. we are going to try to keep the conversation likely and i will interrupt to keep everybody from not just going on and on will talk for a while and then open it up to questions. to start, i'm going to start with michael, what is special about this book, what did you think was lacking in the scholarship or in the analysis that required this kind of approach? >> if we look at the last century in the middle east, by any metric in your introduction, the u.s. has not been successful in is not a democrat or republican say. what we want to do is number one, get away from analysis based from the u.s. political caliber. that is too easy and it does not work. more broadly to a fundamental rethink of some of the issues and drivers in the region. in terms of legitimacy for example, common core assumptions in the united states all about good governance. that's legitimacy like the

for charity in what one called the defining experience of his life. nada: we have one more story to bring you tonight. at the middle east institute here in washington, d.c., a new exhibition features nineco emporary artists from iraq, syria, and turkey. their work focuses on the kurdish experience across decadespe oecution across mountains and borders. the bbc went for a look. >> when i started conducting research for this exhibition and getting in touch with artists, i realized that a lot of them are in dialogue with one another. whether they were back in iraq roor in . the idea for the exhibition, kurdish artists and dialogue, came from this idea of engagement with one another, but also talking about their history, the problems come in current circumstances. so these artists have a hyph enated identity. they are iraqi-kurdish, ri-kurdish, iranian-kurdish. this notion of two identities -- link with thick identitiesll frm intual identities, really play out in their work. "domino effect" contains a suect that can be read as government officials, carrying briefces and guns with silencers. it speaks about contemporary politics. part

middle east but anywhere iran might be able to strike. he should ensure that authorities are working with state and local governments and private institutions to guard against heightened risk for signer -- cyber attacks. he should stop tweeting so he doesn't box us in with these threats that the only options left for iran are uncreasingly damaging strikes and counterstrikes. and he should immediately, i hope he's doing this now but i've heard none of it, he should be reaching out to our european partners and others and send private signals of deterrence and de-escalation to ireason and find a way to avoid the onrush of war and the best way to do that would be for president trump to rejoin the iran deal and build on it. if iran moves back in compliance with the obligations and re-establishes international consensus about how to confront these threats, we would be much, much better off. the only way out of this crisis is through diemployee may. is clear-eyed, hard-nosed diplomacy grounded in strategy that's not about one-off decisions and one upmans -- one upsmanship. we need to protect our regional interests including our counterisis campaign. no one wants war. but it's going t

who's a research fellow at the institute for international policy and he's sort of monies death is likely to bring political upheaval to iraq. from foreign policy to middle east it's relatively incoherent and reactionary rather than the result of well thought out strategic intent but i think what we're saying in terms of military sponsors in the short term is a change in the rules of the game and we saw that after the death of the u.s. military contractor. against the attack on the attack against the u.s. and iraq and we saw a quite just portion response from the u.s. attacking 5 militia targets killing up to 30 people including some iranians and now he's saying this response as well so i don't think that we can i did use a long term strategic change other than there's a change to the rules of the guy in the stand up the train the u.s. and iran yes i mean you know i don't even do something of this magnitude expect. you know the playing field to study the same i think for the next few weeks and perhaps couple of months while both sides are taking stock of exactly what's happened and trying to chart the next i think is going to pick a period of fear politico an

they have stated that i think suggest in order for president trump to realize thinks objective in iran and the middle east, we're going to have to instituteaximum diplomacy campaign that includes the europeans who have just deep ties to the region. >> bret: you say maximum diplomacy. the secretary of state has been talking about and tweeting out about a deescalation. at the same time, you have the president tweeting out and talking to reporters about retaliation if they strike again on 52 some sites, talks of republicans anxious about the public talk by the president about what comes next. you? >> and yes, bret, you're speaking to the issue that so many americans and others have talked about. that the administration really needs to be better coordinated on its messaging. it's hard to do so in real time when i think passions are high, a real concern of an imminent threat and sometimes there's not the opportunity for all of the principles to coordinate their statements. if there's a time, this is it. >> senator tim kaine from virginia is getting ready to introduce and put on the senate floor a resolution for war powers resolution that would

different political groupings in the middle east may react to the latest threats from iran and the us. we can speak to hannin ghaddar, from the washington institute for politics. soleimani was credited with being the man behind putting in place a shia government in iraq, where he was killed on friday. what happens now, do you think, to the people there and those in power and the links between iraq and iran, now that he has gone, the puppet master? yes, good evening. thank you for having me. ithink yes, good evening. thank you for having me. i think killing qasem soleimani has killed —— change many things in iran itself. they have played so far the game of negotiation with the us and they feel they have to respond, but if they do respond, it is going to be very risky for them because they will expose themselves further to the us military campaign, specifically in iraq. knowing that the us president and his administration have been increasing their threat. but also, administration have been increasing theirthreat. but also, if administration have been increasing their threat. but also, if they do not respond, they will look very weak. so they will have

it's a consultancy and he's also a nonresident fellow but the middle east institute is joining us now from new york thanks very much indeed for being with us in amongst all those names that i just read the name of the of greece doesn't really appear very highly why is. paying this visit to the greek prime minister well that's a good point the greeks are big players on the mediterranean or middle eastern stage and of course they've been dealing with their own economic crises over the past decade but what happened is that ever since have to attack tripoli in april 29000 the nature of the civil war in libya changed for the last 4 years before then you had a proxy war the different libyan coalitions were fighting with outside actors supporting one side or the other but now what's happened is. it's really the outside actors who are running the show and the different libyan coalitions are fighting and after has many supporters you listed them egypt russia the u.a.e. saudi arabia jordan and to some extent even france where as the g. and a has not been able to get military support from its traditional allies the u.s. u.k. and italy s

that's right so i my bad he's an on resident scholar at the middle east institute he's joining us on skype from florence thanks very much for your time with us again on al-jazeera to what extent is oil and the oil sector being used in some sort of bargaining chip when it comes to. a political framework or a way forward in libya. well the latest closers of the late this latest blockade is carried. live in our armed forces and the narrative surrounding them is that they're choreographed let's say to look as if it's a social movement that is protesting turkish support or turkey sending mercenaries to the bit while the popular support is definitely there after all is a civil war how star actually is the one responsible enough there is the person to enable this essentially thought that this power play let's say would put the g.n. a and its sole ally on the international stage turkey in a tough spot the main concession i suspect he wants out of this is the removal of the head of the libyan central banks of the could be with someone else and ultimately what that does is that it politicizes one of libya's most sovereign institution

for. and then brain al-jazeera the occupied west bank daniel levy is the president of the u.s. middle east project which is an independent policy institute he says the plan represents israeli dominance not a 2 state solution this is america taking in his ray proposal and translating it into an american position but it's worse than that it takes what ostensibly looks like what a local peace agreement might look like and raps into that an act of aggression very close to a declaration of war all the palestinians it is not intended to advance peace it is intended to force the palestinians to say no to depict palestinians as rejectionists and to allow israel to pursue with greater pace and greater support israel's own unilateral plans it's a very dangerous cynical and aggressive move israel retains control everywhere israel agrees to take on itself not to do things that it didn't intend to do anyway like this question of jerusalem those neighborhoods which israel doesn't want to be part of jerusalem because it's put them on the other side of the wall it is magnanimously saying or the americans are saying on its behalf will be part of this new

libya now with imad body who's a non resident scholar at the middle east institute he joins us on skype from florence in italy thank you very much for being with us and of course we're going to focus on this berlin conference in germany the hope is that this conference will lead to a more permanent ceasefire in libya and to the implementation of the arms embargo do you think this is achievable in the current context i mean will brylin succeed where moscow failed last week. unfortunately do not think so i don't think anyone should have theirs oh truly if your ghosts were limbs of was going to be the conference was initially you had agree that was essentially focused on actually tapering interventionism by foreign states and also in forcing the arms embargo unfortunately now it's become really bad and also it seems to have completely altered its goals from what was initially envisioned so it's no longer about forcing the arms embargo it's no longer about focusing on tapering interventionism it's actually almost the reset maybe of a political landscape that would be essentially legitimizing the status quo and sweeping under the rug the

middle east. but the long shadow of events in washington seems to reach here to switzerland. james robbins, bbc news, davos. professorjoanna haigh is emeritus professor at the grantham institute forcollege london. thank you very much for coming in. what is your assessment of the president's these are prophecies of doom, gloom mongers and when you more optimism. he's talking about science as if it is some sort of ta rot science as if it is some sort of tarot card reading or crystal ball gazing, it's based on good evidence and well—established scientific practices. and scientists have all clinical persuasions across the world a re clinical persuasions across the world are now pretty much agreed that global warming is due to human activity and release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. and he is wrong that we got the predictions wrong, since about the mid—19 70s the forecasts of global temperature increase have been pretty good and sometimes a bit low or a bit higher, but overall the trend has been very well predicted. so in your view that's an error or if fact. so what about the climate change lobby want to control every aspect of our lives? it's quite serious the impression

support for the protesters in iran, saying: and to help his message of solidarity across, he also tweeted it out in farsi. well, i spoke with middle east expert rodger shanahan from the lowy institute him how significant the protests in iran are. it's very difficult to understand exactly what national sentiment is in a country with 85 million people, so if they are looking at protests in and around universities in tehran, for example, it's probably not significant, and the numbers that we have seen so far don't appear to be over significant, so i think it's a kind of protest that the regime is going to ride out yet again. is there an actual cohesive opposition movement at the moment in iran? no, not per se, not a movement that could coalesce around an individual or a group of individuals, and what we have seen in the past has tended to be a broad protest movement against economic conditions in iran, against bureaucratic corruption in iran, but not in favour of a kind of unitarian alternative to the current system of government, and that is part of the problem i think. you mentioned that the protests were reasonably small. what is the thing that would most worry the authorities? tho

middle east program at the carnegie endowment for international peace and a former u.s. diplomat in cairo in jerusalem and matthew broderick he is a senior fellow at the gold institute for international strategy here in washington d.c. thank you all so much for being with us on this important topic matthew let me start with you i am interested in whether or not the course we're on today in the middle east is one that makes sense are we on the verge of war with iran well 1st of all everything fits under the umbrella of preventing iran from getting a nuclear weapon which is a deal that we had in place actually kind of fast track that and left them really close to being able to have a nuclear weapon at. at a certain date legalized it everything that you've seen from iran in recent times is because of our maximum pressure campaign of economics strangling their economy basically we want iran to come to the table and have a negotiation over their nuclear program and over human rights abuses and over their role behavior throughout the region and other issues as well the thing is what they've been doing is what the money or what's in the money has been doing for so long is esse

institution. michael, thank you very much for being here today how important is soleimani's killing? and will it reshape policy in the middle eastood afternoon. well, it's certainly going to have a lot of impact on the u.s. relationship with iran and also with iraq. let me start with iraq, if i could, because that's the one that i am most worried about obviously, we're headed for some difficult times with iran. we've already had them and they will continue. but with iraq, of course, we've got 5,000 u.s. troops in that country. that's sort of how this whole thing began in some sense. when the -- when the iranian-sponsored militia started attacking our military facilities, we retaliated. then the soleimani episode occurred and now the iraqis are thinking seriously of booting us out. and that would be a reflection of their passions, their you got to watch that. that's the biggest thing that's going to happen next, in my opinion. even bigger than the likely respochr response of iran by using violence i think iran will have to do something but it's always doing something. this may be more burr i'm most concerned about whether we can

for today's "washington journal." we are going to bring you live to the middle east policy council. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020]

director for foreign policy and a senior fellow at the center for middle east policy, energy, security and climate initiatives at the brookings institution. next, we will have ambassador doug filament, who was the president of the arab institute in washington and a former ambassador to iraq and kuwait. next will come joyce, the washington correspondent to the uae national newspaper and an adjunct professor at george washington university. and finally, we will have ambassador john limburg, former deputy assistant for air on and a former ambassador to the islamic republic of mauritania. i would like to thank all four of you for joining us today. the program will begin with each panelist delivering brief opening remarks, followed by a discussion session that will be moderated by mike coley, the executive director director of the middle east policy council. please note that we have placed index cards on all of the seats, and for those of you in the back, our staff can provide you with index cards. please use these index cards to write down questions, which you have, as the speakers are speaking. then hold up the card. our staff will then col

shanahan a research fellow at the institute for international policy and he says his death is likely to bring a political upheaval to iraq. trump foreign policy in the middle east it's relatively incoherent and reactionary rather than the result of well thought out strategic intent but i think what we're saying in terms of military sponsors in the short term is a change in the rules of the game and we saw that after the death of the u.s. military contractor. against the attack on the attack against the u.s. and iraq and we saw a quite distortion response from the u.s. talking 5 militia targets killing up to 30 people in police of iranians and now we say this response as well so i don't think that we can i did use a long term strategic change other than there's a change to the rules of the guy in the stand up to train the u.s. and iran yes i mean it you know i doubt that you can do something of this magnitude next day. you know the playing field to study the same i think for the next few weeks and perhaps couple of months while both sides are taking stock of exactly what's happened and trying to chart the next 2 to think is going to pick a period of fair politic

michael doran was senior director for the middle east on the national security council during the george w. bush administration. n he a senior fellow at the hudson institutehington, d.c. mara k you. let me start with i guess i have to get your response. the iranian revolutionaryauard corps isng credit for these attacks and saying that these are rocket attacks from iran into iraq at u.s. bases. could we get youe?r respo >> yes, this is probably the first event that we will see of a slew of others, nick. the u.s. set a new bar by killing qassim soleimani, who we can all agree was a horrific human being, who was democrat stroffic for u.s. nationa i securierest, but in killing him, it's a new bar, and now the iranians are starting to retaliate, and i suspect we will see a lot more in and around the region over the coming days, weeks, and potentially months. >> schifrin: michael doran, some critics of this attack, as you know well, were worried out cycle of escalation happening after this attack. you have that worry, especially now as w see as mara karlin said, perhaps the first of a few attacks from iran.l >> w it didn't start with the attack on qassim soleim

america focus on the middle east for yet another few years, may be another ten years, even as the chinese growing military might and power. we know they are planting various institutions over africa and asia, that their entire economy is growing and yet again, we risk focusing on the small region of the world is important but not nearly as important as our biggest rival continuing to gain strength and power. >> that's exactly right. now that this country's energy independence we were promised for decades once week became energy independent we wouldn't have to focus all of our energy in the middle east. our energies are still focused there and we are still ignoring china. why do you think that is? >> i think for a couple of reasons. one we have an entire generation of american intellectuals on the left on the right who grew up thinking that the middle east was just the most important region of the world. one way to think about american policy for the last 20 years, the barack obama administration's as we have these successful wards. we basically have one new war a term. iraq, afghanistan, lebanon, and syria during the obama terms. that's obviously terrible in the think

middle east, the fear is that this fierce rhetoric so often becomes reality. cnn. >>> joining me now from washington. he is executive vice president of the quincy institute for responsible state craft and author of losing an enemy, obama, iran andy l diplomacy. let's start with something that was pretty concerning coming from the iraqi prime minister and then we'll move on. he said he was scheduled to meet with qasem soleimani the morning he was killed. said soleimani was bringing him a message from iran. he also said he had received a phone call from donald trump asking him to mediate. does it sound to you like a potential mediation effort was scuffled by this killing? >> i fear so because this is what actually happened in the last couple of months. after the trump administration back in the summer opted not to go to war with iran after iranians shot down an american drone, the saudis and the uae draw the conclusion that they could not count on the trump administration to defend them or to essentially go to war with iran on their behalf. what happened then was that they then realized they had to start diplomacy with iran and quietly the saudis have been exc

middle east institute. he served as an adviser to the palestinian leadership in the west bank on peace negotiations in the 2000s. good evening. thanks forell it is clear what they have already done is to reject this plan in its entirety. it is quite a detailed plan. there is not much left to the imagination. i differ with mr blair in his assessment of this plan. there really is nothing here for palestinians to action on too. and i think the danger for any palestinian leadership or the europeans are air up leadership or the europeans are air up estates for that matter to go to engage with the administration on the basis of this plan is quite dangerous because the rules of the peace process, the diplomatic rules of no acquisition of territory by force, that israel's occupation has to end, that settlements are illegal, that there should be a sovereign, genuine independent palestinian state, those have been com pletely palestinian state, those have been completely thrown out the window. by the trump administration and so, the trump administration wants palestinians to negotiate on the basis of realities on the ground, meaning what israel di

institute, whose research focusses on security in the middle east and on iran s foreign and domestic politics. shejoins me on webcam from west london. donald trump appears to think the iranian retaliation forl appears to be over. he said iran appears to be standing down. that is a good thing for the world, he says. you think that is it in terms of iranians response to the killing of the general? we are seeing conflicting reports coming from tehran. we are seeing a number of officials saying the attack was conducted yesterday was effectively the revenge for the killing of qasem soleimani. whereas we have seen other officials are saying that that was not enough, including the supreme was not enough, including the supreme leader. i think if iran is looking at the president trump's speech, they might be reading it as an olive branch, an opportunity to de—escalates, and therefore decide based on that whether it wants to continue to escalate tensions with the united states or instead take this opportunity to de—escalates tension, particularly with the partnership of countries such as the european e3 and russia and china. donald trump, as we have said, also calling for the rest of the world to fu

for that update thanks harry how you foresee the force in west jerusalem thank you. daniel levy now he's the president of the u.s. middle east project which is an independent policy institute and joins me via skype from london good to have you with us on the program mr levy now you have read the plan and had time to dry death digest partly its contents is it viable is it fair. it's giving me indigestion so hell it is not an attempt to be viable there i think we have to recognise this for what it is and reading the plan. something kept coming up in my head and i went back and i read a speech that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu gave just over a decade ago in 2009 in burial and when he 1st was reelected to that job in that speech he sets out a narrative in which only jews have historic claims only jews have rights and he sets out what the parameters could be for a deal which as far as he was concerned if you want to call it a palestinian state call it a state but it will be no such thing in reality this is america taking in his rage proposal and translating it into an american position but it's worse than that it takes what ostensibly looks like what a model peace