war we've seen the iraq invasion of kuwait it the iraq war the advent of terrorism and extremism in the region u.s. invasion of iraq we have seen the difficulties between qatar saudi arabia and others we have seen other incidents of. instability and turmoil in our region so the sooner we start discussing these issues around the negotiating table the better we are in preventing further escalation and further eruptions in the region there are people who feel that the countries that have imposed a blockade in the gulf they've pushed the qataris. into the arms of iran isn't that a good thing for the islamic republic in the region no. you see the problems in the region are like that they. complain about our influence in iraq they complain about our influence in syria all of it happened just like the situation in qatar they adopted wrong policies we took the right side and that creates an influence for iran it's not our choice we don't like what's happening in iraq we don't like what's happening in syria we don't like what's happening between qatar and saudi arabia and the u.a.e. because

kurdistan so this is the time to push for it because iraq in iraq of course have pushed for independence for generations in fact not just iraq of course of course as we know but kurds in many other neighboring countries as well ok now baghdad has been taking a very hard line it moved the troops into iraqi kurdistan right after the referendum is the regional government still in control of the situation on the ground in the area. well in fact we have just seen a helicopter of the regional police here which of course suggests that the regional police is in control of of security here in iraq or distant but if you look at the rest of the airspace the fark today as it backed out the central government. basically doesn't give the permission for any international flights to a calm to our appeal incorporation of iran and turkey as well who do not want a kurdish state of it in iraq or rather also out of iraq that clearly tells you that to a certain degree the autonomy of the regional government of iraq according to un may be limited but the question is by just how much in fact just a short while

back forces say they've taken full control of the syrian city of iraq from i so. want you know just zero life from a headquarters and i'm dreading obligated to also a heads curtis flags are coming down several towns in northern iraq are now back in control of iraqi government forces. the philippine president roderigo the territory says the city of morocco we has been liberated from an ice a link group despite fighting still continuing. and take a look at this year looking at the mass exodus of for a hinge of refugees fleeing persecution in me in march new numbers just released almost six hundred thousand have crossed into bangladesh. hello in the last hour u.s. backed syrian forces have retaken the city of from eisel fighters aig. kurdish flag has been raised inside the stadium after the last remaining islip fighters were forced out was one of the last holdouts for eisel and its former capital has some had about a life for us in an attack on your turkey's border with syria what are your sources telling you about the exact situation right now. there are hundreds of

it's it's it's the third partner in trade is iraq and most of that trade goes to the region. if they lose that they will have an economic crisis at home so for the turks there is a no go and x.x. li as allow are saying they do have more influence over iran in the in iraq and especially in the court is an area that's not accepted or right so we think i think it will blow over well thank you all i guess you just nor drink and the law would be and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time i was in a website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter at inside story from the end of the problem and the whole team here by finale. economic development spills over into other nations. people and investigates the neighboring laos. stricken and hungry. benefactor. on the border. at this time on. the nature of news as it breaks the record canada and janet wait for the full hour which they destroyed during the hurricane with detailed covera

russia and what's at stake in syria and iraq and. in syria and iraq is very important for the american to repeat the same mistake of two thousand and eight a rapid withdrawal would. yes i agree with joshua that pressure is a position of the american and that they will want to engage in nation building but at some point they will be forced to now the second part of the question that resorting to isis or the irish i do believe that yes they will change strategy they will move into kind of. a style warfare because at the end of the day is not only a political military formation it's an ideology and as long as the reasons for the emergence of this ideology are not down to it i think that this. will continue its operation it will still be appealing. to a large chunk ok. frustrated populations ok that's the interesting point dies let me let me quickly get a comment from joshua again before we go to sign the i do want to get funny in but joshua the whole idea of i saw and it's breakaway from the al qaeda elements was the idea that they want

more territory in northern iraq leaving their dream of independence there in titus . after saturday's massive truck bombing the president has been. and is calling for more international help. and a refugee crisis that showing no signs of easing more than ten thousand range across from miramar into bangladesh in just forty eight hours. first to syria where u.s. forces have driven out from itself the capital of iraq and syria after a tough four month battle the kurdish led siri. and democratic forces have raised their flag inside the city stadium which i thought had turned into a huge prison for anyone who oppose their role begins our coverage. kurdish fighters triumphantly into iraq they're celebrating the capture of the city which was a main stronghold in syria but. it wasn't easy for. the syrian democratic forces a coalition of kurds and arabs backed by the us began the offensive in june i said fighters held ground for five months but the armed groups defense lines were eventually broken by a continual wave of strikes and shelling but. we control rocket but as you kn

it's it's it's the third partner in trade is iraq and most of that trade goes to the region. if they lose that they will have an economic crisis at home so for the turks there is a no go and x.x. li as allow are saying they do have more influence over iran in the in iraq and especially in in the court is an area that's not accepted or so we think i think it will blow over well thank you all i guess you just cannot and. and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to a facebook page that facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter at story from the whole team here by finale with. with with with. with . in the heart of the amazon the libyan family has put their lives in peril to harvest brazil nuts. which can sing the congo to the capital in an even more dangerous challenge. risking it to believe via. at this time on al-jazeera. sugar the ingredient that bring smiles but it's also the number one culprit in a global health crisis ca

save iraq and the iraqis. ok well we seem to have lost that feed there out of baghdad where the iraqi president. was just calling for an urgent dialogue between the central government in baghdad and kurdish leadership to the situation in northern iraq excel rated quite quickly in the last forty eight hours with kurdish forces losing quite a lot of ground to the iraqi forces now the iraqi president calling for dialogue between the two governments. which has been situation between the two government has been quite tense cincy kurdish referendum last month in which most kurds called for secession from iraq are let's not bring in andrew a social media producer and a well known journalist has been killed in malta and that's generating quite a lot of reaction online it certainly is fully we're seeing quite a bit of outrage and sadness over the death of multis journalist death me. now she was one of the people responsible for the panama papers investigation fifty three year old galicia was killed when a bomb exploded

it was two thousand and fourteen when isis forces at the height of their power world into iraq stolen tanks spinning through the city's paradise square which isis would soon turn into with showcase of sabbath. today the same square aptly renamed paradise to hell square with no capital and little territory isis is broken is a total defeat now imminent. also coming up they have fought together to push back islamic states now iraqi and kurdish forces may be turning on each other the u.s. refusing to take sides claiming it's really not that bad. aside from the incident from early morning hours on sixteen october south of kirkuk that we assessed as a miscommunication there have been no further reports of armed conflict or contact between the two groups. and we begin the day with the biggest military victory so far in the battle against so-called islamic state for the past four months u.s. bank forces have waged a campaign to retake the syrian city of raka from isis today a general of the syrian democratic forces announced that the fighting is over in two thousand and fourteen isis fighters

is stepping down so he was the driving force behind last month's referendum to secede from iraq the parliament voted to distribute these powers between itself the government and the judiciary. kenya's opposition leader i loathe has branded the presidential election rerun. he's calling for a new poll within three months the vote was marred by violence and a low turnout of just forty three percent kenya's deputy president says his government is willing to hold talks its inside story next stay with us here on in al-jazeera. witness documentaries that open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera. historians of a kurdish homeland dashed a super zani is stepping down as president of iraq's kurdish region but does that in the current struggle for independence and was it ever a possibility this is inside story. welcome to the program i'm richelle carey the leader of iraq's kurdish region will not be extending his term as president assad for sania has been under pressure to quit following september's controversial secession referendum the session vote trigger more than ten days of fighting betw

and rebuilding iraq is something very wise amount of. a lot of money kurdish forces have lost more territory in northern iraq a day after government troops seized the northern city of kirkuk they withdrawn from the towns of sin cook and hunted kin as well as giving up control of several oil fields tension has been mounting in the oil rich region since the kurds held a referendum on secession last month. rescue operations are continuing in somalia's capital for those still missing following the worst bomb attack in the country's history over three hundred people were killed in a suicide truck explosion in mogadishu on saturday. but anything president says his forces have retaken the southern city of modern way after a five month battle against. the city has been free from terrorists but his military says fighting is continuing. the un's refugee agency is urging bangladesh to speed up vetting of around fifteen thousand refugees said to be stranded near the border with me and ma the agency wants the people moved further inland to safer and

strafford life for us and iraq thank you. now france's president has offered to help with mediation efforts between iraq central government and kurdish leaders after last week's secession referenda macron met iraqi prime minister hydraulic body in paris see urged the central government and kurdish leaders to stay united and defeating. the need to full on the much we have particularly interested in the stability of iraq in the upcoming weeks and months we hope very much that there will be dialogue that is respectful of the integrity of iraq and we would also like to advocate that in the framework of the constitution for a recognition of the could should take place there is a long pause to go towards political inclusion but it must also make sure that the constitution is respected talked about large joins us live from paris so natasha why why the push from manual macro into to have anything to do with you to speak on this kurdish referendum why is he doing it. seems as if we don't have a talk show right now we don't have our si

has subsided these rising concern over isolation by iraq and neighboring countries. turkey but the bit that is just how long does border will remain open the turkish government could shut it at any time they say they fear an independent kurdish state could increase separatist tension in turkey as well iraq's central government in baghdad has called international links to rb oh so it's not possible to fly there now we have to drive to the capital city of the kurdistan region on the way we come upon this market which is usually. what clashes between iraqi forces and kurdish peshmerga fighters since the referendum have kept people from going. to sign a new than the marketing kurdistan has grown to hold traders down to zero. but the referendum was the will of the people it's our natural right to demand independence . our rights to have a nation what does that mean we are about to meet someone who helped organize the referendum. he divides us for coup de sean to talk about the struggle for identity this is a very. bright young what does it mean to you at miss our survival

mainly in syria but also in iraq. the challenges inside of iraq. and so the message has to be that none of us, iraqis, the united states are partners in the region, are european allies can tolerate this degree of subversion and support for terrorists and militia terrorism and militias. >> and to go from a iraq which is, you know, a problem from h heck to a problem in syria which is a problem if hell. what you are trying achieve in syria? >> so what has to happen, there has to be -- there has to be a political settlement in syria that allows for all syrian foam have a say in the nature of their government. and the assad regime rather than moving toward anything like that, it can only perpetuate the conflict. so what can we do? what we can do is we can work with our partners in syria to defeat isis but defeat isis in a way that bridges into that long term political settlement. now this is under the geneva process. what are the prospects for this now? it's dim. it's pretty dim. but we and our partners are not without considerable leverage in syria. if

the collapse of iraq yeah there is a trend. there are a mix of teams from their families or friends. yet some in mission about their fate up some accounts are especially trying to mount the. hash tag where i where are the kidnapped or where are the kidnapped. hash tag and they. release communicate in arabic english and french and many of their. friends and families live in the west to try to get information from also the pollution also from western sources to try and look only to get in touch with the kurds. out of the seven. seven thousand four hundred. prisoners not all of them survived but some of them must be still alive where are they have been taken away with the being jailed these are maybe some of them may very well have been mistaken for jihadists and be at the moment prisoners. pollution or the yes because i'm glad that you mentioned that actually we received tweets from people alerting us to that this is. and again he says these people are the first who fought isis are i still in iraq long before the world knew i ask

they're involved in iraq. certainly iraq. they're involved in bahrain. they are involved throughout the region. and it's sort of an imperialism on the cheap because on the one hand it is a very grand imperial project. on the other hand by relying on proxies and surrogates it's also cheaply executed because at the end of the day the islamic republic does not have the treasury to sustain its own national armies. and also actually iran does suffer from its own version of the vietnam syndrome. since the iran-iraq war from 1980 to 1988, the aftermath of that war is actually casualty averse. it has no problems with arab shiites killing arab sunnis but it kind of likes to maintain some measure of distance from that. >> so they have no problems with members of hezbollah dying in syria. >> none whatsoever. >> that's why they have members of hezbollah which obviously all of you know is the shiite force from lebanon -- >> one of the most effective. terrorist slash militia groups in the middle east history. >> so. bill? >> so as a result of all of that iran is getti

historians of a kurdish homeland dashed the super zani is stepping down as president of iraq's kurdish region but does that in the current struggle for independence and was it ever a possibility this is inside story. welcome to the program i'm richelle carey the leader of iraq's kurdish region will not be extending his term as president assad for sania has been under pressure to quit following september's controversial secession referendum the session vote trigger more than ten days of fighting between iraqi and kurdish forces the region's parliament met in a close session on sunday to discuss how to redistribute power is held by the kurdish regional president and a letter president barzani outlined his role saying it could be divided between the government the parliament and the judiciary super zani has a long history an iraqi and kurdish politics he's a former guerrilla fighter who was who has led rather the ruling kurdistan democratic party the k d p sense he succeeded his father in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine along the u.s. led invasion of iraq in two thousand and three

the constitution of iraq and all saw they. government didn't build the federal democratic government and also it's not they could be suffering now it's also sunni people suffering under the. government in baghdad and also there is the army on the part of the army to shuggie control as my friend in london mentioned by cousin sulaimani and by that you run so if the iraqi government now it's. in the hands of some people that they want to reelect in two thousand and eighteen we have to leave it there thank you to our guests. by caution now and. if you want to know more about this subject go to the place where you can always watch the program again and find out more that's on our website al-jazeera dot com if you want to air your views or tell us what we should talk about next time around we're on facebook find us at facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story or you can use twitter our handle is a.j. inside story i'll be back in this chair soon in fact just under twenty four hours from now and the whole team here by for now.

, certainly iraq.they are involved in bahrain, throughout the region. it is sort of imperialism on the cheek because on one hand it is a very grand imperial project. on the other hand by relying on proxies of surrogates, also chiefly executed because at the end of the day they don't have to sustain its own national armies. also, i ran to suffer from it own version of the vietnam syndrome since the iran-iraq war from 1980 in aftermath and has no problem with the shiites calling arab sunnis to maintain some measure of that. >> no problem with members of hezbollah dying in syria. >> none whatsoever. >> of members of hezbollah which you know is shiite in lebanon. >> the most effect is groups. >> as a result of all of that. iran is getting closer every month to its greater strategic objectives across the region not only to have control over lebanon, but increasing control over iraq and over syria to project power elsewhere and disrupt sunni governments throughout the region. at the same time, the other side

not russia and what's at stake in syria and iraq and. iraq is very important for the american to repeat the same mistake of two thousand and eight a rapid withdrawal would. yes i agree with joshua that pressure is a position of the american and they want to engage in nation building but at some point they will be forced to now the second part of the question that resorting to isis or the irish i do believe that yes they will change strategy they will move into kind of. a style warfare because at the end of the day is not only a political military formation it's an ideology and as long as the reasons for the emergence of this ideology are not down to it i think that this. it will continue its operation it will still be appealing. to a large chunk ok. for frustrated populations ok that's the interesting point let me let me quickly get a comment from joshua again before we go to sign the i do want to get funny in but joshua the whole idea of i saw and it's breakaway from the al qaeda elements was the idea that they wanted to establish an ac

i mean do you think if iraq were to get a tweet by the u.s. president that it would actually it would have helped the situation of the people there do you think you have made a difference yet for sure to like bush or luck draw that titian of the media to go and see what's going on there saw sometimes like having some other sayings can change the way how media reporting about the things you know do you think that the coverage i mean has it been fear has it been accurate i mean for those of us who can't go inside iraq i mean do you think that the story has been reported as good as it could have been i can't say i can say yes and no also today i can say yes because i've been doing interviews since two b.m. until now so because like after the announcement and for the media's us a huge deal i says. was defeated the from from the city so all the media started to talk about a few issues two days ago plus that and the news forgot we wanted we've got lots of pictures that have been coming out of rocca basically a city destroyed maybe if we could just l

forces in iraq after 2011. it would have required some flexibility in the negotiation but we think there was basically a possible agreement there and we identified about six or seven different ways in which such a force if it were between ten and , 15,000 troops actually would , have meaningfully affected the trajectory of events. providing better situational awareness and a number of other things as well. such is more direct counterterrorism targeting in the 2012-2013 period. we don't claim that this is a silver bullet because one of the things we have to acknowledge is that a u.s. presence in iraq would have brought risks of its own. it would have been made united states vulnerable. we argue this was actually the most crucial juncture in the sense that this was the opportunity to stall or mitigate the rise of isis as reasonable cost. -- at reasonable cost. so in conclusion i will make three points here, which build a little bit on what you said and what dana said. so the first is that we do argue that the ris

to words a vast desert area on the border with iraq by losing out of iraq this is going to deal severe blow to the to the group in general because we were hoping to use iraq as a platform to expand. declared islamic state and move forward to include many countries in the arab and muslim world that narrative now is reversed indeed for the tussle believe it that of course come back to you as a situation develops like you. he takes a look back at. the capture of rockabye i saw in two thousand and fourteen was held by the armed group as a major achievement back then i said it demonstrated its strength as it continued to expand across syria and iraq it declared its capital in syria setting up courts prisons and other institutions but all of this was against the will of the people. i saw emergence in the cartels a huge blow to the syrian opposition and the free syrian army who had previously controlled the area their fighters were forced to retreat and president bashar assad was able to validate his claim that his troops were fighting what he called terrorists and not legitimate opposition i

they are losing in iraq they ave some pocks in western iraq near the borders of iraq, syria and jordan. we can see the end of isis on the horizon. now the challenge is what to do in syria, and what to do in iraq so that the circumstances that produced al qaeda in iraq a few years ago and then isis in more recent time doesn't repeat itself with yet another group with a different name but not being that different in content. >> president trump is claiming victory and credit for the fact that islamic state is on the back foot because of changes he made to the military, but do you think this is actually a vehicle there for both presidents, president trump and his predecessor, president obama? >> sure, i think president obama deserves credit, but he takes part of the blame because of the withdrawal of forces from iraq that produced the circumstances which produced isis. so i think president trump needs to lunch from that as well, which is you need to cus on the conditions that produce extremists and terrorist groups and deal with that also. that means making sure there is an end to the syri

islamic state's power the long fight for iraq has left this city in ruins. a five month battle is over for the syrian kurdish and arab fighters backed by the united states they killed dozens of i asked militants in their final push rocka is now a shell of a city. there's nothing left where near the end we haven't seen any i asked militants we haven't seen any of them near the stadium either i think the city will be fully clear of them in the next two days which once all of the i asked militants are gone from syria i'll go home. i asked took control of rocca in early twenty fourteen and made it the capital of its self-styled caliph that. the militants imposed a strict interpretation of islamic law and used extreme means such as beheadings and torture to quash those who oppose the rule it became home to thousands of jihadists from across the globe after a call by us leader baghdadi to migrate to the syrian city however in recent months the so-called islamic state has steadily lost territory in syria and iraq. the fall of raka is a major blow to the militant gr

certainly errani and militias that are in iraq now that the fight against.isis is coming to a close those licious need to go home. ballasts members are joins us here in the studio just listen for a quick look at the scene before we start talking here in doha the qatari foreign minister or expect to see rex tillerson coming out to address the media any moment now but it could be any time really he's going to be with the country foreign minister who haven't been to rome you know tani say we can now discuss what they were talking about perhaps in saudi and there's a whole web of in connecting issues that takes in the cattery crisis is where the the u.s. strategy under donald trump is sort of becoming more and more clear of the day and clearly the foreign policy establishment is united on a number of issues for example staying engaged and fighting in afghanistan stay engaged and fighting isobel in iraq containing iran and so on so forth so there's a number of main issues and i think secretary of state teller soon after jim mattis is trying to make sure that sort

forces from iraq. we look at the decision to intervening with a larger arming of syrian rebels in 2011 but not with the invasion, but with more forward-leaning arming of the rebels. and then the last one is the decision not to strike isis when it was on the highway approaching mosul. and so look at these and i'll briefly summarize the iraq 2002 decision analysis and hal will do the more interesting ones. he gets to do the more interesting ones. i say more interesting, because where we come down on iraq is pretty close to where the conventional wisdom, i think, does. which is that if the united states had not invaded iraq, and if the occupation had -- and post phase four conflict -- sorry. stability ops phase of the war had gone better. either you didn't invade or you're able to rebuild order faster. if you changed those, then it's unlikely that we would've seen isis in the form that we did by 2014, 2015. isis -- al qaeda was there, al qaeda preexisted the decision to invade iraq, of course, but the for

lucia's iraq five years. ago close those solutions need to go any further fighters in iraq need to go. where the iraqi prime minister had the office was quick to respond stressing that no one has the right to interfere in iraq's affairs the phrase however didn't come directly from the prime minister but instead a so-called source close to him next to list and arrived in baghdad on monday and he defended the role of the around backed fighters in his opening speech. as for the popular mobilization forces there an armed group abiding by iraqi law and the constitution they become highly disciplined we should encourage them and take care of them because they will give hope to this country and the region. well despite washington's opposition to the popular mobilization its presence in iraq the u.s. has been fighting alongside them against i still feel it is already the group is mostly comprised of shia militants who are trained financed by its iran and iran is also giving its support to baghdad against the region o

you have challenged iraq.dent, says, from world war one until now, we are not a part of iraq, so you clearly do not care about the rest of the country. you cannot really expect any other reaction, can you? we ratified the constitution, the whole constitution, and notjust some articles that baghdad chooses to use that serves their purpose. actually, if you look at he constitution, one of the reasons why we called for the referendum is the violation of the constitution, actually the violation of 55 articles of the constitution which has given us 55 reasons why we should actually conduct this referendum. isn't this problem, though, that you have notjust irritated, annoyed, frustrated baghdad — whatever you think of that, perhaps doesn't bother you — but you have also achieved something quite remarkable — you've managed to unite your neighbours — countries like syria, turkey, and iran — against you. you've managed to create an alliance that many would have thought impossible, by throwing this uncertainty into the

person you got to ask about the long history of iraq eighty years. suffered from a lot of mis understanding of their shoes or they didn't that not got any rights to do to use that language and so on till two thousand and three or two thousand and five when you if you will like the new constitution and all that they do not have any rights of course they wish to have the bend in state for them but there is a small amount of them discuss the point that they have already their rights now they are already almost surprised but not support someone autonomous somehow and they have you know kind of. arena to move political arena within within how do you explain what we're seeing here because we had to move for independent of this referendum that went through and now you have baghdad moving in taking you know the oil fields and saying you know this is in violation of the constitution and the allies of the kurds the u.s. the u.k. and even you in very silent here they were not silent believe it right they were not silent before their own foreign and they did not

let's remind you of the things that we're doing in iraq. and we went through the hospital, the dam, all -- i mean, the port down south, all the work we were doing there. and what a great opportunity for me to be at the prime minister's house with general petraeus briefing the prime minister. i'll give you another one. general petraeus made it clear that we want to show the atrocities of al qaeda so people could see what was really going on there. we found a torture house up in the north where people were just brutally murdered. and i wanted to get that story out as a colonel, but my intermediate boss would not let me do it because it was too ugly. but yet, i knew that he would say we need to show it was done. so i did something that was probably not wise. i did it anyway. and i put it out, despite my boss, who is a general, and he was coming down to -- i was going to hang on the end of -- i was going to be hanging. but before he came down, general petraeus sent a note saying, great job, that's one of the best things i've seen done. so, i go