james bayes at the u.n.new york. >>> 16 turkish workers who were kidnapped in iraq have been released. security forces have now taken them to the turkish embassy in the capitol baghdad. two other hostages were released earlier this month. >>> large numbers of people are leaving kunduz after the taliban seized control. u.s. and nato special forces are supporting the afghan army in taking back the city. but afghan security forces tell al jazeera the fight has been tougher than planned. mohammed jamjoom reports. >> reporter: as reinforcements arrive, and heavy fighting continues, afghan security forces struggle to regain control of kunduz from the taliban. >> government problem is first of all the people, and second is mine -- they put the mines in the road, and a big container on the road that is full of mine and the explosive equipment. >> reporter: the captain and his fellow fighters haven't been able to reach their target yet, insisting that because taliban fighters are hiding amongst civilians, the fight s

james bayes joins us live from the united nations headquarters in new york. james, why now?hat happened? >> reporter: well, i think one of the factors is of course the scenes that we're seeing across europe and the refugee crisis. i think everyone has now seen that the scale of what is coming from syria, and how far this mass of people is traveling, that i think it's forcing people to look again at the issue. certainly here in new york at the security council. it's back near the top of the agenda after four years of war in syria. i think secretary of state kerry's comments are very interesting, because he talks about possible military talks. that's interesting and controversial, because back in april last year, nato suspended all military dialogue in cooperation with the russians over ukraine and the annexation of crimea, so a controversial step given that backdrop, but i think they feel that because of the threat of isil it's time to start those military talks. but he also talked about political talks on a political transition in syria, and those, i think are going to take

as we go to james bayes, reading the speech, james, i have the speech here and then listening to him deliver it, it would appear to me that he is effectively ripping up the oslo agreement. we declare as long as israel refuses to commitment to the agreement signed with us, they leave us no choice but than to insist we will not remain the only ones, we cannot continue to be bound by these agreements. is oslo dead? >> reporter: it seems to be. some would say oslo has been dead for a long time. but he is making a very important statement here, those oslo according which gave the palestinians a measure of self rule, different amounts of rule in different parts of their

as we go to james bayes, reading the speech, james, i have the speech here and then listening to him deliver it, it would appear to me that he is effectively ripping up the oslo agreement. we declare as long as israel refuses to commitment to the agreement signed with us, they leave us no choice but than to insist we will not remain the only ones, we cannot continue to be bound by these agreements. is oslo dead? >> reporter: it seems to be. some would say oslo has been dead for a long time. but he is making a very important statement here, those oslo according which gave the palestinians a measure of self rule, different amounts of rule in different parts of their territory, they are basically saying, well, israel didn't comply, israel was the one that broke the oslo according, so we are not going to accept them anymore, and we are going to now demand that israel takes on its responsibility as the occupying power. that by implication, i think means that israel would inevitably be responsible for services and security in the west bank, certainly where israel has a presence in the gaza

james bayes is at the u.n. headquarters in new york and joins us now. certainly a lot has happened since the two presidents last met in november. do we have an exact idea of what exactly they are going to talk about. obviously the issues are ukraine and syria, but how much do we actually know about this meeting? >> well, we know the russians wanted this meeting, president putin coming here to new york for the first time since 2008, and a time when russia is presiding over the u.n. security council. they wanted to meet obama. but the fact it is so cointreau ver shall that there is a meeting shows you how big of an event this is. their previous meetings were in 2014, but they were all very passing encounters. what is the key point of the meeting? it depends who you talk to. the russians say they want to talk about the way forward in syria. the u.s. say we want to talk about the aggression in eastern ukraine. so they both have very different agendas, and behind that, i think, is some real bought about what exactly russia is planning, not only in ukraine, bu

james bayes explains more. >> reporter: a special meeting at the u.n.boost the coalition against isil. >> i believe what we have here today is the emergence of a global movement that is united by the mission of degrading and ultimately destroying isil. >> reporter: but if you listen to the words the president chose, you see the problem. there has not been as much progress on the ground as the u.s. would like. >> this is not an easy task. we have isil take root. >> taking root across large swathes of syria and iraq, including the syrian city of raqqa and mosul in iraq. iraq's prime minister said his government was making progress. he did retake tikrit, but lost ramadi, and all the while, foreign fighters have been streaming in. >> [ inaudible ] that my government has introduced against foreign terrorist fighters since 2011, we have recorded almost 20,000 names. >> it is attracting more people because it has created that state-like entity, and the inability of the united states and the coalition to dismantle that state is the biggest deficiency. >> report

>> reporter: what we are hearing from our colleagues at the united nations, including james bayes isvladimir putin, the russian president is going to be speaking a week from monday as the underungeneral assembly starts its newest session, and that there is speculation that he may outline some measure in which the russians could assist other countries in ending the civil war inside syria, perhaps even going so far as to suggesting a caretaker role for bashar al-assad, a role that would be short lived so they could move on to a post assad regime. the obama administration is not saying whether or not it would be in support of such a proposal, one given that it is a hypothetical, and two it's long-running opposition to bashar al-assad as the leader of syria for any more time. so we really have to see exactly what is played out, but of course this does of course also bring back to the table the ongoing u.n.-lead mediation process under the special envoy. we may see more action taking part in that realm as well. but it is really starting to pick up again, and i think largely sparked becaus

we are told from our diplomatic editor, james bayes in new york that vladimir putin, the russian president be willing to outline some sort of plan or vision when he addresses the u.n. general assembly a week from monday. also during that same week, the special envoy for syria, excuse me, and the secretary general are going to meet with foreign ministers of the p5 at the security council to talk about syria. so it does appear that there is a little bit of movement, but where it is going, lauren, is really anyone's guess. >> thank you very much indeed. >>> inside syria there's no let up in the fighting as we heard. the syrian observatory for human rights says air strikes have targeted the city of palmyra controlled by fighters from the islamic state of iraq and the levant. the london based monitoring group says government fighter jets carried out 25 air strikes on the city. palmyra contains ancient roman ruins and was captured by isil in may. and this video is said to show the aftermath of another government air attack. the city is an isil strong hold. 30 people were reportedly killed in the