i have visited in lebanon, syria and jordan and iraq, how the kids are trying to survive.s affecting their future, and if it's affecting the kids' futures, it's affecting their country's futures, and that means all of us too. area. >> it creates a massive multipler effect, it affects the kids from neighbouring countries because refugees are taking away resources of them. what do you see as the consequences of an enormous problem? >> well let's talk about it in terms of the kids themselves. imagine that you are a 5-year-old kid in syria, in a hard to reach area, or living in a tent literally a tent, and the winters get cold in the beqaa valley, jordan and elsewhere. that kid, that five-year-old kid has never known anything except for conflicts and violence, and the stress on their families. one of the interesting aspects, and appalling aspects of this is that we are learning more and more in scientific studies of how this affects the kids' brain. for the first few years of a kids' life the brain is developing rapidly. what happens to that kids' brain during the months and y

syrian refugees have flooded into jordan lebanon and turkey at a staggering rate. jordan has 622,000 registered refugees, and lebanon and syria, they now make up 1/4 of the population, these overwhelming numbers do not include potentially hundreds of thousands of unregistered refugees that have been absorbed in urban areas, we have got to continue to support these host committees and the unmitigated strain it places on their resources. the united states has provided over $3.5 billion in humanitarian assistance. i offer my full support of continued humanitarian funding for this crisis. i want to make sure our aide is effective and not falling into the wrong hands. i was troubled by reports that showed isis fighters handing out food packages, that's why i joined with her and congressman conley and de san tess in commissioning a gao report so we can be sure the proper mechanism mechanisms are in place to spend our dollars most effectively i have to say, i've been shocked and truly dismade throughout this crisis at the lack of financial support coming from the internati

jordan, lebanon, and turkey have almost 4 million refugees in their countries.t also led to the rise of isis.

zoo -- in the surrounding countries in jordan, in lebanon and other -- the neighboring countries, we've really stepped up our programs. jordan, for instance we've even put in a second deputy director for u.s. aid and increased our assistance to the jordanians to build up their systems to handle this huge influx. >> okay. >> so, you know additional schools, additional water systems and so on. >> well, i appreciate the work you're doing. i'll get right back to you. that you're doing. and if you could, over the course of the work you do over the next course, let's say two or three months, let us know what we can do better here to help you do better there especially on the accountability so that we're not wasting our money. ms. clements you had something to say? >> thank you. we really do appreciate the support. it's hugely needed. just on the water issue, both inside syria, tom had mentioned part of it but i'll give you an example. the international committee of the red cross, for example, has worked very closely to try to put stopgap measures in place to actually make clean water availabl

jordan, lebanon, and turkey have almost 4 million refugees in their countries. the conflict also led to the rise of isis. almost half of the country is in the hands of isis or other groups fighting the regime. the war has also become a proxy battlefield for regional actors. john kerry suggested what others have suggested. there has to be a political solution. he included negotiations with syria. i spoke to bashar al-assad last week for 60 minutes. here is the full conversation. thank you for allowing us to come here. we asked for this interview because your country has been at war for four years. it is a humanitarian crisis. perhaps the worst on the crisis. -- planet. 10 million have left their homes. life expectancy is down. 50% of your country is occupied by hostile forces. it has he come a battleground for outside forces. what is next? we have seen, since i last visited, they rise of isis. hezbollah. the united states becoming increasingly concerned about isis so much so that the president and the secretary of state have said there is a need for a negotiated

you don't know what will happen in jordan. lebanon could explode any moment. so they're playing a dangerous game of just maintaining the status quo when knowing what lies ahead is extremely irresponsible. >> we'll leave it there. >> irresponsible for israel and netanyahu. >> the conversation still to continue. >>> on monday treasury secretary jack liu meets other officials in beijing. the global economy as well as china's reform agenda. thursday lebanon's parliament is scheduled to vote again on a new president. it's failed in the past 20 times to elect a successor. the civil war in syria has caused a stalemate over the choice in presidents. >>> saturday is the 47th anniversary of civil rights leader martin luther king, jr. >>> still ahead in this hour on al jazeera america they say they have been shut out of one industry. >> there has been no female equivalent to mark zuckerburg. there's no reason for that except for the current structure of things. >> what women say needs to change to fight equality in the tech industry straight ahead. >>> welcome back. the

syrian refugees are crowded into communities in turkey, lebanon, jordan, iraq and egypt. hospitals are overcrowded. municipal services cannot keep up, tensions are rising, and beleaguered governments have responded by closing or tightly managing borders. to ease these pressures, the department and usaid are coordinating humanitarian and development assistance and funding projects that provide important services, clean water sanitation education, and economic opportunities to both host communities and refugees. we have encouraged other donors to come forward, and many have been generous, including saudi arabia and kuwait. the united states is also accelerating resettlement of syrian refugees. we have received referrals from over 10,000 syrian refugees and expect to admit between 1,000 and 2,000 this fiscal year and many more in 2016 and beyond. thank you very much for your support and i welcome your questions. >> thank you very much, miss clements. mr. staal? >> chairman ros-lehtinen ranking member deutch, chairman smith, and members of the subcommittees, thank you for the

jordan lebanon and turkey have almost four million refugees in their countries. the conflict also lead to the rise of isis which established its de facto capital in northern syria. almost half of the country is now in the hands of isis or other groups fighting the regime. the war has also become a proxy battlefield for regional ackers. earlier this month secretary of state john kerry suggested what many others have suggested that there has to be a political solution and he included negotiations with syria. i spoke to bash orr al-assad last week for cbs "60 minutes" which aired an edited version of the interview on sunday. here is the full conversation. >> mr. president, thank you for allowing us to come here. we ask for this interview because your country has been at war for four years. it is a humanitarian crisis perhaps the worst on the planet right now. 200,000 syrians have died. four million refugees. millions have left their homes life expectancy is down. 50% of your country is occupied by hostile forces. it's become a battleground for outside forces. what i

and about half of those three-quarters are displaced in jordan, lebanon and turkey. turkey can assimilate more effectively. lebanon is a problem. jordan is an even bigger problem. and this has a major impact on jordan's economy, on its social structure, its politics. you know, you have these vast number, many of whom are in the camps but many of whom are not in the camps. their permeating jordanian society. they get a job. they work for heck of a lot less. that puts pressure on the labor market, creates a lot of dissent. they come in, tend to an apartment and throw in whatever they have and rentch+xq apartment but they rent it for more than would have been rented to a normal person or family. so, all these distortions are taking place, not to mention that with them can come some dangerous politics in these places. so, i believe, we believe, that this pressure on jordan is a reason to really try to work harder to find the way forward to get some kind of political resolution out of syria. now, we continue to believe that there -- and adamantly, there's no military solut

talking about 200,000 compares to 3.9 million syrian refugees mostly in countries such as turkey, lebanon jordanich are straining under the impact of this. so we believe that these countries need help, because refugees should receive the protection that they need, close to home because most of them would like to return home as soon as possible, and europe would be better served by helping syrian refugees in jordan, in lebanon, in turkey, rather than not helping this countries and making it necessary for syrians to come all the way to europe in search for the living conditions that they -- the safety that they need. >> sir, thank you so much for having joined us here on al jazeera, thank you. >> thank you security in ferguson missouri will be handed over to st. louis county police, and missouri state highway patrol. the decision comes after two police officers were shot at a rally on wednesday night. over the resignation of the police chief. jackson quit following a scathing report about racially based practices within local law enforcement. let's go straight live now to ferguson. and actually i

1946, the famous night of the bridges, they blew up all the bridges, linking palestine with lebanon syria, jordan. vicki with the important ones shift in the book is following the king david hotel another controversy i couldn't get into because they had a role in selecting targets, of more complicated story but after the carnage that arose this alliance apart completely and generally speaking after 1946, they concentrated almost exclusively as you described on information and illegal immigration. they now longer attacked the british but that was the importance in constantly keeping a much smaller force, constantly keeping the pressure on the british and making the rule untenable in the sense that there was a large garrison guarding against revolts, even having trouble defeating 5,000 let alone 60,000 men at arm's. i am not trying to finesse this worse a privilege, one was more important than the other but as someone who spent his entire career studying the effect of terrorism, like government decision making and trying to better understand the countermeasures that can be used to defeat terrorism

most of the 4 million syrian refugees are in turkey, lebanon jordan egypt, and iraq. they say that countries that signed the convention to support refugees like poland, spain and the united kingdom need to offer more openings and the charity said that gulf countries like saudi arabia qatar and the u.a.e. could help more refugees seeking asylum and relaxing restrictions. >> due to be sentenced after jerusalem district court found him guilty of corruption in a retrial. we have details from west jerusalem. >> despite initially being acquitted in this case in 2012, being spared a $19,000 fine and the suspended prison sentence, this case was reviveed after ehud olmert aid presented new evidence as a plea deal for herself. this was secretly recorded conversations between her and former prime ministers when they were talking about this cash that he has apparently received from american businessmen in the center of this case. this appears to have been enough to convince the courts that convict mr. olmert, who said he would appeal this latest ruling, but in the back grouped of

harder to undo the effects, to get people back into the country of syria, to get them out of jordan, out of lebanon and black into building a coherent society in sir qua. >> absolutely -- syria. >> absolutely, that is the bitter reality. now 4 million people are countries. >> 7.5 million are refugees inside mirria. more than half of the population has been forced out of their homes. now, their places have been taken over by groups that they fear they have nothing in common with. it may take a long time before it's safe for them to return. one estimate i herd by one of the people servicing the ill-faith mediation efforts was that there are 2,000 militia groups with a name. individual groups with 10 or more fighters. it's harder to end a war with multiple groups fighting each other on the ground than a smaller conflict. however, it's important that we do not give up hope. if we believe that this is only going to have full speed of costs, it will go badly. what we have to believe and argue is that this is a manmade disaster, it's not a tsunami. it's a manmade disaster, it can be ended. we have to star

overburdened with refugees, mostly in turkey lebanon jordan egypt and iraq. oxfam says only 2% of those people have been offered any permanent resettlement to australia, germany canada, sweden and switzerland. to support refugees like poland and united kingdom ought to be offering more openings. and middle east countries should revisa restrictions. >> the germanwings co-pilot suspected of deliberate crashing a plane into the french alps had been treated in the past for suicidal tendencies. french forces began to build an access road in the remote area where the plane crashed. germany investigators say they are yet to find any concludes as to andreas lubitz's motivation but was in therapy up until the crass. >> the news that prosecutors in dusseldorf confirms that at one point in his career andreas lubitz suffered suicidal tendencies he suffered a severe bout of depression in 2009 for which he did receive treatment but we now know at that point he also was experiencing suicidal tendencies. that is important because his company germanwings and its parent compan

most are in turkey lebanon, jordan egypt and iraq. oxfam says 2% of those people have been offered resettlement to places like canada, australia, german and sweden. >> countries that signed the referendumed need to offer more openings. the charity says gulf countries like saudi arabia qatar and the u.a.e. can help more. and by relaxing visa restrictions. the east africa country of djibouti is dealing and getting a boost from military spending. djibouti sits on the edge of a sea lioning link -- sea link a few kilometres from the base. >> this is the port city of djibouti. the capital of a little country of big dreams. hundreds of millions of dollars of overseas investments are pouring in. from this one city they want to turn it into a hub. djibouti sits across the bubble a vital corridor providing access to the red see. with 30km across at the narrow point. it separates djibouti from yemen. >> taking advantage of the geographical location, it is transporting itself into a shipping hub. >> you want to achieve a creation of more jobs. an

we would have to help our partners bolster defense is and we continue to hope our friends in jordan and lebanon and turkey. we said we would have to build credible ground force to counter isil in the area and we will soon begin doing so is a part of ice. training and equip grosgrain. ladies and gentlemen, we're making progress. in fact we are about where we said we would be in the execution of our military campaign plan which supports the broader whole of government strategy designed to counter isil. we are having significant effects on the enemy. we continue forces in iraq is area in the command-and-control capabilities and we destroyed training sites and storage facilities along with hundreds of vehicles and heavy with systems. in doing so we have degraded the capability. the command-and-control forces and also his primary sources of revenue, mainly refineries and crude collection points. the fact is isil can no longer do what he did at the outset which is to seize and hold the territory. he has assumed a defensive crouch in iraq although he has greater freedom of movement area, is largely in

go out and take their mom and dad's credit card buy an airplane ticket fly off to turkey or jordan or lebanon>> joining us is the director of homeland security at george washington university. he is a former specialist assistant to president george w. bush on homeland security issues. why do you think isis negotiates with the turn of the jordanian pilots when he had been killed almost a month earlier. >> it is propaganda at the end of the day there was never a legitimate attempt to negotiate or even try to raise the ransom. this is propaganda. it was primarily aimed probably to raise some of the voices to over throw king abdullah in jordan. looks like it may have blown back and had the opposite effect similar to the zarqawi bombing at a jordanian wedding where he thought that may have turned some of them from the jordanians. it had the opposite effect. i hope that is the same here. >> what is interesting is isis can use it to their advantage but it also works against them. it works against them in a subtle way with the jordanian pilot. it describes how the pilot was sited in the strong hold o

jordan and everyone else at risk. over a million syrians have left syria to go to lebanon and jordan. that's not a moderate regime mr. president. moderate regimes do not support insurgencies that through the force of arms take down elected governments. hezbollah, mr. president, is not a moderate voice in lebanon. they're supported by the iranians. they've had a record of attacking israel and killing us for decades. so mr. president iran's support of hezbollah, of the huthis and of assad that's not what moderate people do. now, in iraq itself, mr. president, the shia militia that are roaming around iraq are committing war crimes as i speak. so you are completely disconnected from the behavior of the people you're negotiating with and you don't understand the iranians at all. you are dangerously in denial or delusional about the threats we face and who we're dealing with. so i'm glad we wrote the letter to bring some certainty to the process. if the president of the united states negotiates a deal with iran and that deal includes lifting the congressional sanctions, and he does it withou

and you have jordan and lebanon in danger. >> let me ask you one more question about the israeli prime's speech. you are a jewish american. you are a democratic senator so you have a lot of different sort of personal constituencies if you will. when netanyahu says he's coming to speak he says he speaks for all jews. does he speak for you? >> no he doesn't speak for me on this. he doesn't at all speak for me. >> does that bother you when he says he speaks for all jews? >> yeah i think it's a rather arrogant statement. i think the jewish community is like any other community, there are different points of view. so i -- i think that arrogance does not befit israel candidly. i think israel is a nation that needs to be protected, that needs to stand free that hopefully can work constructively with palestinians to have a side-by-side state and to put an end to the bitterness that has plagued this whole area. >> do you think that by speaking to congress two weeks before his election is a sign of arrogance? >> well i think it is certainly a sign of a political move. now whether this political

to help our partners to bolster defenses against isil and we continue to help our friends in jordan and lebanon and turkey. we said we would have to build ground forces to counter isil in syria. in doing so soon. we are making progress. we are about where we said we would be in the execution of our plan, which supports the broader government strategy designed to counter isil. we are having significant effects on the enemy. we continue to deploy forces. we have destroyed training sites and storage facilities along with vehicles and heavy weapons systems. in doing so, we have degraded capabilities. also, his primary sources of revenue, namely his refineries. i so can no longer do what it did at the outset, to seize and hold new territory. although he has greater freedom of movement in syria he is largely in the defensive as well. he is having a tough time governing. it is crucial to this claim. he has begun to expand into other areas, namely north africa. which is important, because he knows he is losing in iraq and syria. going forward, we to expect to see this enemy continue to conduct limited

its defense budget is larger than egypt's jordan syria's and lebanon's combined according to stockholm international peace institute. the wall and the iron dome have significantly lessened the threat from hamas and hezbollah. economically israel is booming having become the richest country in a sea of oil rich states. it is a vibrant democracy and dynamic society. as for the iranian nuclear program, which does not yet have a single bomb let's not forget that israel has a large nuclear arsenal, reportedly above 200 weapons, many of them now placed on submarines. iran's very sophisticated calculating leaders will surely take the strong deterrent into account even if several years from now they were to somehow build a few nuclear weapons. in a strange way he understand intense power of democracy which is why he shut down the green movement in his own country. he recognizes israel's vulnerability lies in its strength its flourishing democracy. in a generally pluralistic country like israel it's hard to practice noncitizenship towards ords so many. understand israel can respond to military

. >>> israel is bordered by egypt, jordan, syria, and lebanon.day war, israel took control of the gaza strip, the sinai peninsula, the the west bank, the golon heights and annexed east jerusalem. in 2003, israel began construction on a wall along the green line representing the israeli-palestinian border. the wall now stretches 450 miles. when completed, it will span 700 miles. 85% of it in palestinian territory. on one hand, there's no doubt that the number of suicide bombings fell drastically. on the other, there's this. you cross from jerusalem into the west bank. also called judea, sumaria, also called palestine. since 1967, half a million settlers have moved here, all in contravention of international law. many in contravention of israeli law. though in effect, it seems to make little difference. they're here and in ever-larger numbers. this is one of our drivers from tel aviv who i asked about the graffiti on this house near the settlements. so what is price tagging? >> something happens in a settlement or some attack with jews, kids from t

will those processes prove to be so damaging to the external powers, especially iran, hezbollah lebanon, jordan, turkey, saudi arabia, that things will be so bad that they will then decide it's in their interest to try to wind this down somehow. really the difficult problem is nobody has any credible scenario for a solution of this conflict. >> we'll leave it there, thank you very much for joining us mom beirut in lebanon. >> activists in ferguson, missouri are pressing ahead with their calls to have the city's mayor removed from office. resentment lingers over the killing of a black teenager by a white police officer there in august. a u.s. justice democratic report said the black community was targeted. >> how much do you figure you owe in tickets? >> i'm pretty much it's almost $2,000. >> at 31 years old leonard has had more than his share of traffic violations. it started with things like not stopping fully at a stop sign. >> when they stop me, the cop was very rude, i was called a [bleep] >> when he couldn't afford the fines, he got late fees. it ended with a suspended license. that led to

another 2 million are refugees having fled to lebanon, turkey and jordan, because of that flood of refugees6 million children in the towns where they have earnedded up are suffering due to the strain on services and when you factor in the crisis with isil in iraq, uncief says 14 million children currently impacted by what is happening in those two countries. >> anthony lake is the president of uncief, he served as national security adviser under president clinton. i sat down with him for talk to al jazerra. >> it's a huge problem. and over 5 million of them are inside syria. then other 2 million living in refugees camps are in host communities outside syria. another -- and we forget about these, probably over 3 1/2 million kids are living in communities in surrounding countries that are having to try to take care of the syrian kids that means their suffering hardships also. and then we have over two nab 1/2 million kids in iraq now and these numbers are growing very rapidly. >> is this the biggest problem with the kids at least numerically the kids inside syria, many displaced and facing wa

countries in neighboring syria are overburdened with refugees, in lebanon jordan, turkey and iraq. >> it says only 2% of people have been offered any kind of permanent resettlement to places like australia canada, germany and sweden and switzerland. >> poland, russia spain and the united kingdom needle to offer more openings. the charity also says gulf countries like saudi arabia, qatar and the u.a.e. could help by relaxing visa restrictions. >> israel's former prime minister is expected to appeal his conviction for bribery. he is due to be sentenced after jerusalem district court found him guilty of corruption in a retrial. we have the details now from west jerusalem. >> despite initially being acquitted in this case in 2012, being spared a $19,000 fine, and a suspended prison sentence, this case was revived after mr. olmert's former aid and secretary presented new evidence to the court as part of the plea deal for herself. this evidence was secretly recorded conversations between her and the former prime ministers when they were talking about this cash that he has now apparently rec

countries in syria are over burdened with refugees, most of the 4 million syrian refugees are turkey, lebanon, jordannd iraq and only 2% of those people have been offered permanent resettlement to places like australia, canada germany, sweden and swiss land. countries that signed the u.n. convention to support refugees like poland russia, spain and uk need more openings and charity says saudi arabia qatar and uae could help more syrians seeking asylum and relaxing visa restrictions. >>> in iraq two car bombs killed at least five people in northern baghdad and exploded near an entrance gate of shia neighborhood, 13 others were wounded. the u.n. secretary-general banky ki-moon in baghdad trying to get tikrit from islamic levante and it is difficult as we report. >> reporter: hits targets belonging to islamic state of iraq and levante and government forces and militia closing from the southen and western sides of tikrit the hometown of saddam hussein and militias make a 30,000 strong force deployed to retake the city and close to taking control of tikrit for weeks. >> translator: god willing we will ent

the 4 million are now living in lebanon, turkey and jordan. >> a lawyer for edward snowden said the american whistle blower wants to return to the u.s. the former spy agency contractor has been in russia since 2013 where he was granted asylum after leaking government documents. >> a series of bomb attacks in east he were ukraine is raising concerns that russian backed provocateurs are opening a new front, away from separatist controlled cities, luhansk and donetsk, public gatherings are targeted by what is called a terrorist campaign to destable ice the region. >> in the east of ukraine, shag support for the government in kiev can be fatal. the roadside device killed four, include ago police officer. a pro-russian bombing campaign targets activists had turned deadly. there was another rally sunday. the security and anxiety levels are very high. >> putin's russia is only 40 kilometers from us. we know that. when people come to our rallies. they know it's potentially dangerous. everyone knows. >> the campaign of terror is clearly having an effect. turnouts such as events like this has been mar

this crisis is spilled overboarders into turkey, iraq, jordan and lebanon. this is a humanitarian catastrophe as assad has blood on his hands and the syrian people desperately need relief. gentlemen, i look forward to covering these issues with you. i thank you again for your courageous service. i say again it is past time for congress to give you the support you need for this vital mission. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you mr. engel. this morning we're pleased to be joined by senior representatives from the department of state and defense. general john allen is the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter isil. he was appointed on september 16th, 2014, by president obama. general allen is a retired u.s. marine four-star general former commander of coalition and u.s. forces in afghanistan from 2011 to 2013. during his combat tour in iraq he played a critical role in awaken movement in al-anbar province. brigadier general michael fantini is the middle east principle director for the office of assistant secretary of defense tore inte

linking palestine, lebanon, syria, jordan where the nuance shift in the girl's that is another controversy. they had a role in selecting targets. a more complicated story but after the program that arose the alliance fell apart completely. again, they. again they concentrated almost exclusively on information operations and illegal immigration and know longer attacked the british. that is where the importance of the services as a more smaller force constantly keeping pressure on the british and making rule untenable in the sense that there was a large garrison guarding against a revolt. and that -- again, i am not trying to finesse this. i am not trying to say one was more important than the other, but as someone who spent his entire career studying the effects of terrorists and political violence and government decision-making and trying to understand countermeasures that can be used to defeat terrorism that was my interest and why i thought the story at least in english literature is neglected. in hebrew literature it is controversial because as you described the knew zionist organizatio

there are 4 million syrians living in lebanon turkey and jordan and many face an uncertain future. we have this report: >> this is northern lebanon. this building may not seem like much but it's home to these syrian refugees. the united nations said it was always supposed to be a short-term solution, but a huge number of refugees means the u.n. can't afford to continue housing these families. the people living here say they have nowhere to go. >> we were shocked after we heard that the u.n. will turn us out of the center, which will be a big problem for us. most families here don't have houses and they can't afford to rent houses. we are looking for a solution for this problem. >> the u.n. says the solution is cheaper housing. it admits sheltering millions of people is not going to be easy. >> when the numbers of syrian refugees were much less, collective shelters were one day we were able to respond to an immediate shelter need. less than 2% of the population are living in collective shelters. >> there is anger here but also a deep sense of disappointment that the world isn't doing

it starts with lebanon, syria, jordan, israel, palestinian authority. this could not be a more perfect metaphor, the hole in this wall. because the dead sea is disappearing because the jordan river is broken. >> but the problem is, not merely enough people can see that damage for themselves. >> anywhere else in the world if a major and beloved waterway starts to disappear, people notice. but here it's almost impossible for the general public to notice because they can't get to it. between them and the jordan river, there are literally tens of thousands of land mines. ♪ >> but up near the sea of galilee, there is one stretch where the jordan is deep and wide enough to carry a canoe. the first explorer to chart this trip was actually another american, a navy man and fervent christian named william lynch. before the civil war, he convinced his commanders that exploring the holy land was in the u.s. national interest. >> he knew there was going to be a dangerous journey because the river was a fast-flowing body of water. >> this river? >> this river. >> thi

this crisis has spilled over borders into turkey iraq jordan and lebanon. this is a humanitarian catastrophe assad has blood on his hands and the syrian people desperately need relief. so, gentlemen, i look forward to covering these issues with you. i thank you, again, for your courageous service. and i say again, that it is past time for congress to give you the support you need for this vital mission. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. engel. this morning we're pleased to be joined by senior representatives from the department of state and defense. general john allen is the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter isil. appointed on september 16th, 2014, by president obama. general allen is a retired u.s. marine four star general, former commander of coalition and u.s. forces in afghanistan from 2011 to 2013, during had his combat tour in iraq he played a critical role in the awakening movement in el anbar province. brigadier general michael fantini is the middle east principle director for the office of the assistant secreta

to the seat of power in damascus and close to rebel supply lines from jordan and bordering hezbollah controlled territory in lebanonll as israeli occupied golan heights and hill -- military says it's no coincidence they have man power to invest in these regions. >> translator: hezbollah extending front line with israel the south lebanon front is approximately 70 kilometers, if they are able to extend this to golan it becomes 150 kilometer front and put pressure on israel. >> reporter: hezbollah suffered casualties in syria while its deployment there helped keep the syrian government in power the group maiden my-- made enemies across the world and does not shy away from saying it has a greater military presence on the israel border and hinted that south lebanon and golan are now one front against israel and said the group would no longer comply with the so called israel and attack on the convoy in the syrian sector in january and seen as a message that israel would not tolerate iran and hezbollah on border and then targeted a convoy on the farms. >> hezbollah and israel raised stakes to a degree israeli perspective

i know we hear a lot about the refugees in neighboring countries like lebanon or jordan but what aboutria itself? >> inside syria we are faced with the challenges of access. we can work as humanitarian organizations either from damascus or from crossing the borders. the security situation is horrific. humanitarian workers are killed again and again and face very very big difficulties in operating so the operational environment is very difficult and on top of that we also see the resource constraints. if we look outside syria, in the neighboring countries we are hosting almost four million refugees also facing huge problems with their domestic situations or having this extra burden and we are not able to provide the needed resources to mitigate the consequence of this we will see further deterioration of the situation inside syria and also outside. >> reporter: the u.n. is asking for $3 billion in aid and there is a funding shortfall, that is known, what do you see as some of the mechanisms besides u.n. agencies that can help get aid to the syrians caught up in this conflict? >> yeah, i

spillover from the syrian conflict is raising the prospect of instability in lebanon jordan and saudi arabia. , it is growing, and it will undermine progress against isil. although prime minister of body abbadi has begun to alter the sectarian town in iraq, persistent distrust will limit progress toward a stable political environment. iso -- isil's ability to conduct large-scale offenses in iraq and other allies, stiffen defenses against iraqi forces, sheet -- shia militants and tribal allies. not to mention the iranians. however isil remains a brutal and formidable threat. moving to syria, and parts of western syria, the syrian regime has made gains in 2014, but it will require years to reassert significant control of the country as a whole. the regime has a clear advantage over the opposition, which is plagued by logistical -- by disunity, firepower manpower and logistical shortfalls. right now, they are incapable of militarily ousting assad, and will probably remain so in 2015. assad is confident and thinks the war is winnable. the conflict with over 200-2000 people estimated -- ov

i mean, asked you look at it right now libya egypt israel, syria, iraq by extension lebanon, jordan, all the gulf states iran and afghanistan are all involved in conflict right now. the turks have some role to play in all of that too. so it's as wide as it can get. can it get worse and deeper? she were. libby is going to get worse and deeper. libya is going to become like yemen is right now. you know it's going to happen? the egyptians are going to lead a force that can do this forced into libya. the reason the egyptians signed up for this force was in order to get them the license to go and leave a force again. so that's going that's going to make worse. i think those countries are coming to the conclusion that the united states and its reluctance to put in a boots on the ground in what is going to leave it to them to pick things up. we can breathe a sigh of relief and say that's great except we lose influence b. they may not approach this in terms of restraint in the way we think that the approach our target them in with enough to be approached or in terms of intimate thing solutio