what can nouri al-maliki do. he didn't do anything in tal usualinga -- fallujah, he can't make a difference now. many fear that baghdad will unleash airpower under the city. with a level of uncertainty the kurdish regional government put forces on high alert, bracing itself for a bigger influx of people in the quay to come -- in the days to come. >> to other news. the u.s. launched two drone strikes in north waziristan's area of pakistan. 16 have been killed in the attack. the first in the country this year. pressure has been mounting on pakistan's deposit to launch a ground defensive against the region. washington resumed the program after two attacks in karachi. let's join the correspondent from the capital. >> the u.s. stopped drone strikes for almost six months. why are they back now. what does this mean for peace talks with the taliban in pakistan. >> well, if you notice, the talks were already deadlocked and after the attack in karachi, any chance of going back to rt negotiating table will definitely not be

these helped him lose support. >> nouri al-maliki won the popular vote. the most seats, but not enough to form alliances. alliances in order to remain prime minister. with the islamic state upping the stakes, pressure from all sides is mounting. >> and we are joined from baghdad. tell us about the rabz of the scoouny groups, have they pledged allegiance to the islamic state? >> well, that will be the key moment for how much legitimacy the declaration has. here in iraq we haven't heard the main groups reaction. some of the smaller groups reacted, and have pledged allegiance to the islamic state for calafat. politically this will be important. as i said in my report, the parliament meet on july the 1st, that's when they try to choose a government. the key post, the president and speaker of the house should and need to be fulfilled in the meeting. this is going to add a lot of pressure on prime minister nouri al-maliki. people are wondering how a group like this has begun, has gotten so bold that not only have they taken up territory, but they've been able t

is nouri al-maliki feeling the pressure here? >> it has to be said that the pressure he's feeling about the national unity or an emergency government is coming from him. what the americans said to prime minister nouri al-maliki is that they wanted the constitutional process to be pushed forward. that they wanted the government to be formed as quickly as possible. nouri al-maliki in his speech on wednesday said this is forcing pressure on us to form an emergency government. those are his words, emergency government. no one else used them. suddenly this has become a thing in iraqi politics. people are saying yes, let's form this idea of a national government. oddly the words come from prime minister nouri al-maliki. muqtada al-sadr is a key shia cleric. he has had problems with prime minister nouri al-maliki in the past. during the elections he was outspoken, saying maybe prime minister nouri al-maliki's time has come. we need to choose an another leadership. now we need to get rid of nouri al-maliki, and need an inclusive governme

prime minister nouri al-maliki has promised to retake teleavar. missual and tikrit are under control. a long-term political solution is proposed. there has been a meeting of is rammic countries, calling -- islamic counties, calling on saudi and others to stop supporting the sunni fighters. >> translation: the military solution is not enough. we agree and confess there should be a political and radical solution. iraq is in danger and needs the support of the arab countries and the world to stop the offensive. the risk of separation, division and fragmentation do exist. if this happens, it could be more dangerous than what is going on in syria, because of resources and capabilities, if such resources fall into the hands of terrorists. groups mean that saudi arabia or the gulf states - no one will be safe in the evil of such groups. >>> there has been talk of major destruction to the oil industry, the fighters posted a video, nouri al-maliki says they are in control. the video shows them driving through the city. the government claims it's in control

>> nouri al-maliki sacked top leaders in charge. army in missual, and said they -- mosul and said they failed to carry out the national duty, he is building up, trying to root out rebels from different cities, including tick rit and mosul. with this political development. he feels he has the upper hand. he is emboldened by the increasing numbers of volunteers to protect the importance religious shrines in this country. there are tens of thousands who vowed to protect iraq from what they described as the terrorist campaign to topple the government. >>> al jazeera correspondent omar al saleh, and "america tonight"'s sheila macvicar with us. thank you both. >>> in some cities the iraqi fighters are dropping arms and fleeing. four-star army general jack keen, credited for helping to design the u.s. surge, thank you for being here. in the last few hours nouri al-maliki appearing sunni critics, uncomfortably, awkwardly. is it enough to bring the u.s. into pore of an assertive position militarily, to assist or prop up the government? >> i

where are we now in terms of nouri al-maliki? >> first of all, the iraqi security forces have not been able to stop the advance of i.s.i.s., that's a reality. i'm more concerned about the bleeding of the iraqi state. the disintegration of security forces. before talking about retaking mosul, tikrit and other cities. we need to talk about stiff nipping the resolve of iraqi forces. they need help. at theest eps of this -- the essence of this crisis is a broken, disfunctional political system. you need to yupify iraq, brick in -- uniify iraq, bring in all communities to face the threat. for many iraqis nouri al-maliki is not acceptable. many say the same thing. >> that will not happen until, perhaps, baghdad has fallen. is that possible. >> the question at the table is how do you establish an inclusive government, a national unity government. some voices in america say a unity government without nouri al-maliki. others say a national government in iraq. remember, his coalition has a largest number of votes. >> are there those willin

the sunnis may be unhab with nouri al-maliki -- unhappy with nouri al-maliki's form of government. they are right. but it's not allowable for them to make i.s.i.s. the answer. >> let's talk about iran, the deputy foreign minister for arab and african affairs reacted to a plan showing that the u.s. is terrorism. there was a quote: >>> do they have a point. we saw vladimir putin coming out in support of the nouri al-maliki government on friday. he's on the shiite side in iran and syria. iranians. >> if we are going to persuade nouri al-maliki to compromise and to follow our advice, we need iran's backing because iran has a lot more influence in iraq than we do at the moment, and nouri al-maliki has no reason to listen to us if we are not going to give him military support, no force on the ground to compel him to listen to us. we need the iranians to back him. i think the iranians would like to use iraq to change american policy in syria. but pointing out that i.s.i.s. was carrying terrorism and if you fight them in iraq, you should change the policy in syria. they are trying to push

al-sadr openly criticised prime minister nouri al-maliki. this was a show of force designed to convince the people of iraq and the shia community that they are able to defend themselves. the key thing is you have to understand that they wanted to defend the shrines and the towns. one of them, when hit by al qaeda in 2006, it sparked a sectarian war in the country, lasting almost three years. that is why the shia militias are showing the force and that's why we see them on the streets. >>> let's look at what the volunteers will be fighting for. sunni fighters seized the border post on the frontier with syria. the rebels are said to be in control of the largest oil refinery. it accounts for a third of the capacity. the two sides are fighting for control of the airport on the road to the syrian border. the deposit said it has retain the town. fighting goes on for towns north of bacuba, 60km of baghdad. the army controls 70% of the province. mosul and tikrit are in rebel hands, falling two weeks as soon as. i.s.i.l. rebels took fall usualinga --

nouri al-maliki said that he was going to try and bring in the military. what signs of any military intervention? >> well, what we are hearing is the first thing that will happen is prime minister nouri al-maliki was to arm the tribal militias to come m and defend the places that the army can't get to. the tribal militia, governments in mosul said we need to get the tribal militias in and fighting. that's the first phase. the second is getting the army in. the third is the emergency session of parliament that is meeting on the thursday, where nouri al-maliki wants a state of emergency that will give him sweeping powers, full control of the military and the state institutions, which will allow him to fight back. most people here are worried that the fight back has come. too late. it should have been a political solution. you heard one of the guests saying that nouri al-maliki hasn't been inclusive. that is something that we continue to hear, and those voices are getting louderment people are openly critical. of course, imran, the p m says he wants to ipp vo

and iran that gave nouri al-maliki his second term. they overturned - now the third term which nouri al-maliki wants will be a little bit more difficult. given the fact that the americans, president barack obama has said that we will not choose iraqi leaders, they'll show they are willing to share power. this is the criticism aimed at nouri al-maliki. since then u.s. forces withdrew from the country in 2011. there were worrying signs that prime minister nouri al-maliki was marginalizing sunnis, and attacking the political opponents whether they were sunnis, kurds or in the wider shiite coalition. he was making the signs early on. >> we'll have to hope someone creates a national unity government, because there's no history of it. saddam hussein marginalised the shiites, and nouri al-maliki is marginalizing the sunnis. good to have you with us. thank you. >>> for a closer look at the american role. i'm joined by douglas ol vi vant, he served two tours in iraq as an army lieutenant colonel and one as head of a planning team that coordinat

coalition has been dismissed by nouri al-maliki. a more inclusive government has been a demand of the united states, and wants it in place before assisting the iraqi government face what it calls the militant threat. >> washington is in a difficult position. the islamic state in iraq and levant may be leading the fight, but other soupy groups are taking part. the u.s. cannot be seen as taking sides in what is described as a sunni shia war. it may be too late. this man once cooperated with the u.s. to fight aliyer. years later he refuses to fight the islamic state of iraq and levant until the u.s. reviews its policies. >> it needs to review support for the government. some of the statements are unacceptable. like when they say they'll support the iraqi army. there is no army. they are the militias, the real threat. >> this conflict has been in the making of the years. it's not the politicians, but those that hold arms on both sides of the divide that need to make peace if iraq as a nation state is to survive. >> people, the israeli p

nouri al-maliki called on tribal militias to protect towns. a difficult and interesting situation. >>> that is absolutely right. what we are hearing is one of the biggest shia militia groups were inside syria, protecting shia shrines. they've been called back to iraq. they are coming across the border from syria into iraq. it's like like that they'll gather the shia militia forces and decide what to do with them. the biggest city that has fallen is mosul. it's likely that they'll go to mosul. you saw in the report that they are recruiting in large numbers, young men to fight in the tribal militias. they have done that in basra, which is shia, they are setting up the groups. it's along sectarian lines. what that means remains to be seep. we see this in 2006. what happens is iraq was plunged into sectarian war. >> thank you for joining us from baghdad. >> security concerns in iraq prompted the united states to relocate u.s. contractors based there. president obama says he's considering all options to help the iraqi government. >> iraq will need

>> well, it's a clear show of support and backing for prime minister nouri al-maliki. the iranians have traditionally been close to the nouri al-maliki government and have supported him in the past. it has to be said this last yeent election they were -- recent election they were not as vocal in the support as in 2010. it's a definite statement of support. baghdad has to ask for help. what we are hearing is that there are members of the elite revolutionary guard, coutts force, fighting in iraq. they may be - this is unconfirmed - they may be in dearticlea province, and they are stopping the advance of sunni rebels, who have taken two towns in the deala province, and they may stop them getting where they want to go. there's no official confirmation. that is what we are told by three different sources. >> if you look at the north of the country. depending on your perspective, how you look at the situation. peshmerga forces alongside iraqi police may not be a support for prime minister nouri al-maliki. >> you can cop this in several different ways. what we see is cooperat

prime minister nouri al-maliki wants a state of emergency giving him sweeping powers. it's unclear whether he'll visit the parliament and meet with the parliamentarians. he's not technically - he doesn't technically have to be there. several sunni politicians insisted that he put his case forward. he's under a tremendous amount of pressure, a meeting that began 9:30 wednesday night, and went late into thursday morning. it was an extraordinary meeting, the leaders of all the key political parties. it was the first time the guys have been in a room for four years, and he wanted this state of emergency to be pushed through. he was trying to build a consensus, by all the sources we had, telling us he was not able to build a consensus. all eyes are on the parliamentary meeting. >> he had a rough ride. the parliamentarians will be looking behind their shoulders to see what is going on across iraq and see how they'll react in parliament this afternoon. >> that's absolutely right. we'll bring you up to date with a couple of key developments. in mosul, they have quietened down

. >> iraqi prime minister nouri al-maliki begged the u.s. for help, president obama offered extensive comments on the crisis. >> my team is working around the clock to identify how we can provide the most effective assistance to them. i don't rule out anything. because we do have a state of making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either iraq or syria for that matter. >>> meanwhile three plane loads of americans, contractors and civilians were evacuated from a base north of baghdad as insurgents neared. they were there on a training mission for iraqi forces that has been suspended indefinitely. joining us is omar, our correspondent. good to see you. you are in baghdad. i.s.i.l. spokesman taunted nouri al-maliki, calling on forces to move on baghdad. what is the latest in the fighting. is the iraqi military battling back with effectiveness. >> to some degree, yes. not in baghdad. they launched, according to the defence ministry, they launched several air strikes at different targets in the province and main cit

how much support does nouri al-maliki have. he won the popular vote.ut that is not enough to make him prime minister again. he needs the support of the key politicians here. the other political groups, to form a coalition. increasingly they came out in criticism. they had sunni politicians already criticise him. the grand ia tolla ali cyst tarny saying there needs to be a unified government that is more inclusive. it's seen as a criticism. and the americans chiming in saying prime minister nouri al-maliki is not doing enough to reach out to the kurds and the sunni politicians. he has the popular vote, winning 92 seats. to form a government he needs the backing of the political party to form a two-thirds majority. he doesn't have that. >>> imran khan in baghdad. >>> ukraine's army started a 7-day ceasefire. petro porashenko told forces to stop military action taken against separatists. fighters told al jazeera they do not trust the promise of amnesty or safe passage. albanian police carried out a drugs bust, taking control of a village run by producers

if anyone, we blame president nouri al-maliki for that.is inability to form, you know, a bipartisan or tripartisan government. >>> did we think there was a way to control nouri al-maliki when you were there? >> it wasn't really my expertise. as an infantryman, i did what my commanders told me to do. go out and find the bad guys. we conducted patrols, trained the army. we followed orders and made iraq a more secure place, in the hopes that, you know, the newly formed government would follow suit behind us. >>> you lost friends, i assume, and others were injured. did you think of those people at this time? >> i think of those people every day. regardless of whether i'm thinking about iraq or not. that was a time in our lives that changed us forever. i think a lot of my fellow veterans wouldn't trade that experience for anything. at the same time, you know, it's unfortunate that that happened to our brothers and sisters. >>> we talked about team ruby con before in the programme. can you tell us about team ruby con and what people like you are

that said, there is a lot of frustration with nouri al-maliki.re is a widespread belief here in washington especially, that the way that maliki led iraq in his previous two terms did not bode well for the ideal of national unity that sunnis were cut out from major policy decisions, weren't given appropriate government portfolios and there was a similar sentiment among iraqi kurds in the north. so there is this sense that someone who can be more of a uniter, to use the word, is probably most required. but as we saw in imran kahn's piece, nouri al-maliki says he won the most votes in the last elections in april, and that unless someone can come forward with the same kind of electoral qualities that he brought, then he would be happy to step aside. >> "ookay, roslyn, thanks for that. >>> a couple of other developments in the iraqi situation. the government saying that it now has control of the country's largest oil refinery. earlier sunni fighters led by the islamic state of iraq and the levant said that they had seized refinery. the government is n

al maliki being you know america's nouri al maliki i mean he's also iran's nouri al maliki so there is that in the sense in the sense there and iran will be will be looking obviously incredibly closely at the situation and is. is it is becoming ever more apparent that actually nouri al maliki is one of the biggest factors in in this problem and is sectarian as ation of a state institutions aside iraq and iran will be looking at this very closely indeed nouri al maliki does not command all support from all all of the shia community inside iraq and i think we saw that in terms of the parades in baghdad of starters militia and that is another another sign and of course these will be taking orders from iran that's interesting to put. a militia in in the context of how iran sees that but again that is further proof not just i mean the violence with isis in terms of engaging various sunni communities who are obviously exasperated and disillusioned with the maliki regime but also within side this year community as well who see who see maliki is a lame duck and also a dictator and unable to

at that time it was understood by nouri al-maliki, and accepted by prime minister nouri al-maliki, that this was the first sofa not the last. we spent many months successfully accommodating a first sofa and we hoped for a second. the diplomatic shortfalls led us to where in some ways contributed to where we are today. >> thank you both joining us tonight. thank you. >>> now an update on the al jazeera colleagues held in prison in cairo. egypt's prosecutor ordered the release of our longest hold reporter abdullah al-shami. citing health reasons. abdullah al-shami-on a hunger strike for 145 days to protest detention, without charge. he had lost a third of ris body weight. he had been held since mid august, arrested whilst covering a protest. a judge in egypt's capital said peter greste, mohamed fadel fahmy and baher mohamed will hear their fate this monday. the judge said the court will rule on their case june 23rd, they are held on accusations of spreading false news and aiding the muslim brotherhood. the prosecution's expert witnesses contradicted their own written accusations in court

because ultimately i don't think nouri maliki can put this back together again.nd is a national unity government. nouri maliki stepped down as prime minister. a more conciliatory figure taking his place. bring in sunnis as well. under those circumstances i think that the united states should support. but not this government. >> all right, fareed, thank you very much. fareed zakaria joining us. >>> up ne they're cool. these deals are legit. yeah, we're cool. she's cool. we're cool. priceline express deals are totally legit. check this, thousands of people book them everyday and score killer deals. now, priceline is piling on even more savings with its summer sale. so grab your giant beach towel and enter code summer14. look at me enjoying the deals. >>> iraq's foreign minister is calling the takeover of the city of mosul a major setback and says it raises concerns after so many fighters turned and ran. my colleague spoke to him. >> definitely, this is a serious situation. and this is what we in iraq have all along warned everybody. the war, our neighborhood, the a

urging nouri al-maliki to make his country more inclusive. john terrett is in washington, d.c. >> we learned a lot more now than we knew this morning when we realized that secretary kerry met with nouri al-maliki. he has had separate meetings with meetings one with shiite, and the other is sunni. next up, the city to the northwest of baghdad. there he's going to meet up with the current president and the united states is offering air power to the kurds in the western desert around their various homelands using assets the u.s. deployed in the gulf providing there is a broad based political agreement in baghdad that had offer some protection to the iraqi people to the shi shias, sunnies and kurds, and that can be sorted out reasonbly quickly i'll next be talking with allies. >> according to the state department he's not himself asking for nouri al-maliki to go although of course there are calls from around the world for him to step down. according to secretary kerry who has been speaking with wire service reporters, he said no country including

not with the cause of nouri al maliki. nouri al maliki hardly has any friends.nifer griffin is back with us from the pentagon i believe. jennifer, i wonder what the level of concern is that -- that the sunnis from iran are going to see this as an opportunity. after all, this has happened in a matter of days, not a month's long build-up that we knew about. >> well, there's a great deal of fear that the shias from iran or that iran itself will try to fill the vacuum. that is what is always the problem in the middle east when you leave vacuums. the other thing to remember, shep, is this is also about oil. iraq has large oil fields that will be very lucrative to -- to those different groups. and they will be fighting over those fields in short order because that will be what will fund this insurgency or fund the government. it's also another point that touched on that's very important is that maliki -- when the americans were pulling out and as they were leaving, remember it was the sunni awakening in anbar province that helped the surge troops that the u.s. sent in

it's not clear how you would get rid of nouri al-maliki. you have to deal with a government you have, not the one you wish you have, at least for the short run. medium to longer term anything is possible, and the political situation is fluid. now nouri al-maliki is the one in power. >> from the brookings institute and the author of "temptations of power", thank you for joining me >>> former administrative assistant in iraq is calling for the u.s. to be more active. he called the u.s. withdrawal a mistake. >> what happened was nouri al-maliki took it as a signal of disinterest by america, giving him a freer raping to establish a -- range to establish a more sectarian government. firing officers in the arm, i, pumping people in intelligence -- purging people in intelligence, dismantling the ombudsman, and going after the ooupies, an -- sunnis, an arrest warrant for the vice president. all this contributed in the last few weeks, but a couple of years to a progressive move to an author tare yap government upped prime minister nouri al-maliki. >

nouri al-maliki rejects calls for an interim national government. unexploded and in the lebanese blowsl, a suicide bomber himself up at a beirut hotel. -- eyes france prepares to take on ecuador. we look at what is at stake. nigeria and argentina have qualified for the next stage. good evening. we will begin this hour with the latest on the world cup in brazil. argentina beat nigeria in the last hour and a half or so. 3-2 to the argentine. much the star of the show. both sides are going through the knockout stages. bosnia took out the run. they won the game 3-1. they are both out of the contest. let's get the latest from dan leavy in rio. talk us through what has been happening. there are two exciting games. >> argentina is winning, 3-2. wasnew that argentina already through to the next round. ceiling their place at the top of the group and nigeria going through as well. the third time for them in the last 16. france will play basically either argentina or nigeria. they willme second, play argentina. just a quick on the other game. they are winning

more than a million leaving mosul and increasing pressure on nouri al-maliki. notably from the united states government, which wants him to sit down with political leaders, who he has not spoken to in many months in some case, and come up with a government to help solve the crisis. this is not just a military security crisis, it's a deep and deeply rooted political crisis. >> once again, in baghdad. >> regional politics are playing a factor. here are some other players. iran is a shia majority country needing access to shrines inside iraq. it's vying saudi arabia. like any country the leaders do not want to live next door to a civil war. gulf states take the opposite view. they want to prevent iranian influence spreading. i.s.i.l. fighters share the same ideology. then there's israel, long at odds with middle eastern neighbours. it fears instability spreading out. i discussed the situation with a fellow at the truman national security project and a senior international policy analyst at rand corporation. i asked what iran has to gain or lose from the conflict.

has been dismissed by nouri al-maliki. he called for the elected parliament to meet op july 1st, to start the process of forming a government. a more inclusive government has been a key demand of the united states, and it wants it in place before assisting the government faus what it calls the -- face what it calls the militants. some sunni group are taking part as well as i.s.i.l. they cannot be seep as taking sides. >> it may be too late. he once cooperated with the use to beat al qaeda, but he is refusing to face islamic state of iraq and levant, in the the u.s. reviews its policies. >> it needs to review support to the government. some of the statement are upacceptible, like when they say they'll support the iraqi army. what army. there's no army in iraq. they are nouri al-maliki's iranian backed militias. >> this conflict has been in the making for years. forming a government may not be enough to end the rebellion. after all, it's not the politicians, but those that hold the arms on both sides of the divide if they ne

nouri al-maliki alienated his own community. what are his solutions, if you say he has to share. >> that's the major point. if you don't have the people assistance to fight the militants, you won't succeed. we have a successful example of what happened in 2006, 2006. the awakening group. they are the people, and they fought at that time. they succeeded to secure at that time. what happened, he attacked them, the waking group and didn't give them salaries, he didn't give them weapon, because they are afraid of him. at the end time. he is dependent on unprofessional leaders, unprofessional security leaders. that they get in touch by the i.s.i.l. the most important thing now, does mr maliki want a real share of the security decision. this is important thing. while iraq is going to give him the marriage si, does he give promises to the politicians that he will share the security, planning the security decisions. no one knows. until now, no one trusts mr maliki. each the people of his provinces. until now they are afraid from the arm

the priority is to fight nouri al-maliki. the world should help us in our cause, and we'll deal with i.s.i.l. as long as iran is in iraq i.s.i.l. will remain, and as long as sunnis are being repressed, the fighting will continue. >> reporter: human rights groups say government forces are carrying out mass killings. this is a road to baghdad. amnesty international says there appears to have been a pattern of extrajudicial killings. every day that passes brings a share of death and destruction. the risk for iraq is as the conflict widens, the voices of moderation will be drowned out. >>> hong kong is voting on the final day of an informal referendum calling for a democratic way to elect a leader. the 10-day poll is organised by protest groups. several hundred thousands have been voted. campaigners want to choose their chief executive instead of picking one from a list of candidates nominated by the chinese deposit. >>> north korea fired short-raping miss -- short-range missiles in the ocean. it comes days after south korea test

there is increasing pressure on prime minister nouri al-maliki to resign to help unify the country.le, the iraqi army has taken back control of the country's biggest oil refinery a report with the latest. >> reporter: fighters from the islamic state in iraq and the levant are heading towards baghdad. other sunni groups link today the former leader sadam hussein are also taking part in this rebellions against the government. iraqi authorities are asking the united states to help push them back. >> what the united states is doing is about iraq. it is not about maliki. and nothing that the president decides to do is going to be focused specifically on prime minister maliki. it is focused on the people of iraq. >> reporter: washington hasn't ruled out air strikes, but so far, it has been reluctant. it is not just because of domestic politics or the lack of intelligence gathering on the ground. the former commander of coalition forces in iraq has warned against any air strikes. u.s. general david petraeus says there is a great risk that the u.s. would be seen picking sides in a religious

nouri al-maliki insisted the fight was still going on. president obama spent an hour with top congressional leaders with ongoing consultation on iraq. he told the leaders he did not need congressional authorisation for moves in iraq and discussed ways to strengthen their security forces and pushing the nouri al-maliki government to set aside sectarian issues. reports were concerned that the nouri al-maliki asked for military aid. >> we have a request from the iraqi government for air power. >> you do. >> we do. >> do you think it's in our national security interest to hop our that request? >> it's in our security interest to counter i.s.i.l. >> i'm joined from baghdad by omar al saleh. reports say i.s.i.l. has taken the large oil refinery, an rouky military source de -- iraqi military source denies that. what have you heard? >> we spoke to a person who works there, through a relative. he said that the rebels controlled the refinery and staff were asked to leave. we understand that the refinery is understand control of the rebels. another

nouri al-maliki rejects calls for an interim national government. unexploded and in the lebanese blowsl, a suicide bomber himself up at a beirut hotel. -- eyes france prepares to take on ecuador. we look at what is at stake. nigeria and argentina have

>> we would simply be taking nouri al-maliki's side in the civil war. we're at our max leverage now. what we need to do is turn this leverage into some sort of political agreement as the way forward. once we get the government that all iraqis can support then we can deal with the situation handily i think. >> leverage, the moment, and seizing the moment is there another opportunity here? i'm not suggesting that many people have a stomach for this, but is there an opportunity to strike a new and better status of force agreements with iraq? >> well, there is if there were any stomach in washington to do that. >> beau think that would be a good idea, to pursue something like that? >> if there were a government worth supporting in baghdad, i believe we could do a lot of good supporting it with advisers, with intelligence operatives, with air power. to do that we would need a new sofa. >> good to talk to you, peter monsoor. thank you. he is the author of "surge: my genera journey with general david petraeus." >> an explosion occurred in nigeria where fans ga

they are nouri al-maliki's sectarian militias. they are the real threat. >> this conflict has been in the making for years. forming a government may not be enough to end the rebellion. it's not the politicians, but those that hold the ams on both sides of the divide who need to make peace. >> as the crisis unfolds, iraqi civilians are caught up in the crossfire. the u.n. says 500,000 people have been displaced by recent fighting. we spoke to the u.n. refugee agency and told us that many of the displaced are in need of shelter. >> we find that people are living in mosks, churches, parks, schools, abandoned buildings, community centers. the fortunate ones are staying in hotels with forehand. those that are not, and don't have money to pay for a hotel are finding that they are running out of the money and are forced to make choices that they don't want to take, and that is primarily going home. heat is a major concern, given temperatures go above 40 degrees celcius, 110 higher. it's hot. we are finding that specific group of people n

this is what it's all about, redrawing the map of the middle east. >> on tuesday nouri al-maliki hadeen confident after the election about securing a third term in office. the government's loss of control across northern iraq and the sunni uprising, has it changed the picture? what can we expect from the picture on tuesday? >> well, what happened is very interesting. people who would be natural allies to the prime minister, who have been natural allies in the past, particularly from the shia political group, the prime minister is a shia, they have begun to openly criticise prime minister nouri al-maliki. a key politician told al jazeera that it can be somebody from prime minister nouri al-maliki's party, but not somebody - can't be him. others have gone further. sunni politicians saying there needs to be a redrawing, a more unified government. iraqi governments is about building alliances. the prime minister won the popular vote, and got the most seats in the election. that is not enough. he needs political support from the other key parties within the iraqi political system. he does

it was nouri al-maliki that wanted them out as part of a nationalist agenda. i wouldn't be surprised if an american presence is bolstered. it's interesting that a lot of debate is echos of vietnam where american military advisors wept in and years later tens of thousands of troops. clearly, the key question is is the main objective here to defeat i.s.i.s., or is it, for obama, to avoid being dragged into a middle eastern conflict. it's clearly a huge priority. >>> exactly and a huge reluctance by washington to get involved. what do you think tipped washington into sending 300 special forces to iraq. was it the takeover of saddam hussein's chemical research development base? >> well, that. also the capture of oil facilities, it's incredible what happened over the last 11 days. i.s.i.s. put it's on the map. everyone is being caught short by what has happened. i think the americans are playing catch up as we all are. it's a serious tactical and strategic concern having what's going on, going on. >>> thank you for joining us on al jazeera. >>> let's go to sport an