move that it said was a response to indications of threats from iran well let's cross no live to rob matheson he joins us from baghdad we're hearing that the u.s. will join all known american sea personnel why would this be. well they certainly seem to be perceiving that there is an increasing threat against u.s. military personnel but also as you were mentioning known what they call non emergency personnel that's basically every other u.s. citizen that's currently working and over and iraq from they believe they are alleging from a shia groups here in iraq many of which have links to iran when we're talking about non-emergency stuff we're not talking about the 5200 u.s. military troops which are currently in iraq which for who are training the iraqi military and countering the threats from high school that is their remit we're talking about contractors we're talking about oil workers we're talking about government employees for example working in the embassies the state department is put out as part of that statement saying that they embassy services in iraq are likely to be closed busy temp

front in the center of a potential conflict that it does not want to be involved in all right rob matheson their banks so that from baghdad joe rubin is a former u.s. deputy assistant secretary of state he says saudi arabia is approached iran still needs to be clarified. the question about iran as a regional actor that is creating very difficult circumstances chaotic circumstances in syria in lebanon on in yemen that is not in dispute but there is dispute about saudi arabia's role as well and engaging iran in those fights so to see these meetings come out with a little more of a diplomatic boost for saudi arabia that does give them some way to the sales but it doesn't answer these core busy questions which is how will the regional states saudi and the u.a.e. in particular how will they engage iran in a manner that avoids a major war because that's what everyone here in washington right now is very much concerned about dealing with iran but not sparking a major regional war that we here in the u.s. get sucked into we really are having a dissonant policy right now coming out of the white hou

same breath the iraqi foreign minister tells his iranian counterpart that he's willing to mediate rob matheson reports now on iraq's delicate position. if mohammed jeffords came to baghdad to clarify where iraq stands in the ongoing tension between the u.s. and iran iraq's foreign minister seems to have given him an answer. against the unilateral measures taken by the us we are standing by iran in its position and god willing we can play an intermediary role between the parties if necessary. iran's foreign minister has proposed signing a non-aggression pact with gulf neighbors but iran says it will take action if necessary. we will defend ourselves against any efforts for a war with iran whether it is a military or economic one that would victimize the iranian people we will face it with strength and resistance iran and iraq have close ties to trade culture and religion but iraq relies on u.s. and foreign troops to combat the threat of ice all added needs foreign investment especially to develop its oil fields iraq has been doing a diplomatic balancing act for years and some say that puts it i

and all that is and iran rob matheson there from the iraqi capital thank you rob. well through don's military of areas and protest leaders will resume talks later today they were suspended to 72 hours after protesters were killed earlier this week demonstrators have been continuing their sit and outside the army headquarters demanding the military hand of power over to civilians the 2 camps are at odds over who will run the country for 3 is before new elections they have all we can speak now to have a morgan he's live for us in khartoum to the standoff i have had these constructed barricades continue it. well the protesters are saying that they have listened to the military council and their demands to remove some of the barricades and now the mood in front of the army headquarters is one of anticipation people want to know what's comes next what will the 2 sides talk on they have to talk about the issues of the sovereign council they've already agreed on the legislative assembly as well as the executive council but the main issue the main point of contention betwe

in just a moment 1st let's talk to rob matheson who is in baghdad so rob what is the latest with this this embassy warning. i'm not hearing our. so we at this point walt talk to the same bus ravi who is an tehran right now and we will try to establish a connection with robin just a moment so say what if with all this rhetoric that's going around what is the latest that we're hearing from iran. well supreme leader of the of the of come in a made a speech from his residence into iran yesterday evening tuesday evening speaking to some of the country's top leaders civilian leaders including president hassan rouhani the speaker of parliament the head of the judiciary was also there as well as several military leaders and he covered a wide range of issues almost everything currently on iran's plate he dived into it relatively deeply but one thing really stuck out that sort of goes along with what we're hearing out of iraq and we were hearing with the latest u.s. moves with regard to its embassy he said that a lot of what the united states is doing the uproar it's creating in the middle east

same breath the iraqi foreign minister told his iranian counterpart that he's willing to mediate rob matheson reports. if mama jeffords early for came to baghdad to clarify where iraq stands in the ongoing tension between the us and iran iraq's foreign minister seems to have given him an answer. against the unilateral measures taken by the us we are standing by iran in its position and god willing we can play an intermediary role between the parties if necessary. iran's foreign minister has proposed signing a non-aggression pact with gulf neighbors but iran says it will take action if necessary. comes i'm on we will defend ourselves against any efforts for a war with iran whether it is a military or economic one that would victimize the iranian people we will face it with strength and resistance iran and iraq have close ties to trade culture and religion but iraq relies on u.s. and foreign troops to combat the threat of eisel and it needs foreign investment especially to develop its oil fields iraq has been doing a diplomatic balancing act for years and some say that puts it in a perfect posi

was a message to iran well we'll be speaking to zain a bus ravi in tehran but 1st let's go to rob matheson who is in baghdad rob do you have any lisa any more for us on the this embassy warning that's been issued . at the moment the warning is as you mentioned before it's to all non-emergency stuff in the embassies here in baghdad which is a few 100 meters away from where i am but also to the consulate. as well the point is that the non-emergency staff are being asked to leave but all the other stuff for their deployment for the embassies and for the the consulate in the bill are remaining and the other important thing to note is the fact that. they this has not been expanded to other u.s. citizens living and working in iraq is what we're talking about people in the oil and gas industries we're talking about people in construction we're watching that of course very closely nevertheless this is a significant ramping up of the rhetoric if you like but at the same time in many ways it's an understandable approach if as the u.s. says there is a credible threat from shia armed groups in iraq to

it said was a message to iran well we'll be speaking to zain ravi in tehran but 1st let's go to rob matheson who is in baghdad rob do you have any lace any more for us on the this embassy warning that's been issues. at the moment the warning is as you mentioned before it's to all non-emergency stuff in the embassies here in baghdad which is a few 100 meters away from where i am but also to the consulate. as well the point is that the emergency stops are being asked to leave but all the other stuff the stuff for the deployment for the embassies and for the the consulate in bill are remaining and the other important thing to note is the fact.

last year iraqis like these now fear that their country could be dragged into another conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad. well algeria's charles stratford is following the fine minister zarif visit to baghdad and sent us this update well certainly according to a spokesperson for the foreign ministry here in iraq these meetings are going to concentrate on 2 main areas the 1st one is strengthening ties between iraq and iran and the 2nd one as you can imagine is very much according to the spokesperson iraq's role in potentially trying to defuse this escalating conflict between its neighbor and the u.s. iraq is in a very very delicate position here because of the great influence that iran has on this country it is by far the largest regional ally of iraq economically politically militarily i think it's important to actually sort of break down exactly what these what the us call iran proxy groups that operate in this country exactly what they are not only were they in tegel in the fight against eisel they were integrated into iraq security apparatus in 2016 and they have a very strong poli

or those questions remain unanswered we will however keep a close eye on them thanks very much rob matheson they're bringing us the latest from baghdad. iran's supreme leader ayatollah other home in a has ruled a it's negotiations with washington over its nuclear program but c. also said there would be no war iran's ambassador to the united nations has denied his country was involved in the attack on 4 ships off the coast on monday in while the u.s. ambassador to saudi arabia says washington should take what he called a reasonable response short of war after it determines who's responsible. china has reported slower than expected economic growth in april that was a period before the higher u.s. trade tariffs took effect who slowed to 5.4 percent last month also drop from an 8.5 percent growth rate back in march well agent brain has this update now from beijing. well these figures will worry china's leaders because they demonstrate that in april there was a much confidence among chinese consumers in fact the figures for retail sales were the worst in 16 years and that's a worry for china's g

well as we mentioned iran said it didn't agree with the group's final statement on iran rob matheson has the reaction from baghdad. it's not really a surprise that iraq has made this decision not to be involved in this announcement iraq has many years of trading cultural and religious history with neighboring iran both countries are predominantly shia and iran has made significant investments in iraq over the last few years indeed when iran's foreign minister mohammad javad zarif was here just a few days ago the iraqi foreign minister mohammed al hakim told him that iraq was opposed to u.s. sanctions on iran and opposed to any one sided action by the united states but of course iraq also needs the support of united states troops and those from other foreign countries as it tries to deal with the ongoing threat from ice on the question is now how saudi arabia and its allies are likely to react to this saudi arabia back in early april of 1 1000000000 dollars worth of development funds as a loan to iraq it also offered it $500000000.00 to help its export market and it also offered to bu

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al-jazeera baghdad. let's bring in our guests here in the studio is andreea scrag assistant professor of the defense that is department at king's college london in beirut sami now the director of the levant in 6 years for strategic affairs and all skype ilang guster roberts associate professor at lancaster university has edited and written books on the u.s. politics including the trump presidency journalism and democracy welcome to your under this is the military build up a sign of an imminent war is it just a classic example of gunboat diplomacy yes or no i think it's part of the trump weird maximum pressure policy which is about you know which is what how he's driven any of his business strategies before becoming president which is basically putting maximum pressure on clients and then forcing them to basically give up and then come to the negotiation table that might work in the business fear i'm not sure but it definite doesn't work in international relations and when we see what'

iran disputes rob matheson has more from baghdad.iraqis filled baghdad's tucker you square chanting yes yes to iraq demanding that their country should not become a battleground in someone else's war started to set up our messages for peace our message is to say no to the iranian agenda and now to the american agenda as iraqis we should make independent decisions. we reject war by any shape or form iraqis including sunni and shia people from all of iraq's ethnic and religious groups came to talk we are square to make our voices heard iraqis don't want their land to be a battleground by the radiance or the american. iraq and its eastern neighbor iran share trade cultures and religion iran also supplies about 80 percent of the electricity and gas needed in the south of iraq but iraq also relies on the u.s. and foreign troops to combat the threat of i saw it also means foreign investment. this rally is being called by mcdonald's out of these are shia cleric is also a leader of one of the biggest political blocs in all and he's also a na

quoted as saying no they are out of the country why should i run after them thank you for that rob matheson live for us in baghdad. oil producing nations are meeting inside to discuss producing limits and energy prices escalating tensions between the u.s. and iran are high on the agenda despite iran not being present as saudi energy minister has warned that recent attacks on his energy assets risk the security of oil supply venezuela's minister said the us is also disturbing global supply by putting his country's oil industry under economics each qatar has reportedly shipped liquefied natural gas supplies to the u.a.e. after a fault in a major pipeline the world's biggest producer of l.n.g. the reuters news agency says the dolphin energy run pipeline suffered problems for several days last month but qatar petroleum helped fill the gap by sending supplies by sea it also helped with repairs dolfin his continued pumping gas to the emirates despite 827000 economic blockade on qatar. to sudan now where the military rulers and protest leaders are due to resume talks which were postponed following

on rob matheson in doha the top stories on august syria the trumpet ministration has put an end to waivers words had allowed eight countries to purchase iranian oil the. third india turkey and china which is the single biggest importer. reports from. hours before more pressure from u.s. sanctions and welcomed an important guest the boss of opec his visit to an oil and gas exhibition a signal that iran remains an important member of at least one very powerful club of nations no mucha this that comes to us says we have all of that but it has to get done what divides us but when the united states reimposed sanctions it granted waivers to some of the iran's biggest customers ending those waivers and iran supply means prices at the pump are likely to rise to address suggestions by u.s. president donald trump that some opec members namely saudi arabia and the united arab emirates might increase production to make up for iranian oil not making it to market it's probably potentially more dangerous to the very existence of the organization not to talk of that but does it with none of that is. the m

predominantly populated by shia muslims and is the target of frequent sick taheri and sectarian attacks rob matheson sent us this update from but that news of this attack coming as a shock here in baghdad not least because we're only just a few days into the beginning of the holy month of ramadan security forces here in baghdad saying that several people have been killed after a man wearing an explosive belt detonated those explosives when he was surrounded by security forces in a wholesale market in these a million area of saddam city a sort of city to the northeast of baghdad and it was named after a prominent cleric muhammad sort of started after the fall of saddam hussein and it's become a center for the saddest movement which is now developing into a political party led by the prominent shia cleric. the son of muhammad sadat. now we now know the eisel is claiming responsibility for this attack but it's also interesting to note that at the end of april i will back it all but daddy the leader of eisel is said to have appeared in a video for the first time in five years claiming revenge for the la

that is a situation that iraq time again and again and said that it does not want to be in ok rob matheson with an update from baghdad thank you. in the coming hour india's mammoth 6 week long general election will be drawing to a close about 100000000 people are voting in the 7th and final phase of voting in 59 constituencies across 8 states that includes prime minister narendra modi's constituency of varanasi he's seeking a 2nd term in office from there so how raman has this report. they've been queuing up since daybreak it's the 7th and final phase of india's general election on sunday people from 59 constituencies across 7 states and one union territory head to the polls more than 900000000 people were eligible to cast their ballots in the world's largest democracy over the past 7 weeks voters waiting here are excited that their day has finally come should be getting unruly development more infrastructure his physical situation is that you should be given to. the very 1st i felt really nice voting for the 1st time i want prime minister made to come back to power and move the country fo

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad. is a former iraq ambassador to the u.n. and now director of the center for the study of the middle east that indiana university he says it's more likely that a european country will lead any mediation i have always been skeptical that iraq can ever play that role there are other countries in the region that have also that might have more ability to play that role and i think even they are sitting on the sidelines so i'm not sure that the iraqi government will in fact be able to play this role nor indeed do the 2 principal parties appear to be looking to the government of iraq to do so one of the principal casualties in the estimates of many experts including some within the iraqi government that one of the principal casualties of such a shooting war would be iraq itself and so this is focused the minds of the entire iraq a political clout regardless of which side of the issues they come out on so it's more conceivable to me that a european power perhaps even switze

all right that is all useful for now it's back to rob thanks very much indeed that's it for me rob matheson for this news hour i'm going to be back in a moment with more of the day's news but. i really want to get down to the nitty gritty the reality whether on line when you have a male chauvinist and that is in class with the entire global federation and it is really hard to get a piece of that or if you join us on saturday the bluffly not the kind of speak up their minds this is a dialogue everyone has a voice to talk to us and our lives need to chat and you too can be an history joining the conversation on mt is iraq. they call this bleeding the tree. first substance the world is addicted to now at the center of the global trade war. it's latex in its purest form found in tires phones toothbrushes satellites or mattresses it is an essential element in daily life and so deep in the ivorian forest goes from tree to tree scarring them for the precious liquid. is imposing two hundred billion dollars in tariffs on china the world's largest manufacturer of rubber goods china in response impose

decline last year iraqis like these now fear their country could be dragged into another conflict rob matheson al jazeera back down. stratford to also in baghdad and joins us now so clearly in hama generals are a firearms foreign minister has been very busy touring different countries iran has a close but complicated relationship with iraq what is john of general very seeking to do in baghdad. well certainly according to a spokesperson for the foreign ministry here in iraq these meetings are going to concentrate on 2 main areas the 1st one is strengthening ties between iraq and iran and the 2nd one as you can imagine is very much according to the spokesperson iraq's role in potentially trying to defuse this escalating conflict between its neighbor and the u.s. iraq is in a very very delicate position here because of the great influence that iran has on this country eighty's by far the largest regional ally of iraq as you heard in that package economically politically militarily i think it's important to actually sort of break down exactly what these what the u.s. call iran's proxy groups that

decline last year iraqis like these now fear their country could be dragged into another conflict rob matheson al jazeera back down. rather have spin of violence this insight about forces and who see fighters near the yemeni city over tyreese there are reports of lies explosions and clothes to smoke in the area local sources say a soldier was killed in the fighting was saying in yemen and at least 12 people including 7 children have been killed in an air strike by the saudi m.r.c. coalition on my weird districts in tire his province the rates reportedly targets it's a petrol station. master on to be a yemeni journalist he explains why tiny's is a strategic point for all parties involved and yemen's war does is a very very strategic bind and it's also one of the flashpoint because of many things because 1st of all because there is deep division between between the factions that are. fighting on the ground and also between the main partners of this coalition of the saudi iraqi because you know saudi. backing in. yemen brotherhood and united arab emirates is not backing them at all and this is wh

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad. there's a member of the middle east center's research committee at the london school of economics he says he's not convinced by iraq's pledge to stand by iran against the u.s. . the influence of iran the presence on the ground is for iran the power on the ground is for iran and not for the united states this is the mistake of the united states of course of course since 2003 they left the door open for the iranians don't filtrate iraq and to strengthen their position while they were busy doing other things now this position was throwing things militarily and politically most important with the with the help of the militias the mop up mobilization political forces these are surrounding the whole government so you have to mean you have to expect number of the iraqi governments to speak the languages when they meet them eric and they will tell them that we are supporting you but when they meet the iranian representatives they will tell them that we are backing you so t

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad well we've been speaking to 5. former iraqi diplomat he's now director of the center for the study of the middle east at indiana university and he says it's more likely that a european nation could lead the mediation i have always been skeptical that iraq can ever play that role there are other countries in the region that have also that might have more ability to play that role and i think even they are sitting on the sidelines so i'm not sure that the iraqi government will in fact play this role nor indeed do the 2 principal parties appear to be looking to the government of iraq to do so one of the principal casualties in the estimates of many experts including some within the iraqi government that one of the principal casualties of such a shooting war would be iraq itself and so this is focused the minds of the entire iraqi police regardless of which side of the issue.

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad. and all the developments in iraq's military is saying at least 5 people have died after a car bomb exploded at a busy market west of the city of mosul it happened in a village within the town of robbia near the syrian border they were out shopping before breaking their ramadan fast. as more to come for you on the program britain's brac set policy set to sweep to victory in the european election here pushing the ruling conservative odyssey into an unprecedented 5th place that story and the united nations peacekeeping faces a budgetary crisis as the u.s. fails to pay the $1900000000.00 it is the force. hello again it's good to have you back we are seeing a lot of rain here across much of southeastern australia over the next few days as a fairly substantial storm system pushes through now that's going to be a lot of rain and in the overnight hours in the higher elevations it's going to mean some snow in some locations here in tasmania though it's going to be very hard

ordered all its nationals to leave iraq and iran because of what it called unstable conditions rob matheson explains why decision has angered the iraqi government. exxon mobil's said on saturday that they would have vacuum waiting for members of the stuff taking them to basra airport and flying them to dubai we understand that 16 members of staff made that trip at the plant they were working out just outside basra is still functioning 1700 iraqi employees are making the plant work and producing roughly 440000 barrels a day. exxon mobil did not give any reason specifically as to why they had evacuated the stuff but they had said it was because of the situation in the region and also potential security threats no this has really angered the iraqi government in particular the iraqi oil minister who called the move unjustified and unacceptable the oil minister has written a letter to exxon mobil asking for more details about what they thought the security threats were on to invite the stuff back but he says there is a wider issue at stake here this is not about security he says this is about po

all right rob thank you very much for that rob matheson with the natives there from bank that where again there's been an attack in baghdad on a city several people asking that injured we'll bring you more information as and when he becomes available by time to catch up once for his speech funny thank you very much off to two days of stunning european semifinal comebacks we're about to find out a fine track frank that can pull off another one this time against chelsea in the europa league the gym inside a level at one one going into the second leg at stamford bridge but conceded an away goal last week on track to looking to reach mayfest major european final in thirty nine use. in the office i just been informed of it well maybe it would be a wonder if frankfurt could get to the roper league finals we are the team least expected to be the semifinals but to achieve this wonder you just have to play absolutely great you have to really put chelsea in the right position we've got to give everything you've got to be really passionate about the way you play he says the other semifinal feeds ars

agenda to continue to oppress palestinian people are only with thanks so much the same bus lobby rob matheson has the reaction now out of iraq. it's not really a surprise that iraq has made this decision not to be involved in this announcement iraq has many years of trading cultural and religious history with neighboring iran both countries are predominantly shia and iran has made significant investments in iraq over the last few years indeed when iran's foreign minister mohammad javad zarif was here just a few days ago the iraqi foreign minister mohammad al hakim told him that iraq was opposed to u.s. sanctions on iran and opposed to any one sided action by the united states but of course iraq also needs the support of united states troops and those from other foreign countries as it tries to deal with the ongoing threat from i so the question is now how saudi arabia and its allies are likely to react to this saudi arabia back in early april offered a $1000000000.00 worth of development funds as a loan to iraq it also offered it $500000000.00 to help its export market and it also offered to

maybe need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera back. several kurdish politicians and thousands of prisoners in turkey have ended their 200 day long hunger strike they were responding to a call from their leader. who's been in jail for 20 years protesters politician leila groovin started her hunger strike in november in a push to improve auto loans access to lawyers and prison conditions while syrian government forces have regained control of a village in the northwest just days after losing to rebels government troops initially captured earlier this month before losing it to fight as led by hired to reality that group used to be linked to al qaeda government forces launched an offensive on the last month it's the last major rebel stronghold in syria state media in saudi arabia says it's intercepted a drone with explosives launched by who's the fight is is apparently targeted the airport inches than near yemen's border towards the south who thier run media confirmed a drone strike on military hangars at the airport the e

sports and i will have more lights a rubber ball that is very much indeed and that's it for me rob matheson for this music award all these tours of course the website al jazeera dot com but i'm going to be back in a moment with more of the day's news all see that but for now. radical islam is on the rise across the globe and we're told it's everywhere we're told was supposed to be highly suspicious of everybody and everything but our government policies aimed at tackling radicalization in fact pushing youngsters to the fringes of society the impact is huge i think it's only so much we can try before you say ok that's me rethinking radicalization of the radicalized youth syrians on al-jazeera people have to weigh your own record on this trial in fact a few years ago there is place only for one state on the land of israel i do not believe in a two state solution the official story is that there are no i'm sure we'll show you i don't care about the official story if you were to go visit today you would say what has the media been telling you now the world isn't black and white there's a lot to

injured in this attack we'll have more information for you when we speak to our correspondent rob matheson in just a few minutes that's move on to syria in the meantime and government forces there are continuing to push into rebel held areas in hama provinces that captured the town of decon the north west and as in a harder reports from beirut it says fred fee is all the larger offensive. another day of air strikes. and more civilian casualties. as rescue workers move the wounded and take away the dead oh was it was it's been almost two weeks of relentless bombing in northwest syria denied it nation says at least fifty opposition controlled villages have been targeted in northern hama north a lot and southern provinces. we want to see these people running away from country who want to help these families with food with my choices people are under the rubble until now. rebels have lost what opposition activists call the first line of defense of it lip syrian government forces have taken ground in the northern countryside of hama the last of the towns of foreign a buddha and are seen as stra

ball is surrounded by security forces the district as predominantly populated by shia muslims rob matheson said this update from baghdad. news of this attack coming as a shock here in baghdad not least because we're only just a few days into the beginning of the holy month of ramadan security forces here in baghdad saying that several people have been killed after a man wearing an explosive belt detonated those explosives when he was surrounded by security forces in a wholesale market in the area of saddam city souder city is to the northeast of baghdad and it was named after a prominent cleric muhammad sort of side of after the fall of saddam hussein and it's become a center for the saddest movement which is now developing into a political party led by the prominent shia cleric. the son of muhammad sadat. now we now know that eisel is claiming responsibility for this attack but it's also interesting to note that at the end of april i will back it all but daddy the leader of isolate said to have appeared in a video for the first time in five years claiming revenge for the land lost by i sa

personnel in iraq are going to be safe rob matheson in the iraqi capital for us thank you for that update rob all cats are has reportedly shipped liquefied natural gas supplies to the u.a.e. after a fault in a major pipeline is the world's biggest producer of energy and the voices news agency says the dolphin energy run pipeline suffered problems for several days last month but castor petroleum helped fill the gap by sending surprised by c. it also helped with repairs dolphin has continued pumping gas to the emirates despite a 2017 economic blockade on cata. well plenty more ahead on this news hour including we get exclusive access in northern became a foster as the government tries to find out who's responsible for a church attack. and in sports the p.g.a. champion takes a 7 shot lead into the final round of this year's tournament will be here with the action. just a reminder of the breaking news out of egypt where we're getting reports of an explosion on a tourist bus near a new museum at the pyramids in giza at least 16 people have been injured allegedly including tourists we'll be bri

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad. has been a iraqi diplomat he's now director of the center for the study of the middle east at indiana university he says a european nation is much more likely to lead any mediation i have always been skeptical that iraq can ever play that role there are other countries in the region that have also that might have more ability to play that role and i think even they are sitting on the sidelines so i'm not sure that the iraqi government will in fact play this role nor indeed do the 2 principal parties appear to be looking to the government of iraq to do so one of the principal casualties in the estimates of many experts including some within the iraqi government. that one of the principal casualties of such a shooting war would be iraq itself so this is focused the minds of the entire iraq people regardless of which side of the issues they come out of so it's more conceivable to me that a european or perhaps even switzerland which after all represents american intere

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al-jazeera baghdad. let's bring in our guests here in the studio is andreea scrag assistant professor of the defense that is department at king's college london in beirut sami now the director of the levant in 6 years for strategic affairs and. robert goshi associate professor at lancaster university has edited and written books on the u.s. politics including the trump presidency journalism and democracy welcome to you all under us is the military build up a sign of an imminent war is it just a classic example of gunboat diplomacy yes or no i think it's part of the trump weird maximum pressure policy which is about you know which is what how he's driven any of his business strategies before becoming president which is basically putting maximum pressure on clients and then forcing them to basically give up and then come to the negotiation table that might work in the business fear i'm not sure but it definite doesn't work in international relations and when we see what's happening here

warships to the gulf and in the it said rules it responds to indications of threats from iran will rob matheson is standing by for us in baghdad we can cross. the u.s. withdrawing all non-emergency personnel what more can you tell us about this latest developments. but we understand that they're making this announcement specifically for embassy personnel here in baghdad in the green zone which is not far from where i am and also the consulate in libya what we have not yet heard is what's going to happen to the consulate in basra but at the moment it is concentrating on those personnel we're not yet sure it's precisely how many personnel that's going to affect the numbers can change and at one point the u.s. was in the process some years ago of attempting to draw down the number of consulates stuff and bases stuff that it had in iraq so those numbers have been fluctuating or what is not also done yet is make an announcement for other u.s. citizens here in iraq who might be working in the oil and gas industries or in construction for example it's at the moment only the non-emergency stuff in the

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad. saga was a member of the middle east center's research committee at the london school of economics he says he's not convinced by iraq's pledge to stand by iran against the us. influence of iran the presence on the ground is for iran the power on the ground is for iran and not for the united states this is the mistake of the united states of course of course since 2003 they left the door open for the iranians don't filtrate iraq and to strengthen their position while they were busy doing other things now this position was throwing things militarily and politically most important with the with the help of the militias the mop up mobilization political forces these are surrounding the whole government so you have to mean you have to expect member of the iraqi governments to speak the languages when they meet their medicals they will tell them that we are supporting you but when they meet the iranian representatives they will tell them that we are backing you so this i

and iran ok rob matheson with the latest there and baghdad so this is all about iran to let's go there are saying joins us live from tehran so what's is a ron's position saying given everything that is swirling around them. well richelle when it comes to iran helping out its allies in iraq and syria it has continued to say that it is there in a supportive capacity at the invitation of those governments and the work that it's carried out in the conflict in the battle against eisel has been done in cooperation with the leaders in those countries but the supreme leader in a speech to his senior members of government civilian and military on tuesday evening late yesterday evening said that iran and the united states are locked in a battle but a battle of wills not one that is likely to become militarized and he said that is because right now the united states is making an uproar for for for a public relations campaign he said that the united states public aggression towards iran is is a less dangerous or is more dangerous than any sort of military threat that they could pose he said that r

let's talk to 2 of our correspondents covering this still developing story rob matheson is in baghdad for us and will update us on iraq's concerns about the criticism of iran but 1st let's go live to tech ronn iran's capital al-jazeera same bus ravi is with us so zain what's been the the reaction there in tehran to the summit well we've heard strong remarks from iran's government here in teheran iran's foreign ministry spokesman abbas mousavi said that he regretted how saudi arabia was using the opportunity to host the organization of islamic countries and to host these meetings as a platform for what he said were divisive policies if course condemned and rejected all of the allegations against iran in response to saudi arabia accusing iran of fomenting tensions in the region and he said that the saudi arabians iran knows that saudi arabia does not necessarily speak for all the countries in the g.c.c. no doubt as a nod to iran's friends in the region like iraq and qatar and kuwait and oman there are obvious differences of opinion among the arab leaders of iran how iran's leaders like

rob matheson in doha with the top stories on all of two zero brief scuffles between police and protesters have taken place in paris as thousands of people have gathered from a day rallies under tight security measures police used tear gas to control the crowd gathering you know the train station french authorities are warned radical activists may join the paris demonstration and renew scenes of violence that march previous yellow vest protests and made the demonstrations in the past two news. two turkish nationals have been detained by forces loyal to libyan warlord khalifa haftar vulcan elton ork and mahmoud dimia who were taken from the south of tripoli and accused of being spies a charge turkey denies on monday turkish president undescribed hafez advance towards tripoli as a plot against libya's people. founder julian assange has been sentenced to fifty weeks in jail for breaching bail conditions in britain the forty seven year old was met by protesters outside a london court was given asylum in the ecuador and the sea for almost seven years before he was a victim last month will face

hello and welcome to this news hour with me rob matheson in doha coming up the u.s. attorney general refuses to face a second round of questioning in congress after being grilled about his handling of the russia by. the u.n. says schools and hospitals have been hits during the worst airstrikes in rebel held syria for more than a year. pretty pretty joining us out supporters of the wiki leaks founder rally outside a london court as he fights extradition to the united states. ugandan opposition m.p. bobby wine is freed on bail after being arrested on charges he says were made up to silence and. i'm joined again with the sports is the head of outlet takes puts caste system and its case behind him. i think this is pretty straightforward and it's very straightforward for any international federation in sport and a limp a can world champion prepares to run what could be her last eight hundred meter race. democratic party politicians in the u.s. house of representatives are going ahead with their hearing on special counsel robert momos russia report that's despite the fact

shia muslims and this is the target of frequent sectarian attacks let's get more now from what rob matheson he is an baghdad for us rob what else do we know. rather this has come as a real shock here in baghdad not least because of course it's coming just a few days after the start of the holy month of ramadan the security forces are saying that there have been as you say several people have been killed and several bore have been injured but we don't have specific numbers yet because we're very early after this explosion they're saying that an individual or a male was wearing an explosive vest and which he detonated when he was surrounded by security forces in a wholesale market in the jamila area of southern city the southern city is up to the northeast of baghdad we got its name but it was a terrorist name after a while very prominent cleric muhammad saddam has become a sense of for the sudras movement here in the reich which has developed into a political party led by. assad also a shia cleric nobody as yet has claimed responsibility for the attack but it is worth noting that at the end

hello i'm rob matheson and this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next sixty minutes the u.s. ramps up its plan to choke off iran's energy exports ending sanction waivers which had allowed some countries to buy its oil. a powerful cycle it's used in india after more than a million people were moved from its path. protesters are back in big numbers in sudan as a standoff with the military continues over how to bring in civilian. whatever they're doing is more like it out of extreme. released from prison ugandan rapper turned politician bobby wine vows to fight on i guess the government he says is panicking on polar east with the day's sport after losing had testosterone case caster semenya prepares for could be have final eight hundred metres at the diamond league in doha. the u.s. government has put an end to waivers for it should allow the eight countries to purchase an iranian oil they include china india and turkey who now face the prospect of u.s. sanctions if they don't stop crude imports from the islamic republic iranian oil sales have already fallen by half since w

presidency but it was frozen after a failed the independence referendum in 2017 let's get more now from rob matheson who is live for us in baghdad so rob what does this mean. well basically what this does is closer gap at the top of the region's politics and in particular the region's government and as you were saying this is gap has existed since 2017 when they had that referendum for secession from iraq you know the referendum as you probably remember got about over 90 percent in votes in support but it infuriated by that also infuriated other countries including turkey to the north now that tension has way but what it also left was a legacy of tension between the 2 main political parties that's present is own kurdistan democratic party of the k d p than the patriotic union of kurdistan the p u k one of the reasons why this post hasn't been filled is because of that tension there's been a lot of negotiation going backwards and forwards over the last couple of years about who should be filling the top jobs in the government and this in a sense is the last piece of the puzzle interesting to note tha

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al-jazeera baghdad. let's bring in our guests here in the studio is andrea scrag assistant professor of the defense studies department at king's college london in beirut sami the director of the levant in 6 years for strategic affairs and. roberts goes she. associate professor at lancaster university has edited and written books on the u.s. politics including the trump presidency journalism and democracy welcome to you all under us is the military build up a sign of an imminent war is it just a classic example of gunboat diplomacy yes or no i think it's part of the trump with maximum pressure policy which is about you know which is what how he's driven any of his business strategies before becoming president which is basically putting maximum pressure on clients and then forcing them to basically give up and then come to the negotiation table that might work in the business fear i'm not sure but it different as and work in international relations and when we see what's happening here

same breath the iraqi foreign minister told his iranian counterpart that he's willing to mediate rob matheson reports. if mama job at city for came to to clarify where iraq style isn't the only growing tension between the u.s. and iran iraq's foreign minister seems.

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad let's speak to a professor face on the he's a former iraqi ambassador to the united nations he's now the director of the center for the study of the middle east at indiana university he's joining us via skype from bloomington over in the u.s. thanks very much for speaking to us on al jazeera so you said that whenever tensions rise between iran and the u.s. iraq does offer to mediate so this is not the 1st time perhaps that we're hearing this but if you look at internal iraqi politics there are those who are allied with iran there are those who are allied more with the united states so if it even wanted to play this role how does iraq go about doing so. well i've always been skeptical that iraq can play that role for precisely that reason and because there are a number of internal political factors that sort of mitigate against the ability of the iraqi government to play such a role for one thing in the political class at least the parliamentary political class the f

thanks for that rob matheson has the reaction out of iraq. it's not really a surprise that iraq has made this decision not to be involved in this announcement iraq has many years of trading cultural and religious history with neighboring iran both countries are predominantly shia and iran has made significant investments in iraq over the last few years indeed when iran's foreign minister mohammad javad zarif was here just a few days ago the iraqi foreign minister mohammad al hakim told him that iraq was opposed to u.s. sanctions on iran and opposed to any one sided action by the united states but of course iraq also needs the support of united states troops and those from other foreign countries as it tries to deal with the ongoing threat from i so the question is now how saudi arabia and its allies are likely to react to this saudi arabia back in early april offered $1000000000.00 worth of development funds as a loan to iraq it also offered it $500000000.00 to help its export market and it also offered to build for free 100000 seater sports

iraqis may need more evidence to convince them that they won't be dragged into an unwanted conflict rob matheson al jazeera baghdad. several kurdish politicians and thousands of prisoners in turkey have ended their 200 day long hunger strike they were responding to a call from their leader. who's been in jail for 20 is pro kurdish politician leila given started her hunger strike in november and a push to improve access to lawyers and prison conditions. syrian government forces have regained control of a village in the northwest just days after losing to rebels government troops initially captured earlier this month before losing it to fighters led by hired to reality that creep used to be linked to al qaeda government forces launched an offensive on last month that's the last major rebel stronghold in syria. well state media in saudi arabia says it's intercepted a drone with explosives launched by hoofy fighters it apparently targeted the airport in just than new yemen's border towards the south who the run media confirmed a drone strike on military hangars at the airport. the emir of qatar shak