we're discussing syria . ok dan let me go back to you in damascus ok we've already talked about the russian iranian turkish initiative here but let's turn it upside down the other side as it were here saudi arabia are they going to go. all along with this is israel going to go along with this i don't think so these are the other obstacles here go ahead danny i completely agree i mean it i mean we have to separate the israeli interest from the saudi arabian interests but saudi arabia will continue to have an intransigent start stance towards the crisis in syria as it has done throughout because it's syria for saudi arabia it's an issue of national security and the huge failures in saudi arabia from policy in syria have actually reflected so negatively on the state that it's now beginning to lash out regionally it's being to lash out in the media if it's even. a complete you know the arab spring peter if you look at it it was stopped in syria if if they are spring managed to get rid of the syrian government thi

we're discussing syria. ok dan let me go back to you in damascus ok we've already talked about the russian rainy and turkish initiative here but let's turn it upside down the other side as it were here saudi arabia are they going to go along with this is israel going to go along with this. think so these are the other obstacles here go ahead danny i completely agree i mean i mean we can we have to separate the israeli interest from the saudi arabian interests but saudi arabia will continue to have it in transition stalled stance towards the crowd. yes and syria as it has done throughout because it's syria for saudi arabia is it's an issue of national security and the huge failures in saudi arabia from policy in syria have actually reflected so negatively on the state that it's now beginning to lash out regionally it's being to lash out in the media if it's even if it's turned a complete you know the arab spring peter if you look at it it was stopped in syria if if they are a spring managed to get rid of the

and elections and the fate of syria must be decided by the people of syria not something else that the russian president said moving on to some of the. hello moving on to some of the things that. the iranian president hassan rouhani was saying he said that the three countries are calling on the entire world to help rebuild syria and also to make sure that the refuge. that have been fleeing the war torn country for a year now for years now can finally come back then some of the things that mr erred on said he once again said that the efforts by the three countries need to be stepped up so more things can actually be done together including those to set up an ultimate ceasefire and the forty escalation zones of syria he also paid special attention to coordinating according aiding the efforts by the three countries because of course that requires more meetings more summits on the very highest level and also by other officials as well the leaders were talking about the critical role of the three countries the founding fathers of the past in our process and there was something else very imp

is its presence within syria i can't see the u.s. having forces in syria for a long time because. if you look at the trajectory of the crisis now and the nature of how the syrian forces were victorious the u.s. really has nothing to leave their troops in for because the majority of terrorism is almost on the way of being defeated and i think the u.s. is just doing this just to save face because we discussed donald trump on it from the syrian military airbase which was you know twenty thirty kilometers away from isis so he's not someone who fought terrorism successfully within syria and what they're doing at the moment is just literally attempting to show the world that they have some sort of a symbolic presence because after the russians intervened in september two thousand and fifteen they complete the balance of powers on the ground in syria has drastically begun to change if you look back at the previous years in the situation in which the country and the government were actually end it was diabolical the half of the country was lost it was a it was defeat after defeat after us

without syria present. oh that's how it's going to be because the internal syrian civil war if not ended but it kind of reached a big turning point and now it's going to be even more mosquera internationalized as the isis has been women they did at least as a quasi state and is a back into being some kind of terrorist organization but there are the into x. outside forces there's reports of turkish armor and troops moving in to province additionally and moving up to the free and. occupied by the kurds will be a conflict there possibly israel has announced that it will not tolerate uranian or his bow our bases being established in syria and can go to war over that with all due respect between it and yahoo and putin and there are the saudis who are right now very much opposed to reigne and also presence in lebanon the and the iranians and syria so there is the outside powers that didn't go away and now since the common enemy of everyone isis is more or less out of the picture as a big force these forces are go

al-jazeera russia's plan to end the war in syria after six years of fighting is the kremlin now in the diplomatic driver's seat and is the white house taking a backseat this is inside story. it was with the air. with. jane dugan welcome to the program russia's leader says a new stage has been set for a political solution to the war in syria let me a putin has welcomed the presidents of iran and turkey to map out a strategy for when the fighting stops notably absent from the negotiating table united states how much influence does president donald trump have over putin when it comes to syria and can peace really be achieved with bashar al assad still in power we'll discuss this and more with our guests in a moment but first roy chalons reports from saatchi in southern russia. the war in syria is nearly over the three presidents meeting in sochi now it's time to rebuild the shattered country of lady may putin thinks a plan he's been pushing for weeks now is gaining momentum so. i am satisfied by the fact that the presidents of iran and turkey have supported an initiative to hold an all sy

the balance of powers on the ground in syria has drastically began to change if you look back at the previous years in the situation in which the country in the government we're actually in it was diabolical the half of the country was lost it was a it was defeat after defeat of the us plans for intervention and arming rebels and helping them and now you look at the situation it's it's a complete whitewash because yeah you've got one force on the ground in the syrian military which is now continuing to make advances and actually find some sort of military solution in a crisis where you know danny on one thought that was no and done it was possible let me go to a down here because i think it's you know if you look at western mainstream media the united states is crushing isis in syria and there's no mention of you know iran there's no mention of his blog and if it is it's always negative there's very little mention of russia or of course they probably committed human rights violations it's really remarkable how this is being spun in western media go ahead adele yeah it's. laughable ac

from syria and from outside but they will invite more people. who are supporting. the opposition who started the revolution in the first place so i think this conference we only. morning to avoid the international legitimacy decided by the united nations they did that before by the way to invest then they separated the military track from. diplomatic. help by pressuring military groups to attend actually groups didn't have and you know they just attended to witness what was and the whole thing was devised by russia and iran but have a long and how are you as cynical when it comes to the russian plan of money would you make of the russian plan or if it's just a plan to push russia to the front of everything that's happening in syria the man what syria is just a part of the big game that's happening in the middle east and all not only in the middle east for russia the main thing is to build an anti american coalition with iran and hopefully with turkey on the basis of this syrian campaign of course iran and russia already kind of anti american russian military both b

sovereign syria whole syria but at the same time we have the pentagon coming out and saying they're not leaving militarily any time soon that is another huge barrier to having some kind of peace process go ahead danny i mean absolutely but if you look at the groups the u.s. is working with and relying on to have their presence in syria and that is the best year for the kurds the kurds actually have quite a consistent recent history of giving back territory to the syrian government and i'm sure that in the wake of what is a quite victorious syrian military in his border and the russians and the iranians the kurds will definitely think twice about keeping some of these areas which will in the future continue to jeopardize the u.s. is its presence within syria i can't see the u.s. having forces in syria for a long time because the if you look at the trajectory of the crisis now and the nature of how the syrian forces were victorious the u.s. really has nothing to leave their troops in for because the majority of terrorism is almost on the way of being defeated and i think the u.s. is just

and syria. the international olympic committee has handed lifetime bans to four russians skeleton athletes two of the athletes have also been stripped of their salt she winter olympic medals the i.o.c. says it disqualified the athletes for violating violating anti doping rules at the twenty fourteen games and is cashmore professor of sociology at aston university says there's an atmosphere of fear among russian athletes still hoping to compete. i mean it must be dreadful i can't even get myself into the mind of an athlete to imagine that it's if i prepared for four years maybe longer still waiting for the outcome of the deliberations to know whether i'd be allowed to compete for what is after all a lifetime's goal i mean it's unimaginably difficult for them you know in a properly run world probably so this should not happen let's think of an analogy it's as if in moscow city center for the past several saturday nights the been a high number of driving under the influence of alcohol arrests you w

on the use of chemical weapons in syria here at the u.n.security council really this is very significant eleven out of fifteen security council members voting in favor of chemical weapons investigations but crucially russia has vetoed it and so now the united nations will no longer investigate the use of chemical weapons in syria so very significant implications to this vote taking place we are waiting to hear from the russian representative and so we expect that to happen and of course al coverage of this u.n. security council vote will continue as we go into the news hour i'll see you in a couple of minutes time stay with al-jazeera. is captivity the only hope for china's panders. ventures deep into the mountains of western china in search of the elusive wildcard. at this time and how does iran. violence and discrimination are all too familiar to many women in india a reality too often reinforced by volatile. but it's leading star is throwing his weight behind the cause. of addictive behavior and using his celebrity to advocate for gender

as the war in syria really almost over syria's president visits russia to thank his allies for their sacrifices they say victory is close and are talking about a political solution how likely is that with a badly divided opposition and rebel areas still bombarded by as strikes this is inside story. i know that i'm oracle welcome to the program he's thanks them for their sacrifices and for saving his country so as president bashar al assad has flown to russia for a few hours to meet his major hussan the kremlin says russia's president told him that the fight against all md groups is close to finishing and once is over finding a peaceful political settlement will be a key is that achievable the opposition has long demanded a future syria without assad but he survived nearly seven years of war and is likely to remain unchallenged for the foreseeable future. we just had a meeting with president vladimir putin and i passed greetings and gratitude to him and to the people of russia for the efforts which russia put in saving our country i particularly emphasized the role of the russian arme

relation to stability in syria. and. for ensuring secure conditions for the return of refugees in syria. just significance of these meetings is in fact that these meetings are being taken place at a time when on the one hand it has been shown that over the last eleven months. three countries can be effective to deescalate the tension and syria to reduce the tensions and the way for peace and stability in this country to meetings that we had in a standoff. and on the other hand these meetings are taking place at a time when the main base is. isis both in syria and iraq have been abolished. and therefore this is a great success and against terrorism. it was important. everybody in the world. looks at this as an important issue that terrorism cannot be. useful. for any country. in any condition terrorism can be a danger for everybody. we saw that in the case of. those who. came back and created problems and then just for those countries themselves and. the number of. those countries. did these conditions we had a meeting to

syria . that's a huge knockdown. territory and yeah i would say. it looks like it's the homeless washed up for. doesn't mean they can't commit acts of terrorism but it doesn't mean they controlled territory anymore i think one thing that syria has in its favor is that. the eastern part of syria as a lot of syria's oil such as it is and so getting full control of eastern syria . deprives eisel of a lot of the revenues that i think the fact that that region and that country will remain on stable for the for seeable future islamic state is one of many militant groups in that country i mean given that i think that the civil war will continue so i do think that assad's power the syrian government's power is expanding throughout the country but i don't expect him to have all of the country under wraps because there are still remain you know tens of thousands of people prepared to fight against the syrian their army and its militia and staying in the region the spot between iran and saudi arabia has

troops are in syria and the living. welcome to sophie shevardnadze the nuclear agreement between iran and the world powers is being thrown into jeopardy by u.s. president donald trump. call as iran preparing itself for a potential throwback to the days of sanctions and confrontation and what will it mean for the already troubled middle east well i ask former foreign minister of the islamic republic. with a miracle struggling to struggle the wrong deal. wrong in saudi. maybe you go against instead you know following every quarter at least you don't find yourself in uncertain waters the standard aiming for the role of regional hegemon can't afford to run the risk of international isolation again and how can it gain the upper hand in the standoff began the state's. punjab attacking a welcome to the show it's a pleasure to have you on our program now president trump has been talking so much about scrapping the iran nuclear deal but now has promised to keep it in place will he want to or negotiated since according to him som

proposal from russia on whether or not to extend and encourage into the use of chemical weapons in syria let's watch abstentions militia. the result of the voting is as follows four votes in favor seven votes against four abstentions. the drug solution has not been adopted into the negative vote of a permanent member of the sorry absolutely you're right. i apologise dr lucian's not be having failed to obtain the required number of both. the floor two doors members of the council who wish to make statements after the vote i need the floor to the representative of egypt. say the rays. going after them tommy got him out and or once again. i must express my deep regret to what has transpired in the council today and that it has transformed transformed from an organ to a maintain peace and security in the world and to media show i want to repeat that are voting today to abstain from voting on both draft resolutions came after strong efforts to. bring closure to the prospective and to renew the ban date and enhanced performance without compromising its independence. we have seen room for conse

syria border. they talk about a political solution the russians and the americans and the situation on the ground very complicated isn't it you know because the russians and the americans as affording opposing sides in in the syrian conflict how are they going to make a political solution work. well off to the funny that is the million dollar question that even the syrian opposition is asking saying that on the one hand you've got forces on the ground on the opposing side opposing sides of the of the war front and then you're talking about an agreement to bring in peace to syria we spoke to a number of opposition figures in the syrian opposition who say that they're not sure how to react to this because they say russia talks peace and does war they say the the history of president bashar al assad who they credit with coming closer to the geneva process and showing intent that he means well for the people of syria has been the opposite of that and he's been deceiving people in the last five years ac

mandate to deploy station troops in syria a u.n. security council resolution only authorized sanctions to be used against eisel such as freezing assets or an arms embargo but nowhere is troop deployment to a sovereign country mention the syrian democratic forces one of the groups who the u.s. backs and who happens to be at odds with damascus have welcomed america's long term plan for syria. they have a strategy for decades to come there will be military economic and political agreements in the long term between the leadership of the movement areas and the us administration so while i feel is on its way out all signs point to the pentagon taking an objective former u.s. diplomat jim jett trysts talked to us about washington's seeming reluctance to leave syria even after i still eliminated them any attempt to stay in syria has nothing to do with isis or isis to or to think of the sort u.s. troops are out there legally in the first place unlike iraq where they have been invited in by the government of that country the only resolution t

troops in syria right now that are supporting efforts in. against the dice in supporting the. that was a major general james jones are they getting a little confused why does the pentagon apparently want to give the impression that has fewer troops that it really doesn't the region. well as i said i think it's were related to what i would call the. post iraqi war and of the only war syndrome it's similar that in the situation we had in the aftermath or of the war in vietnam the american war and we get naam the same thing you know the american public has exhausted its against any increase in troop presence and so i think that the pentagon is very intent on keeping this message that it has a low level of troop presence in order not to not to lead to an outburst or an outcry from the american public which as i said is very war weary and would be very much order very much object to submit increased american presence so this is the current state of the american public so i think it's mostly related to the american public and the fact that the exhausted with these wars at the same t

brigham and women's hospital. >> martin smith: syria, january 2011. the arab spring was sweeping across the region. >> thousands of demonstrators... >> a huge step towards democracy... >> smith: a new u.s. ambassador, robert ford, was just arriving in damascus. >> democracy taking place in a lot of these countries... >> demanding change, they're fed up... >> smith: at the time, it seemed syria's dictator would be next to fall. >> protesters in tahrir square drove hosni mubarak out of power... >> mubarak actually left power in cairo the weekend after i got there. and in my first meeting with bashar al-assad, i asked him point blank, "looks like kind of a difficult time for authoritarian regimes. what kinds of steps are you thinking of to get ahead of the problem?" and he kind of brushed it aside and said, "it'll never happen here." not three weeks after that meeting, the arab spring started in the haria market in damascus. >> the uprising of the syrian people was a secular one. one of its slogans was, "wahed, wahed, wahed." >> smith: one, one, one? >>

soldiers in syria i think the u.s. is responsible for major war crimes there were bombing in in syria in the fair the problem is is we're not allowed to see what's going on in syria the united states puts a. filter on any news that coming out about there we just heard that there is thirty percent more civilian casualties and that's from a new york times article we don't know the facts but there are thirty times more civilians died in syria in iraq fighting isis then then united swell you know it's to a tie you should be i don't why you should like these you should be thankful to argy because we do report those things ok i'm so proud of this network's coverage of syria. it really blew off the lid of the the pure nonsense that the mainstream was pumping out it was a really disgraceful coverage of the conflict here and i'd like to point out since we're on the topic here. take a look at the mainstream media and you'll never hear that rush it was played an instrumental role and in defeating these terrorists ok you never hea

syria . deprives eisel of a lot of the revenues that i think that that region in that country will remain on stable for the first sea of all future islamic state is one of many groups in that country i mean given that i think that the civil war will continue so i do think that assad's probably the syrian government's power is expanding the country but i don't expect him to have all of the country under wraps because there are still remain you know tens of thousands of prepared to fight against the syrian arab army and its militia staying in the region the spot between iran and saudi arabia has escalated after a missile attack near riyadh airport carried out by who the rebels in yemen iran's president warned saudi arabia on wednesday it will achieve nothing by threatening the might of iran to saudi arabia lay the blame for the missile attack on teheran joe you know the mites in position of the public people more powerful than you have been unable to do anything against the iranian people you a

the next step of what happens in syria whether bashar assad will have all control in syria or our position will have any any role is the big question and i think russia and iran want to make sure that the shots that bashar assad stays in power commodity from the guardian newspaper in london thank you. to learn is ousted president a car less a pushed about will not return to madrid for questioning on thursday morning to his lawyer in belgium but to push them out may agree to testify from self-imposed exile in brussels where he arrived on monday has been summoned to spain's high court to face charges of rebellion and sedition man who unilaterally proclaimed independence for catalonia has said he does not believe he would receive a fair trial in madrid here's his lawyer poll back cat on the subject. he won't go to madrid and i made an offer that he could be questioned here in belgium it is possible i don't know if he will do it but it is possible i had in the past similar cases where the suspect was being questioned in belgium. the. entourage. it's thought now in football by a munich of still

we saw it in syria. every one of those instances there were people in the united states government and people in the intelligence community that would say this group is only interested in local issues. we see no evidence of them planning external attacks and we're always surprised they went to external attacks. >> right now do you see any of these groups having a place to operate from? >> there are local pockets where they do have sanctuaries. still one of those dangerous terrorist groups that we have. >> okay. sal? >> well -- >> the two greatest threats being iran and -- >> sure. on terrorism, i think one of the issues that we do not pay enough attention to is not only that there are groups that iran supports, terrorist groups directly, such as hezbollah or hamas or some of these militias that now exist in iraq, including one that is led by the one responsible for the attack on our embassy in kuwait many years ago. but that iran's policies create circumstances that leap at times to sunni extremism and t

the northern part of syria and the terrorist groups that they believe are. threatening turkish sovereignty so it is in their interest to move closer to the syrian government and to the iranians and also we see the huge progress has been made on the ground and also in iraq things are much better than before the iraqi government has retained sovereignty over the whole country so i think for the syrian people things correct i don't think that i said that all countries suggesting of syria we know that saudi arabia linked to many of these terrorist organization there are really in their local allies they allow them to escape so that they could find fight syrian troops in there and that there are those who are the area and we know the iranians know quite well that the americans have been dealing with isis just as they have been doing so in the past they continue to deal with isis they tolerate isis when isis fights the foes of the united states and they target isis so when isis targets american allies so this sort of hypocritical behavior by the united states if i

troops are in syria and why and the living hell this is the i'm. talking some real news i'm joined by my guest mark slobodan he's an international affairs and security analyst we also have is a political analyst as well as a leading expert at the center for actual politics and of course we have a political analyst with sputnik international. in effect as usual i want to there's so much to talk today. but we can't overlook thomas friedman's article in the new york times so to rebias arab spring at last that's a nice gentleman this article is breathtaking for so many reasons your immediate take away after reading your cursor somebody who'll give for chance. before the second iraq war this is somebody who told the american public about the chemical biological and nuclear weapons programs. progressing with. unbeatable speed in iraq was the result of that hundreds of thousands of people dead from the american occupation and what happened after that with isis and everything else and today friedman is claiming that they're just reading like a puppy who sa

soldiers to leave the statement from syria's foreign office came a day after u.s. secretary of state quote walking away from syria this week in attacks comes as world leaders agreed to reduce the number of civilian casualties but inside syria people say that another security council meeting with continued to fail to prevent attacks. earlier this year the world reacted in almost unanimous condemnation to the images of suffocating children the u.n. found the assad regime responsible for the chemical attack in qana which killed dozens of people the government denied responsibility and russia questions about the attack itself written foreign secretary accused russia for consistently choosing to cover up for assad as the mandate for the un joint investigative mechanism expires the u.s. and russia are presenting rival bids for how to investigate future chemical attacks russia has so far vetoed nine resolutions on syria and more than six years into this war world leaders are still making statements as attacks against civilians continue with impunity some of the job it out

and syria. the international olympic committee has handed lifetime bans to four russians skeleton athletes to the athletes have also been stripped of their winter olympic medals. and disqualified the athletes from violate you know in a properly run world probably so this should not happen let's think of an analogy it's as if in moscow city center for the past several saturday nights that been a high number of driving under the influence of alcohol arrests you would expect that the offenders would be tried individually their cases evaluated and they would be punished accordingly we wouldn't expect that everyone who holds a driving license in moscow to be banned but that is effectively what is being contemplated at the moment he was sentenced by you know was anticipated even has done what is surprising slightest chance to general or no normal rational person could have expected and not because he is guilty but because he was determined to be found guilty even before the first protection witness. s

and iraq what is the next stage in syria is. going to continue to dominate the country is it going to stand for this bill is position or not russia next month is holding talks in sochi for example to trying to find a diplomatic push but the problem is that iran and russia are one side but in the region for example turkey and a lot of arab states on the other side and washington as well they are supporting the opposition in syria so. it's difficult to see at the moment what that the dramatic solution would look like. a journalist saeed kamali de gun with the guardian in london thank you very much for joining us on our program a version now excitement is starting to build in south korea ahead of next year's chuang winter games the olympic torch arrived in india on today from greece the flame is set to tour the country on a one hundred day two thousand kilometer journey to pee on chang for the opening ceremony in february. after a long journey from grace the olympic flame touched down it into an airport prime minister a knock your

signals the end of an investigation into the use of chemical weapons in syria. hello i'm down jordan this is our jazeera live from doha also coming up. in the interest of the people of zimbabwe. mr robert mugabe in my city. president mugabe rejects calls to quit military leaders say the only way to ensure a bloodless transition of power. amnesty international accuses all sides of war crimes in the battle for control of money in the philippines. and how a trump administration decision is being saluted by elephant hunters. russia has vetoed a u.n. security council resolution to extend the investigation into the use of chemical weapons in syria last month u.n. investigators found the syrian government was responsible for the chemical weapons attack in a handshake and in april in which eighty people died many of those were children diplomatic editor james bays reports from new york the tenth veto by russia in the u.n. security council on syria and one that ends the council's efforts to hold to account those who use chemical weapons in the country. it was a vote that

syria. significant. hundreds of us. who are accused of trading military secrets. with corruption. meeting with. william binney who believes. in the program we speak exclusively to mr binnie. i don't buy that mindless drivel without any factual evidence and that's basically what they what their situation did zero with . their morning here in moscow thanks for joining us when we have your latest world headlines. a significant day for syria as the last islamic state stronghold in the country at the city of. is now liberated and we can show you pictures from the vicinity of the city where syria and iraq back militias join forces to. which is situated very close to the border between the two countries. i don't either kind of organs are joining us live in the studio with more details on this daniel it's a it's a big day for syria today it is always the last major settlement in southern syria on the border with iraq located in the euphrates valley why is it significant as we said earlier it's one o

syria. a deprives eisel of a lot of the revenues that it was getting for smuggling oil into turkey into the black market and be it gives that oil back to syria the syrian government control so they can sell it. and oil is a tough thing to as the us found with iraq under saddam hussein it's a tough thing to embargo because everybody's hungry for oil and it's fungible good so it's pretty easy to to sell it even if people are trying to stop you from selling it it's certainly an interesting situation of course oil you bring up the point that that's one of the main reasons why the u.s. is involved in the united states and middle east anyway dave lindorff always interesting to hear thoughts founding editor of the new site this can't be happening thanks for being with us here on our to international. all right switching gears now russia's investigative committee has rejected claims that the country ran an elaborate state sponsored doping program it said the world anti-doping agency had provided no

the eastern part of syria as a lot of syria's oil such as it is from. the for seeable future islamic state is one of many militant groups in that country and given that i think that the civil war will continue so i do think that assad's power of the syrian government's power is expanding throughout the country but i don't expect him to have all of the country under wraps because there are still remain you know tens of thousands of prepared to fight against the syrian army and its militia and are staying in the region between iran and saudi arabia has escalated after a missile attack near the riyadh it was carried out by who the rebels in yemen iran's president is now warning saudi arabia he did so want to wednesday that it will not achieve anything by threatening the might of iran after saudi arabia laid the blame for the missile attack on terror on. you know the might and position of the republic people more powerful than you have been able to do anything against the iranian people you are not strong enough to do that some concern that the ongoing and

in syria. so that we can syrian people for a stable. in the area. in order to. describe. syria's. political and territorial integrity point. visit to. a knife given information to mr president about these visits and talks on how. in respect of that as going to. meetings turkey iran and russia. continue our successful foods and they will do so and future. as a result. violence in syria has. decreased. united nations support. and relevant conditions. are being developed in order to achieve protection of refugees. i would like to thank mr president for this productive meeting and to get a. series of talks are forming a very helpful tradition between us. and contributing a lot. we would like to continue these. series of meetings without difficulty in a sincere. and. these are very productive and achieving results. achieved very good results i would like to thank mr president for his contribution and we will continue working together in this manner thank you. and the president and members of delegations and their members a place i would like to greet you all with much affection. first

>> there is a larger audience than syria. this is not just about syria. major event in the region in the last month that the united states has had no role so first you had the kurdish referendum, iran was the decider of the outcome. now with the war in syria russia is the decider of the outcome. so there is an audience across the region of governments, opposition forces who are watching this and deciding that the united states now is a spectator and not a decider. >> woodruff: so where does that leave syria? i mean, you both -- we've talked about iran. iran continues to play a significant role in syria. >> yeah, absolutely. where it leaves syria is you have to deseg date and divide between the conflict over the survival of the regime, between the opposition and the regime, i think that's more or less over at least for now. >> woodruff: with assad staying in power. >> in power, and the other half is what happens to the territories that we and our allies took in the process of fighting i.s.i.s., and that's a big chunk of territory, that the fate of that are

syria. stronghold in the country the city of. liberated according to government forces show you just a moment here pictures from the vicinity of the city where syrian iraq joined forces. which are situated very close to the border between those two countries. if. the. course is four countries participated in the joint operation to liberate the city which soil heavy clashes over a number of days in that area. the significance of this victory. book mall was the last major settlement on the border with iraq a key strategic point as well to prevent the flow of fighters and arms across the rocky syrian border why is it significant as we've mentioned earlier it's one of the last strongholds of weisel in the region one of the last of the self-proclaimed kind of now just two years ago beisel controlled more than half of the territory in syria now they're located in just a few dozen terrorist controlling some villages and some other isolated close in iraq and in syria as well what makes this developm

troops are in syria and why and the living hell that is. welcome to the wonderful world of blood donation i come here every three weeks to get my transfusion to be specific i receive immunoglobulin that my body gets and some bodies that i cannot produce itself around the world giving blood is seen as a symbol of generosity and does this because it helps people it's just that one of the side effects is that it helped this applies more. to put the money on your car immediately after you have all plasma based drugs today come from private companies and are produced from paid plasma flows. you know a motor car. one of the risks of a donation. is proof that the frequency of the song is much higher in paid donations. border state. tattoos over two years old. in the money using the for drug and who runs the blood business. and we're back with lot of chairman tackier rounds former foreign minister discussing iran's role in the middle east so mr were talking you have mentioned a very important crisis you have mentioned yemen and i would like to ask

in sochi putin said their work on syria is producing concrete results. now for you. of course we discussed the syrian issues on the background of the success of terrorism we decided we need to coordinate our efforts to ensure long term certainly of the situation. we need to promote the process of a political. and form of the president of the joint communique was approved to ensure the integrity and sovereignty of the country in syria. well the challenge has been following that media news conference and joins us live now from sochi story we didn't hear that much about syria during the news conference itself but we did get as we've just heard some positive words from putin about syria. you know you're right this is a curious press conference in many ways given that we had been led to believe by. remarks that made in turkey before he came out here to russia and also the the mood music that was coming from the kremlin that this meeting would primarily be about syria will actually when they ended up in the press conference they talked very little about syria or mostly abo

and iraq what is the next stage in syria is. going to continue to dominate the country is it going to stanford split his position or not russia next month is holding talks in sochi for example to trying to find a diplomatic push but the problem is that iran and russia are one side but in the region for example turkey and a lot of arab states are on the other side and washington as well they are supporting the opposition in syria so. it's difficult to see at the moment what that the grandmother solution would look like right journalist saeed kamali de gun with the guardian in london thank you very much for joining us on our program of budget. you're watching t.v. news still to come life for syrian refugees in jordan it is hosting around one and a half million of them we report on the daily struggle facing one teenager and his family. but first a perfect storm is shaping up in equities markets across the globe care how does mine that that's right so mean but it's not a bad storm sowing destruction it's a good storm sweeping across

the kurds the second largest ethnic group in syria to build a new multi-party federal syria where the interests of the kurdish people would be enshrined in fusion allowing kurds to participate in parliament and join the army and all the state institutions. a new constitution for syria is on the horizon russia iran and turkey backing the initiative but what the kurds get out of it is still up for debate. the u.s. has never viewed the syrian democratic forces as partners unfortunately the u.s. has only been using them to which leaves us with the u.s. and its two horses the trade the turks a valuable nato ally will betray the kurds their ace in syria alternatively wait for them to betray the states well it was the turkish foreign minister who said donald trump had promised to cut military aid to the kurds where analysts nicholas davies believes washington athalie i think we have to wait wait and see exactly what this means but at the same time we should be very conscious that most of the so whatever they are saying publicly is not necessarily the whole story there's a lot of holes in tha

federal syria with the interests of the kurdish people would be in showing. allowing kurds to participate in parliament and join the army in all the state institutions. a new constitution for syria is on the horizon russia iran and turkey backing the initiative but what the kurds get out of it is still up for debate america the us has never viewed the syrian democratic forces as partners unfortunately the us has only been using them to fight i saw him destroy iraq or i believe the alliance between the us and forces on the ground including the s.d.f. in syria and kurdish groups in iraq has never been a true partnership the us provided assistance and weapons for self-defense purposes and for combating eisel with these agreements have never been linked to military action. which leaves us with the us and its two horses the trade the turks a valuable nato ally or betray the kurds their ace in syria alternatively wait for them to betray the states it was the turkish foreign minister who said that donald trump and promised to cut military aid to the kurds so we aske

pushing a game is iran and again this has been law on the other hand you have syria. person then the prime minister and hezbollah again is this alliance and so you have this polarization the saudis feel that one way. or the mind the power of. hezbollah is to create a political crisis in this way you will be able to create havoc a storm inside the political system to clash with hezbollah or at least neutralize it for not intervening in syria again or doing anything and in this way you will be cutting the hand of iran. google has confirmed that it's been collecting location data from phones even when users have disable location services and remove the sim card the practice was discovered by the news website quartz google insists it neither stored nor use the information but has agreed to stop killam up and explains how the tracking works. now your cell phone will often ask you annoying questions like would you like to share your geo location data well if you answer the question no you would assume that your geo data is safe and well it turns out you're wrong cell phones

what happens in yemen what happens in syria in iraq and in afghanistan it affects iran security it's at facts iran's. national interest and definitely we visit to try to to show the best way for getting out from the crisis this is what we have done for iraq was you have done for syria what we have what you are going to do for four young men. were on negotiation with different parties our position was quite clear is that we're talking you mentioned syria and b.b.c. is saying that iran is building a military base in syria tehran plan to establish a permanent military presence in the country right now. having military bases or military cooperation between two independent country is their right if iran and syria iran and iraq iraq iran and any other independent country decide to. to to expansion the economy corp as a very military corporation is it against international law or regulations no that is that is quite normal so you spoke a lot about isis during this interview so let me ask you ron's been very invested in the conflict against it against isis in neighboring iraq as well committ