my background is in the middle east where i study. in the conversation on this panel, it was responsible for some of the origins of jihad he ideology of al qaeda and isis and every other jihad in the middle east. they were part of the religious aspect of that and it served as a teaching point for original al qaeda about how not to do and interaction where they were heavily defeated in syria. the second thing is i think they're somewhat of a consensus that al qaeda or aces, no matter what they're called, no matter what names they take they will be around for a while. maybe as long as another generation and the third, i'll just go out with the point that i can't substantiate, but i believe and that's that will have another part because there's a lot of bitterness and you have both the ideology and the men to do it again. having said that, i direct you to your materials to read the lustrous background of our panel members but we will start out with steven blank who is a senior fellow to talk about russia's intersection with this issue. mi

in the middle east also. i don't think were cosmic to of what the transformations are going on there. and are fully up to speed on how to deal with them. my comment to your question is that basically i think this is an analogy of how american or western forces have a completely different set of our ods. and the same thing is true in the pmc world. for russia there are no our ods per se. we are having this and that the pmc is operating in the gulf. they are forced to pay attention to particular rules of engagement. in terms of their conduct and what weapons they head on board. there is rules and regulations governing pmc. they do not mix together at all. it's a fundamental problem. let's go. let's wait for the microphone. i just want to know. whether the pmc is the same as that private contactor. with the government or the military waters. or some other private contractors. and whether they had been abused with power not just within and may be used. we have the russians. with that cyber attack and meddling. is

my background is in the middle east. that is what i studied. i wanted to say something about the levant. substrate of the conversation we will have in this panel. the first is syria was responsible for some of the origins of jihadi salafism. the ideology of al qaeda and isis and other jihadists in the middle east. they were part of the religious aspect of that and also provided an insurrection under the muslim brotherhood that served as its point for original al qaeda about how not to do and -- to do insurrection. they were handily defeated in syria by 1982. the second thing is, i think, there is somewhat of a consensus that al qaeda, isis, no matter what they are called, will be around for yet a while. maybe as long as another generation. the third, i will go out with the point that i can't substantiate, but i believe is that we will have another insurrection because there is a lot of bitterness and you have both the ideology and the men under arms to do it again. having said that, i would direct you to your materials to read the long and rathe

bases in the middle east. from their weapons can be funneled to syria. this ng the largest pentagon supply of weapons for syrian rebels is bulgaria through the e.u. use poorest country that's a change in food. bill gary as arms factories fell quiet after the end of the cold war but the wars in iraq afghanistan and syria brought new demand. factories where we opened a new production lines added to supply weapons to the world's most fragile regions . we have come to bulgaria to find out more about the weapons the us government buys for its syrian allies. what is home to state arms manufacturers that. it is also where france is no we was killed in june twenty fifteen. v.m.s. that has been struggling to modernize and not fatal accident wasn't its first incident. a series of explosions rocked one of the company's plans in the time before the contract is a rival there were no casualties but production shut down for over two months. when we contacted v.m.s. that to find out more its management declined to speak to us. two leading trade unionists did agree to mee

we don't have an america first policy in the middle east we have a saudi arabia and israel first policy in the middle east i don't know whether that represents where mr trump really wants to go or whether it is like i said an analogy to the pentagon whether he's indulging the realities that exist so he can do something else if he can get us out of syria i don't expect us to admit we made a mistake in syria of course we did a tragic horrible mistake but in politics people don't admit mistakes if he can slip us out of syria somehow the real question is will he take the bait on what has to be the red line that israel and saudi arabia want regime change in iran and if he goes down that road it's the end of his predecessor presidency he needs to understand that he ends up as george w. bush if he goes down that road may be a lot worse i frankly don't think he's going to do that but he's certainly got a lot of people both foreign and domestic pushing him in that direction and right now he's indulging them the question is whether he will follow through with that i hope he doesn't you kno

we don't have an america first policy in the middle east we have a saudi arabia and israel first policy in the middle east i don't know whether that represents where mr trump really wants to go or whether it is like i said an analogy to the pentagon whether he's indulging the realities that exist so he can do something else if he can get us out of syria i don't expect us to admit we made a mistake in syria of course we did a tragic horrible mistake but in politics people don't admit mistakes if he can slip us out of syria somehow the real question is will he take the bait on what has to be the red line that israel and saudi arabia want regime change in iran and if he goes down that road it's the end of his predecessor presidency he needs to understand that he ends up as george w. bush if he goes down that road may be a lot worse i frankly don't think he's going to do that but he's certainly got a lot of people both foreign and domestic pushing him in that direction and right now he's indulging them the question is whether he will follow through with that i hope he doesn't you kno

well the service he's showing he has to interests in the middle east the. so-called peace process doing something to get the biggest deal in history between israelis and palestinians and then the process of oil so those those two issues do capture his attention what where he's going he has unfortunately weakened confidence in american leadership in the middle east problem. by withdrawing from the agreement the. agreed. he's playing with the weaker hand the nuclear agreement with their own you know ok one thing is very and i'm glad we're going to wrap it up here i'm glad that richard brought up oil prices the way it's going gentlemen donald trump trying to lower oil prices he's been actually helping them to increase and the saudis how he treats them so well the saudis have not returned the favor to try to equalize the price we'll see where this is going to go here that's all the time we have gentlemen many thanks to my guests and watched in new york and in london and thanks to our viewers for watching us here at r.t.c. a next time and remember. we have no id

there are three different types of pmc models that you find in the middle east and particularly in the gulf itself and this has occurred over time and i think this really began to start at least from the middle east context with the transfer of equipment and other materials from the iraq theater to the afghan theater and in that period, other entities were writing out airplanes and other companies and cargo carriers and so on to move equipment from the iraq peter , uae afghanistan. many russian companies for example, the volga airlines for example was hired by the os to, or dod to move equipment from iraq, the uae to afghanistan. there are dozens of these kind of companies that the us and its allies hired in this move. this was an example of how these types of companies got started in the region. the second type of pmc that you find in the region are those that were involved in the campaign to counter fire objects in somalia. you have hundreds of pmc's, literally businessmen coming in but this businessman who had state interest behind them to because they wanted to get a piece of that

bases in the middle east. from their weapons can be funneled to syria. this in the largest pentagon supply of weapons for syrian rebels is bulgaria for the e use poorest country that's a change in fortune. gary is arms factories fell quiet after the end of the cold war but the wars in iraq afghanistan and syria brought new demand. factories were reopened and new production lines added to supply weapons to the world's most fragile regions. we have come to bulgaria to find out more about the weapons the us government buys for it syrian allies. what is home to state arms manufacturers vs that. it is also where france is know we was killed in june twenty fifteen. v.m.s. that has been struggling to modernize and not fatal accident wasn't its first incident. a series of explosions rocked one of the company's plans in the time before the contract as a rival there were no casualties but production shut down for over two months. when we contacted v.m.s. that to find out more its management declined to speak to us. two leading trade unionists did agree to meet but

he has had a long, distinguished career, often working in the middle east. he is currently at gulf state analytics in washington. you will see him all over town. ralph.t speaker is he has worked at the oil company. he is a senior fellow for energy policy and a very prestigious middle east institute. today's panel from energy candidates. about howlast time russia likes to exploit. it certainly does. like eveone else come of this conflict between saudi arabia, the uae, bahrain and egypt -- it is a strange one. generally wants to be on good terms with both sides because there is a lot of money involved, and the russians have become rather dependent on that. why don't we start with ted? >> thank you very much, mark. thank you very much for attending and thank you very foundation jamestown for making this possible. i want to take the next 10 minutes to talk about what i see as russia's financial tactics in the region and how it is related to the qatar crisis in 10 minutes. to main point that i want make is that russian tactics, at least financially in the region,

the entire middle east is being left behind. with turbot consequences for the people of the middle east for generations to come we are living through a kind of repeat of the industrial revolution but an even grander scale in the nineteenth century the great revolution which changed everything in the world was the industrial revolution a few countries like britain like france like the u.s. led this revolution and they dominated the world for that for the next century or two. most countries and certainly most of the countries of the middle east they missed the terrain and therefore they were conquered and exploited and oppressed for two centuries and one of the main traumas and main main themes that you constantly hear in the middle east today by palestinians by syrians by egyptians by iraqis is this complaint about how the west exploited the us in how the west concord astern and so forth which all goes back to this basic think that the middle east did not industrialize on time and it's now happening again in the middle east is aga

we don't have an america first policy in the middle east we have a saudi arabia and israel first policy in the middle east i don't know whether that represents where mr trump really wants to go or whether it is like i said an analogy to the pentagon whether he's indulging the realities that exist so he can do something else if he can get us out of syria i don't expect us to admit we made a mistake in syria of course we did a tragic horrible mistake but in politics people don't admit mistakes if he can slip us out of syria somehow the real question is will he take the bait on what has to be the red line that israel and saudi arabia want regime change in iran and if he goes down that road it's the end of his predecessor presidency he needs to understand that he ends up as george w. bush if he goes down that road may be a lot worse i frankly don't think he's going to do that but he's certainly got a lot of people both foreign and domestic pushing him in that direction and right now he's indulging them the question is whether he will follow through with that i hope he doesn't you kno

more than half of the reserves are located there. gulf and middle east region only an important navigation route goes through there. and we've seen from the recent examples mentioned here, they're located in the region which together are almost 30% of the oil and gas go through this strait. another reason why gulf is important is because russia -- russian companies were subject to sanctions from the u.s. and the west -- i mean, europe. and, therefore, it needed to find new sources of funding for its activities. and gulf seems like a perfect target for that. and another reason russia looks into and taps into the gulf was actually to find new market to sell their gas. it might sound ironic, but the man groves for the gas in the middle east is substantial. and, for instance, russia is trying in saudia arabia to buy it's ong from arctic. whereas next door using that -- the conflict between them, again, using that tactic of divide and rule, they're trying to supply more gas. actually the energy resource saudia arabia intended the commissioning ceremony where

president it presents an opportunity to define the new middle east policy of the united states together with his allies a major strategic turnaround. i've. probably wanted to. win back. the middle east particularly our set of allies. sunni arab states led by saudi arabia turkey and israel and what he heard from all of those leaders and all of us have heard from them is aryan is the big threat it's not isis convinced of the dividends from this new approach trump now refused any idea of possible dialogue with iran. saudi arabia has welcomed mr trump's realistic approach to meeting the challenge of iran's extra territorial ambitions in the area and we think it was about time that the u.s. walk up to the fact that the problem with iran is not just nuclear development but it is this ambition to expand its control over the arab countries around it and mr trump was very much responsive to this idea the visit to saudi arabia was a clear signal that the u.s. is going to now completely side with iran sunny neighbors and support them and arm them and the obama era of believing that the region shou

it is not only active in the middle east but elsewhere and is using the middle east, as i will show, in order to leverage other kinds of presence and force the west, not just the united states to accept it on its own terms. with regard to iran and israel, moscow fully understand that israel will not try to undermine asad, that israel is not anti- russian as far as middle east interest go, but it is determined not to have iran threaten its vital interests are the problem is that for iran, asad ruling over all of syria in establishing or permitting massive iranian presence and a landline all the way to the mediterranean through lebanon to support hezbollah and other terrorists is of vital interest for the government and tehran as well. therefore moscow is trying to forge an equilibrium between iran and israel so that iran can get much of what it wants, namely asad will rule syria and they think the united states had or did before helsinki and that iran will allow itself to be evicted from the area around israel. ten days ago moscow proposed in jerusalem that iranian forces be kept due

often in the middle east. he's currently at gulf state analytics in washington and you will see him all over town next speaker is rauf mammadov who has worked with an oil company. currently as, use senior fellow for energy policy at the very prestigious middle east institute. so today's battle on energy gambits, russia, saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. we talked last time about how, stephen talked about how rush likes to export conflicts and it certainly does. i think though like everyone else this conflict between saudi arabia, uae, bahrain and egypt on one end and qatar on the other, it's a strange one that russia generally wants to be on good terms with both sides because, in fact, there is a lot of money involved and the russians have become rather depend upon that. why don't we start with 202-748-8200 will speak for about ten minutes. thanks. >> thank you very much mark, thank you very much for attending, thank you very much to the jamestown foundation for making this possible. i want to take th

my contributions in the russia and middle east projects were earlier, i did it paper on russian demography and middle eastern policy. that's not the subject here. the subject here is the question of private military contractors and their role as a supplement, as a complement to russia's war fighting strategy. it couldn't be timelier in terms of a topic. i thought the best thing to do was to lead with the folks who really know the subject inside and out. so what i'm going to do with very, very minor introductions i'm going to turn the floor over first to sergei from the jamestown foundation, and then after him, to my colleague steve blank from the american foreign policy council and then after that ted of gulf state analytics to talk about and unpack for us this enormously timely subject and to add another layer of complexity to what we've heard already today. so with that, for malts, aside, gentlemen, feel free to sit at your seats and speak and-- >> thank you very much, first of all, i'd like to thank the jamestown foundation for bringing me from the other side of the atlantic and to be a

bases in the middle east. from their weapons can be funneled to syria. this ng the largest pentagon supply of weapons for syrian rebels is bulgaria for the e use poorest country that's a change in fortune. gary has arms factories fell quiet after the end of the cold war but the wars in iraq afghanistan and syria brought new demand. factories where we opened and new production lines added to supply weapons to the world's most fragile regions. we have come to bulgaria to find out more about the weapons the us government buys for it syrian allies. what is home to state arms manufacturers that. it is also where france is know we was killed in june twenty fifteen. the ems that has been struggling to modernize and now we use fatal accident wasn't its first incident. a series of explosions rocked one of the company's plans in the time before the contract is a rival there were no casualties but production shut down for over two months. when we contacted v.m.s. that to find out more its management declined to speak to us. two leading trade unionists did agree to m

some kind of grand morality play between cla55 heroe5 and class enemies and when it comes to the middle east the creation of israel is kind of an original sin and he knows who the good guys are and he knows who the good guys are and who the bad guys are and that is the difficulty with all these acrobatic5 about how or what part of the definition you accept or not. there are good guys and bad guys. there are good guys and bad guys. there is a very rigid view of the world. to say that that definition precludes critici5m world. to say that that definition precludes criticism of israeli policie5 precludes criticism of israeli policies is nonsense. even manyjew5 have problems with the current i5raeli government's policie5, have problems with the current i5raeli government's policies, and you can do that without being so doctrinaire and by ' about the existence of the state. doctrinaire and by ' about the existence of the 5tate.|j doctrinaire and by ' about the existence of the state. i think ned contextualised corbyn's thinking quite well. there is an ambiguity at the base of his relations with i

and certainly in them we've seen now in the middle east we've seen enormous amount of damage. the specter of communism doesn't work anymore the united states was not able to use that but there is and haran carry over in fact and i'm sure that in the minds of those congressmen when they vote against it for the expansion of russians actions in their mind it's some form of the old russia and they can't get it they can't get them to want to weigh in the eighty's in the ninety's how come it came back so strongly i mean what is going to take for that paradigm to disappear from american mind generation was quite surprised by that i was in fact shocked i talking to mr gorbachev was one of the most wonderful moments of my life it was i felt in one thousand nine hundred ninety in my lifetime was a spring springtime of hope a new feeling that this thing was going to change you know that the the wall came down. all the europe eastern european countries expressed love bloodless revolution really a bloodless revolution and russia. relatively both. and i was and mr gorbachev you know was not

threat but want to pay for it ok it's pretty simple but then the wrinkle comes in james i mean the middle east i mean the trump administration isn't braced israel and saudi arabia much more than passage ministrations iran is again on target with the rhetoric and the planning and all of that i don't see any rhyme or reason to it all can you is there a silver bullet for you to give me to make me understand it go ahead james well let me draw an analogy to start with people of notice that trump since the day he took office even before he has been under siege from people in the intelligence community i think that's one reason why he and the sun the moon and the stars to the pentagon he had to have somebody who was on his side when we put it to the international context that you just raised look we've got clients and i do call them clients of not satellites in europe in the far east like south korea and japan i think he can afford to kick them around but we come to the middle east and talk about israel and saudi arabia i don't think there's so much our client says where their client given the kind o

fighting proxy wars all over the middle east. and north of iraq also fighting because you have the u.s. and russia fretting for a piece of the parcel it's a miracle but just. today the dominant external players in the country are iran supports the shia muslim party hezbollah and its allies and saudi arabia which supports most sudanese and search in christian policies against hezbollah. things came to a head in news them by twenty seventeen when prime minister. was visiting saudi arabia and to the shock of his fellow citizens suddenly appeared on t.v. to make a statement for. the year. or she had. or doing. wrong left. femur. what the one hundred many in lebanon believe that was how the hostage by his saudi patrons and forced to resign because he was losing ground to hezbollah after international pressure heavy returned home and said he wasn't giving up office off the rule but he has yet to explain exactly what took place and we both know what happened to the president and now is that our prime minister was a person in saudi arabia

every infrica because we have seen in the middle east is happening in a. you are seeing growing russian influence an enormous chinese and the lengths. finally, latin america. we have two states on the verge of failing. venezuela and nicaragua. nicaragua has major political strife going on. russian military and clause i military versus a and involved there were years. used private military contractors. i wrote about this years ago. it's as relevant now as it is -- as it was then. a privatealer, entrepreneur, sitting in moscow even though interpol wants them, goes out of his secure perch to be with the agents to run weapons to columbia and the gets arrested in this ring. minutesent because the he was arrested, the whole russian government and crazy trying to get him extradited just as they are now trying to get madame butina extradited. i believe he was sent by politicians to undermine america by running gun. it to lace in latin america and could happen again if the situation warrants it. lacesuggested, there are that are going to start burning very quickly.

america's supporting another were in the middle east but in syria it's supplying arms to rebels not two state forces. again the weapons us soviet style easy to use and so common in the region they're hard to trace if something goes wrong. when i so controlled territory expands u.s. supplies stepped up. i'm pleased that congress has now voted to support a key element of our strategy a plan to train and equip the opposition in syria so they can help push back these terrorists this is exclusive footage of what one of the pentagon secretive projects looked like. again the u.s. government uses private companies to train its allies we're going to examine the outside. these men are highly experienced new fighters mike doherty and frances no we. aren't they were in bulgaria to train on subject sell weapons that would be supplied to syrian rebels it seemed like a straightforward mission. but it would cost nobody you his life. friends know we you is survived by his wife the chair and two young children. and juliana she has agreed to me terms. we're joined by mike does he know we use training. he

and certainly in them we've seen now in the middle east we've seen enormous amount of damage. the specter of communism doesn't work anymore in the united states was not able to use that but there is this and haran carry over in fact and i'm sure that's in the minds of those congressmen when they vote against for the expansion of russians actions in their mind it's some form of the old russia and they can't get it they can't get away in the eighty's in the ninety's how come it came back so strongly i mean what is it going to take for that paradigm to disappear from american mind generation i was quite surprised by that i was in fact shocked i talking to mr gorbachev was one of the most wonderful moments of my life it was i felt in one thousand nine hundred ninety my lifetime was a spring springtime of hope a new feeling that this thing was going to change you know that the the wall came down. all the europe eastern european countries expressed love bloodless revolution really a bloodless revolution and russia. relatively both. and i was and mr gorbachev you know was not the croo

we do expect that dust to start to settle in visibility come down as well here across much of the middle east what we're looking at doha sing about forty three degrees a little bit of clouds pushing over towards the with a higher relative humidity there but clouds are improving along the coast of oman as well as yemen where we saw a lot of mostly cloudy conditions a close coast where salada still cloud if you at about twenty seven degrees and more clouds pushing in as we go towards monday but up towards muska we do expect to see thirty degrees in your forecast then down here towards the southern regions of africa we are watching a film about to make its way across the southern portions of the atlantic that's going to be coming into cape town over the next day bring those temperatures down from about fifteen degrees on sunday to about thirteen degrees as we look to monday . hello again the top stories on al-jazeera the former u.n. secretary general kofi annan has died at the age of eighty he served as the seventh secretary general from one thousand nine hundred seven to two thousand and six an

for two centuries and one of the main traumas and main main themes that you constantly hear in the middle east today by palestinians by syrians by egyptians by iraqis is this complaint about how the west exploited the us and how the west concord and so forth which all goes back to this basic finked that the middle east did not industrialize on time and it's now happening again in the middle east is again missing the terrain the chinese have learned the lesson the chinese have learned from his own national if they had the same national trauma and china now has kind of for one pointed mind we it's not going to happen to us again this time this revolution the ai revolution we will lead and it will be the west who will be left behind and you see now that the like that the europeans are terrified that the chinese are getting ahead of them but in the middle east everybody almost everybody are oblivious of it and despite their trauma from the industrial revolution they are again missing the train and this time it's the last train and when was the does a revolution you still had a chance to catch up s

>> we have all talked about how the middle east peace plan is the graveyard of optimism. is a home of pragmatism, right? so the trump administration seems to be thinking maybe we can use economic development and dollars to really shake up a stagnant status quo. there are a lot of folks on all sides who would say, look, you have absolutely no chance. in some aways this plan benefit from the real reality of low expectations. the question is can you break through what has been a really frozen status quo, and can you use dollars and development to do so. >> and as someone who has covered the middle east, i know so much of the devil is in the details of these issues. sometimes it comes to bloc by bloc maps. i feel like the president sometimes is approaching this from a general perspective in being pragmatic with the financial incentives to the palestinians. is there any sense of realism that the palestinians can be offered a big chunk of change to win over their concessions? >> i think it's really a start. can you start with economics and developments? you know this, ayman. so

and so, is your prescription about the alliance more about the middle east than it is about nato? t's one, and to, for the panel is that large, i believe turkey views united states as destabilizing power because of its policy in the middle east, i believe europe shares that since trump withdrew from the jcp away, but what i do not see as synergies beyond that is synergies between europe and turkey on russia so, is that possibility. [inaudible] how would you recommend on the bilateral level given everything that's going on that you try to up pressure and win cooperation from turkey with moscow? >> let me start very quickly, not all these crises are out of area. of course i whole thing in life is the middle east so that's where i work, but if american officials have voiced concerns about turkish policy in the balkans, and you just pointed out yourself, the russians is avidly huge problem, middle eas east, they see turkey as a great power, the natural leader of the muslim world and it has been quite active in that area. the united states has been the predominant power in the region fo

in the middle east, it is classical that you can't find a consensus between the major powers and there, you are helpless, as i said. everyone who is trying to come from the outside with the best of intentions is bound to fail, almost. it's a terrible thing to say because we keep having to try in the face of the superpowers like russia and america and syria being at loggerheads. when both are mutually exclusive and with the un security council at sixes and sevens, it is beyond me. to pick up on what maria said, particularly at a time with trump as the president of the united states, there is not only an accidental but a quite deliberate undermining of the entire post—second world war order of international institutions, whether it's the eu, the world trade organisation, nato as a military alliance. the mere idea of international cooperation and coalition, for all its faults, we should hope the un survives as a vehicle that can be used when it works. it is important that it isjust physically there and that there are places where people can get together and talk informally and off the r

well the service he's showing he has to interests in the middle east the. so-called peace process doing something to get the biggest deal in history between israelis and palestinians and then the process of oil so those those two issues do capture his attention what where he's going he has unfortunately weakened confidence in american leadership in the middle east problem. by withdrawing from the you agreement the. agreed. he's playing with the weaker hand the nuclear agreement with their own you know ok one thing is very and i'm glad we're going to wrap it up here i'm glad that richard brought up oil prices the way it's going gentlemen donald trump trying to lower oil prices he's been actually helping them to increase and the saudis how he treats them so well the saudis have not returned the favor to try to equalize the price we'll see where this is going to go here that's all the time we have gentlemen many thanks to my guests and watched in new york and in london and thanks to our viewers for watching us here at r.t.c. a next time and remember crosstalk.

she is with the in geo wadi which campaigns against female genital mutilation in asia in the middle east is that it is good to have you on the show how widespread is this practice globally. well. the first seen a map before i think before which is by the un the un counts twenty nine countries most of them in africa two in asia however it is actually much more widespread than this indicates we do have several countries in asia in the middle east for example iran is not on the mop and pakistan india. on the whole south southeast asia malaysia indonesia thailand are few cases but they do exist and even latin america i mean it's. all over the world and you were telling me earlier that you spent time in the middle east trying to support public information campaign so that people know what it is and that it doesn't have to take place and why does it have to take place and talk to me a little bit about the challenges of just getting the public educated about this. well what we do i mean why do you is working mainly in northern iraq we do have a small project project also in iran and we do suppo

is actually much more widespread than this indicates we do have several countries in asia in the middle east for example iran is not on the mop and pakistan india on the whole south southeast asia malaysia indonesia thailand are few cases but they do exist and even latin america so it's. all over the world and you were telling me earlier that you spent time in the middle east trying to support public information campaign so that people know what g.m. is and that it doesn't have to take place and why that would have to take place and talk to me a little bit about the challenges of just getting the public educated about this. well what we do i mean why do you is working mainly in northern iraq we do have a small project project also in iran and we do support activists in all kinds of places like we did a conference for example in singapore. in iraq the challenges are. i mean you basically have to get to every part of society we do or shops for policemen for lawyers of course we speak with the women in the villages we speak with them and we speak with religious leaders with doctors when we want

get a taste of the middle east in the heart of berlin in the city's plants our characters. houmous is served up five to chefs to promote international understanding. that's because all spin down the road is really and it is palestinian. but i'll both of them articulate what. the ongoing conflict between the israelis and the palestinians plays no role here in this kitchen there's dancing instead of fighting. between men met in berlin with their restaurants thank hopes to build bridges between their people so they called it kind of on its basically name from the old testimony of the land off hebrew i mean the father of all the. religions the jewish christian and muslims and. very all started this is the point where we're all united under one house and this is what we tried to create here and of course the food is from that time. and one tissue in particular is still enjoyed by people all over the middle east promised. this discourse spread made from chickpeas is a staple of middle eastern cuisine. these are curage and mixed with salt sugar lemon juice and to he. and voila the

she is with the in geo wadi which campaigns against female genital mutilation in asia in the middle east is very good it is good to have you on the show how widespread is this practice globally. well. the first seen a map before i think before which is by the u.n. the u.n. counts twenty nine countries most of them in africa are two in asia however it is actually much more widespread then this indicates we do have several countries in asia in the middle east for example iran is not on the mop the pakistan india. on the whole south southeast asia malaysia indonesia thailand are few cases but they do exist and even latin america i mean it's. all over the world and you were telling me earlier that you spent time in the middle east trying to support public information campaign so that people know what it is and that it doesn't have to take place and why it would have to take place and talk to me a little bit about the challenges of just getting the public educated about this. well what we do i mean why do you is working mainly in northern iraq we do have a small project project also in iran a