which bannon denounces tom's eldest son as treasonous and unpatriotic to have a two thousand and sixteen meeting with a lawyer with kremlin connections the white house press secretary calls the claims baseless. i think that is a ridiculous accusation and one that i'm pretty sure we've addressed many times from here before if that's in reference to comments made by mr bennett i'd refer you back to the ones that he made previously on sixty minutes worry called the collusion with russia about this president a total farce so i think i would look back at that if anybody's been inconsistent it's been him certainly has been the president or this administration the u.s. president's former campaign chairman paul manifolds is suing the u.s. justice department and special counsel robert mueller for the russian investigation metaphor is trying to fend off his criminal trial due to start in may he faces known during charges related to work he did for the ukrainian government is little says accuses me of a of going beyond his legal authority by charging him as the headlines and news

continues on al-jazeera off the inside story. iran's leadership is both to the task as violent protests continue to run planes falling out evidence for stirring up trouble so is the rest about the economy or is it and to stop basement and how will iran deal with the growing public anger this is inside story.

hello and welcome to the program. you may have seen i was show earlier this week about the protests in iran the situation has only gotten worse since then mostly peaceful demonstrations have turned violent at least twenty two people have been killed and hundreds arrested protests that seem to be about rising prices and financial struggles now appear to be anti establishment but it's unclear who's organizing the rallies all we know is it isn't the reformists are traditionally the demonstrations in iran the international community has been quick to can down the violence and the u.s. wants the united nations to act mike hanna has this report from the u.n. headquarters in new york. ambassador nikki haley called a briefing to outline u.s. priorities at the united nations in this new year and top of her list the situation in iran if the iranian dictatorships history is any guide we can expect more

outrageous abuses in the days to come the un must speak out in the days ahead we will be calling for an emergency session both here in new york and at the human rights council in geneva we must not be silent the people of iran are crying out for freedom all freedom loving people must stand with their cause this echoing sentiments expressed by president trump earlier who said in a tweet the people of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt iranian regime all of the money that president obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets the people have little food big inflation and no human rights the u.s. is watching. this little evidence in the streets of tehran of the turmoil evident in some other parts of the country but there are deep concerns expressed about the rise in food prices and drop in employment i mean john

a call i'm working but in this society i'm always stressed about the possibility of getting fired the next day always being worried about my job my family the security of my family the main problems people are grappling with are their security the economy and their livelihood ammonia dance that there are some who are poor and cannot make ends meet what should they do life is really difficult we have tenants i have a daughter and son both at school the high prices really put me under pressure at home iran's supreme leader has broken his silence on the protests accusing iran's enemies of responsibility montazeri if the enemy is waiting for an opportunity for a crack three which it can infiltrate to look at the recent events. all those who are at odds with the islamic republic have used various means including money weapons politics and intelligence apparatus to create problems for the islamic system the islamic republic and the islamic revolution. use agency

put it reveals ongoing protest in a number of regions hundreds are reported to be in arrested and demonstrators continue to defy an attempted government blackout of social media back at the united nations the new president of the security council has confirmed the u.s. has been in contact and discussions are ongoing but it's not clear at this stage whether the u.s. appetite for a formal meeting is shared by the wrist of security council members some may be reluctant to intervene in what they would regard as an internal domestic dispute my kind of al-jazeera united nations. we heard from iran's supreme leader about who he thinks is behind the unrest iran's president has said of honey also delivered a response. that should be clear to everyone that we are people of freedom and

according to the constitution and citizens' rights people are free to express their criticism and to protest however we need to pay attention to the manner of criticism and protest it should be in such a way that it will lead to be improvement of the people and the state let's bring in our guests joining us here in doha majuba associate professor at qatar university and specialist on iran foreign policy from to have done most of our political commentator and specialist on iranian domestic affairs. thank you very much indeed german village in a listener the startling asking was the question this what is happening now in iran is it a power struggle between the four mists and the conservatives of the hardliners or is it a new phenomenon in the country hello and thanks for having me well no as

a matter of fact our people have disappeared from the streets i mean those that were raising rightful economic demands and the ones who are taking part in protests. against president rowhani of austerity plan now there have remained a very few are rioters but just today tens of thousands of people in different cities took out to this free to show their support for the government and for the south which meant all this is one of the very few cases and rare cases where different camps from even the green movement supporters to the reformists and to the principle list that you just called conservatives their outstanding all together they are standing behind the government and if outplacement is stressing that people are entitled to the eva to shout their protest at you know economic

flaws and faults but they are all standing against riots because people who took part in the demonstrations against riots today they were demanding action by the government against the rioters who have caused several you know if there's massive shops to shut down especially in those very few movies that i've witnessed riots welcome back to nature to talk in detail about the situation this is a way to push is of the view that this is news it will mentum across the country. you know as you know this the mistake started with the economy quit evasion and of course it was you know demanding specific matters from the government the focus was on the decision made by the government about the budget. about the you know increasing taxes and other issues and what we see that in the last forty

eight hours it's obvious that the government the government has followed different strategies to. deal with the situation and to me is very clear that the stablish and the political establishment the region as a whole has has in a way or other directed the government to act accordingly to respond to the concerns of the people who are on the street it was obvious that the president rouhani two days ago had met the the member of the parliament and he asked them that his government is considering to review the budget. submitted to the parliament and really taking different measures to reduce the pressure on people to me this is a very governmental tactic to. convince the people that the government is sincere to take into consideration their demands but the question is how long the government will accept that and act according to the ok mr horsham

can we say that what triggered the protests into holland was basically the general discontent over poverty corruption and unemployment. well you know all wonder of protests started they started because of some financial banks private banks actually and some financial institutions went bankrupt and people were angry at these private institutions the government promised help it is taken some time for them to bring help to these poor people this is start of them actually there then economic you know austerity protests started in some twenty thirty cities but very soon after some people were manipulated by social media platforms it means that li funded and run from the best day empty the

streets they disappear from the streets and now we see these protests in seventy cities the same thing is true with regard to tehran we have not seen a united protest in tehran except for fifty students who are here in this street for two days on you know saturday and sunday in front of tehran university they were confronted by two hundred are opposing university. protesters who are condemning the first group of protests there is and we have not seen any major protests ever since then some nights you can see groups of twenty thirty people in all central tehran or northern tehran walking together but there is not much activity and because there is no single leadership and there's a riot i think if you just allow me to explain about the numbers maybe in the next question how will you not like zone or something else also to talk about the

protests in iran is trita parsi his followers and president of the national iranian american council missa posse if i mean there's been all those theories about all of these people on the streets of a silent majority is this a new phenomena in iran people have been manipulated by the clerical establishment to take advantage of the situation in iran. well what the first thing we can say is they clearly this is a different segment of society than what we saw in two thousand and nine this appears to be a segment that is not as involved politically not as experienced politically and have not been at the center of iran's political developments for the last twenty years. it is also a poorer segment of society that is much more negatively affected by the dire economic situation particularly some of the measures that palin proposed in this

new budget such as cuts to cash handouts as well as increase in fuel prices but we also have to acknowledge that this is discontent in society not just with the economic situation but with the social situation and with the political situation is quite deep and very very widespread so even if the numbers are much smaller there's also clearly people who are not out there in the streets but nevertheless very sympathetic perhaps not to the methodology of the protests but with the grievances of the protests. mrs whately as a process is this is over the numbers are not he is compared to a thousand number this is quite significant it could be arcing into something quite new in iran we've seen the slogans people upset about the situation in the country can we say that at all hani president rouhani has failed to deliver on the promises he made during the presidential campaign as you know president rouhani of the first

of term for the presidency his focus was the nuclear and he promised of course he promised iranian that you know the political situation will be changed and he promised that this cannot be done without fixing the foreign policy issue a whole including the nuclear the think based on that he was elected in the first time so as he has been the deal was signed in. summer two thousand and fifteen. hope was this deal brings you know a new support to the economy situation in iraq and assuming that the money there would be removing of sanctions would be in i would be open up for a foreign investment the political situation and the the will affect the economy situation assuming that was also there would be a change on the economy in iran you know with trump came and comes to power and you

know unfortunately things has changed. president a trump he was not happy with the deal he was not happy with of iranian foreign policy and he started with demonizing iran again and we went back to the time where republicans are right that bush the father and the son were in power so basically that time was coming back with donald trump and he was his throughout he started to criticize iran and focusing on the nuclear the itself as as a reason to help iraq and i think that was an important issue to see these kind of demonstrations. i would like to go back to the proposed a budget for two thousand and eighteen which many believe was the main target of the protests it's suggests slashing some of the social welfare programs but at the same time it expands the budget for or the allocations for the military establishment particularly the revolutionary guards and for some of the clerical establishment in iran do you think that this budget will be shelved and you one

will be presented to. answer some of the concerns of the people you know attention should be paid to the fact that there are before two thousand and five or six the americans tried a lot of work in order to topple the islamic republic including riots and colorful revolutions but since two thousand and nine or eight they came to realize that there are of they cannot do that but they can use riots and. protests in order to lay pressure on tehran to justify factions to pressure iran to give up its components of power that includes its most island this rijndael clear industries and its regional clout they are looking at these riots the same way you know when they started there were protests about the government's austerity plans for the next year but very soon all the social media platforms run from

abroad they started a minute deal leading people and provoking them to practice harsh actions to do harsh actions and confab with time to raise military bases to even teach them how to many models of cocktails and that means war and terrorism so they've been encouraging them to go for i x y because donald trump donald trump is going to make a number of decisions in coming weeks in the next two weeks he's to decertify or recertified the nuclear deal with iran and he also needs to make a decision about further suspension of the factions and he it was an analysis before but now after what the spokesperson of the white house said and many other shows in washington it has come under the spotlight that they mean to use these

riots in order to justify your reading position of a part of the bank sions and ratifying new sanctions to keep iran under pressure in order to force their on to give up a part of its regional role ok that's why basically they are trying with the help of all the arabia and israel they're trying to install vote people to continue the riots until saturday is special ok since you've been mentioning the phone an intervention which has been reiterated by a lot of harmony and many officials mr. pasi to stay with this particular point if trump continues tweeting about the unrest in iran is there any concern that this good backfire in a says they will just feed the government now to this is something done by people manipulated by the enemies of iran i think that you know what trump is doing is not helpful i don't think he's trying to help the protesters who do have legitimate

grievances rather he's just trying to fan the flames and try to help create more instability. at the same time i don't think people in iran are listening to donald trump donald trump is not respected person whether you are sympathetic to the government of iran or opposed to it donald trump is not viewed as your friend mindful of the very anti iranian and policies that he's pursued that have been very antagonistic towards the iranian people as a whole including for instance the muslim ban that has been affecting iranians more than any other nationalities we should not forget that when isis struck to iran and killed seventeen people donald trump condemned iran and blamed it on iran this is probably the first and only time the united states has given isis a pass all of these different steps have created a situation in which the people of iran are not viewing donald trump as a friend but then that also means that it makes it more difficult for the iranian

government to try to paint the protesters as simply people that are being inspired or following donald trump mr whaley the protesters also have been very critical of the iranians intervention in regional affairs particular places like yemen syria and lebanon saying enough is enough we don't care about syria we care about our own selves the protests are they likely to put more pressure on the iranian government to. further in intervene of those places i think what's important about the slogan is the fact that the government stablish with the veteran has failed to convince its own people that it is for foreign policy was going on that i that action that slogan those confirm that you know the media with what was broadcast in through the media in iran what's been said by officials what's been publicized that iran has presence in syria or in iraq and our airmen is in favor of iran is a protecting iran in reality was not really convincing to the iranians iranians see

on those we're seeing on those the mistaken that we need you to take care of us though basically all of the was being said will not come because there's not been convincing to the people the second point i think in that context we have to mention that again the stablish meant did not consult the people on its foreign policy it basically it did it based on it is on the view and the interest of the stablish went in there and there is itself and assuming that this represent the iranians their interest and i think this them a station would not affect the decision of iranian government were to go after this the only thing i assume they would have impact is that the guy about you know the guy between the government that is jim and the people will be wider and wider when it comes to the foreign policy and iranian behavior in the region mr horsham are we likely to see the government heed some of those concerns voiced by the people particularly comes to the visual involvement or do you believe this is something

which is vital for iran's national security and therefore there's absolutely no compromise on this. you know let me have one more point when we're talking about donald trump himself and up front policy my colleague was right donald trump has proved to be an enemy of viewing in the nation he has called the nation as a paris nation and no one cares for donald trump here but when we're talking about behind the scenes decision making they have even done a lot of things in order to prove all these riots just yesterday they declared that they are viewing it in studying different ways in order to promote and to bring more social class networks and platforms to iran in order to conduct these riots and to have them continue why they intend to intensify clashes and they intend to escalate the tensions so far in reining in officials of the government and the

i.r.g.c. specially they have shown self restraint and they do not mean to clamp down on these riots despite the fact that they have been harming public and private properties but the united states intends to escalate their pensions to force the rainy and g.c. and law enforcement and others you know all clash with these protests there is with these riots there is not proof that there's prepared for best and just a few days ago now we are just only witness in riots and damaging the properties in order to justify they kept the sanctions that they ratified the couple of months ago and. against the i r g c that's the plan they are first suing and that's why they insist so much that they want these riots continue in the next week after iranian millions of iranians are to get out on friday specially in tehran to show

their support they get and for the man and against these riots now they want of these riots to continue in the next week ok exactly for. but i get your point just because i don't you see has warned that it would enter this scene in the next week if these riots do not come to an end and this takes us to the next question is a past see what are the options for the iranian government will it continue to clamp down on the protesters or do you think because of the growing general sentiment among the international community that enough is enough we might see some compromises in the near future. well if there's a compromise i don't think it's going to be as a result of what the international community says it's going to be based on other calculations i think there's a realization in the rouhani government that there is a lot of legitimate grievances on behalf of the protesters and that some changes are needed to be made to this budget's because the difficulty that the rouhani

government has had is to fulfill the expectations that it itself helped to set when it came to what the economic prospects for the country would be in a post. in a post nuclear deal and vironment it has not been able to meet those it's not entirely its own fault a lot of it is as a result of the trumpet ministration creating so much political uncertainty about the future of the nuclear deal which is in cause a lot of financial institutions to refuse to finance investments in iran when investments are not being made in iran jobs are not being created iran's economy is moving in the right direction on paper would more than four percent growth but that's mainly because of oil sales or the sales don't create jobs investments do and it's been very difficult for the rouhani government to attract investment as a result of what's happening with the nuclear deal of of pushing the irani government is going to have a couple of days to be able to make some changes to the budget and strive to meet

the protesters otherwise as has been suggested the i.r.g.c. is likely going to step in and then we will see a much more brutal crackdown against the protesters and the potential repealing that in tallahassee that we saw in two thousand and nine a push or two we'll have to leave it. but thank you very much indeed so it will still for jobs away and trita parsi thank you very much indeed for your contributions to the program thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website c.n.n. dot com for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com for was last a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is a.j. and say story for me has to have on the whole team here by phone and. i.

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