if not to use the middle leader the u.s. secretary of state might compare as israel and palestine to restart the peace process he wrapped up his three day middle east tall pompei also said israel had the right to defend itself as violence at the border with gaza continues and the u.s. defense secretary has played down the idea of pulling american troops out of syria james mattis said the u.s. and its allies will not pull out before a peace agreement is reached that is said they were on the verge of victory against i still did not want to abandon syria at this point last week trump said he wanted to withdraw american troops from syria soon hundreds of my roots are still waiting at the mexican border with the u.s. to find out why when they can apply for asylum u.s. border officials have already turned away saying that the immigration holding area has reached full capacity. one of the catholic church top officials arrived in

caught in australia to hear if he'll face charges related to accusations of multiple sexual offenses cardinal george pell served as priest of victoria during the one nine hundred seventy s. rising to become archbishop of melbourne in the one nine hundred ninety s. during those years he's accused of acts of sexual misconduct including those against choirboys. those were the news headlines of course political. seems to subside with the potential of a new prime minister in the coming days it's a story is next to stay with us. ratcheting up the rhetoric against iran the newly appointed u.s. secretary of state says the iranians are up to threats and urges more sanctions but

what kind of threats is a run through the u.s. and the region and kind of iranian influence be contained this is inside story. hello there and welcome to inside story i'm laura carlisle the newly installed u.s. secretary of state has wraps up his three country tour of the middle east in jordan where he met the foreign minister and king abdullah might pompei underscore the importance of the jordanian role in helping solve conflicts in neighboring countries in particular he urged palestinian leaders to reengage in talks with israel and america's top diplomat a united front against what the white house says is the regional threat posed by iran a message he emphasized in both saudi arabia and israel part of forces has more from

west jerusalem. in the middle east mike pompeo double down on the theme that has dominated his first international trip as secretary of state iran's threat to the region and the world and the solidifying u.s. threat to pull out of the iran nuclear deal iran and destabilize this entire region that supports proxy militias and terrorist groups and arms it is an arms dealer to the who the rebels in yemen. and iran conducts cyber hacking campaigns that supports the murderous assad regime as well compares arrival in riyadh followed a barrage of eight ballistic missiles fired into saudi territory by hooty fighters in yemen the u.s. and saudi arabia say such missiles come from iran or combine that ticket and we also think that iran should be dealt with by imposing further sanctions further violations of international laws relating to ballistic missiles. iranian missiles

are a chief concern of israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu his focus on the risk of their being fired from iranian bases in syria and by hezbollah from lebanon with his talk of a u.s. pullout from the iran deal and new sanctions against tehran pompei as language was almost interchangeable with netanyahu we remain deeply concerned about iran's dangerous escalation of threats to israel in the region and iran's ambition to dominate the middle east remains of people thought that iran's aggression would be moderated as a result of signing the do the opposite has happened and iran is trying to gobble up one country after the other both men welcome the u.s. embassy move from tel aviv to jerusalem shuttled for the fourteenth of may the day the israeli state was declared seventy years ago maintain that final boundaries within jerusalem were up for negotiation that the us was committed to a lasting peace between israel and the palestinians there was no mention though of the recent demonstrations along the gaza border fence where israeli snipers have

shot unarmed protesters killing dozens and injuring hundreds might pompei was a different proposition from his predecessor rex tillerson who spent most of his tenure as secretary of state in a state of at best semi detachment from the white house is seen as very close to president trump in particular on the issue of iran and so that gives his words extra weight even perhaps especially when they mirror one of to listens frequent messages that saudi arabia's blockade on cantars should and they also stress to the foreign minister that go for unity is necessary we need to achieve it a report in the new york times said the message away from the cameras was more direct enough is enough stop the blockade by the time pump am moved on to jordan his chief aim seemed established laying the groundwork for tougher action against iran clear two of the obstacles the e.u. russia and china have all warned against scrapping the nuclear deal the decision will be donald trump's the deadline may the twelfth are a force that al-jazeera west jerusalem. well the countdown is on to may twelfth and

it appears even trump's close his aides don't know which way he'll go u.s. national security adviser john bolton who is no fan of the iran nuclear agreement told fox news on sunday that trump has made no decision on the nuclear deal whether to stay in or get out. ok well let's bring in our guests now and joining us here in doha juan cole a visiting fessor at the center for gulf studies at cattle university from tehran mohammad marandi head of the north american studies graduate program at the university of tehran and from beirut via skype joseph to chichen middle east analyst and senior fellow at the king faisal center for islamic studies a very warm welcome to all of you mark first of all let's get an idea of iran's reaction to this very clear message that we're hearing from pompei o that iran destabilize is the region that is the main threat and needs to be contained i think the iranians would respond by saying that the israeli regime

is subjugating the palestinians it is murdering people on the border of gaza and the saudis on the other hand and the israelis are constantly bombing syria against international law and the saudis they kidnap prime ministers they invade countries like yemen they invade bad rain and keep the dictator in power they commit bring about as they brought about a siege against. and they've spread extremism to syria and iraq and of course they haven't succeeded in untag in izing turkey so i don't think that the americans really are in much of a position to talk about iran's behavior in this region iran and iran has very good relations with iraq which the americans brought to power. and it's a lie and acted government any iran has prevented isis and al qaeda and their

affiliates those groups that the united states and its allies and how to enter syria iran's help to prevent them from taking the country and it's the united states that's helping the saudis to strangle the yemeni people so the iranians really don't think the americans have my second play about ok one what do you think about that do you think that some something that the u.s. some in the u.s. at least might agree with me on trying to get the ball so as to why this is ministration fear is iranian hedging money so much well i don't think that iran bolts large in president trump's own imagination i think he wants to undo virtually everything that barack obama did and that his targeting of the twenty fifty nuclear chord is actually somewhat irrational and not connected to other policy and then with regard to syria he's talked about getting u.s.

troops out he's talked about letting russia take care of syria basically giving it into russian hands as as a sphere of influence you must surely know that the russian aerospace forces military forces in syria are closely allied with iran and iranian allies so if you look at mr trump's positions there is no clarity there but the people around him the secretary of defense james madison and now new secretary of state mike pill are longtime iran of folks and so i see somewhat of a division inside the cabinet i mean this is about more there isn't that one of them getting rid of the deal get on to the deal more a little later but it's just pos of this approach that this administration is taking to the region i mean it's trying to contain a wrong influence wholesale. well all american governments have tried to contain iran since one thousand nine hundred seventy nine nothing very much new about that

but there are hawks and and moderates within the within the washington establishment and trump really on foreign affairs has been on more on the diffident or moderate side himself but for some reason he has brought iran hawks into his his inner circle and people like james mattis and pompei o. even don't agree with each other for instance mattis has made a press to keep the united states involved in the yemen war according to the new york times according to state department leaks pump a low pressure the saudis to bring that war to a quick conclusion because it's not succeeding and it's a foreign relations and public policy disaster to say if the sovereign really need to be contained. well usually where there is smoke there is also

fire and iran is a major power in the region no one denies that but since nineteen seventy nine has a revolutionary government that has made no secret about wanting to export its revolution dropped out of world and throughout the muslim world in fact if you just listen to iranian officials to speak they're doing quite well in terms of increasing their influence through up out of world several iranian officials have laid claim to the fact that they now control or at a country tolls and more down the line perhaps that they would like to liberate mecca and medina from usurpers down south would presumably and that be more than anyone else are entitled to spread the good will of the iranian revolution as they see it of course. not everybody agrees with this kind of interpretation people do perceive iran to be a real genuine threat not in terms of its religion but in terms of its ideology

and in terms of its message throughout the arab and muslim world and i think the facts underground speak for themselves beyond what the americans or the russians or the british or just about anybody else on the planet wants to do well for them i think that the reality is that today there is a schism in the in the region between iran on the one hand and its proxies and the conservative and it got up got monarchies in which i would also include qatar notwithstanding the temporary problem that exists right now because i'd be logically there are very profound differences between the two sites. marcus see you smiling that i mean while you may not agree with everything that joseph says i mean there is no doubt is that iran does have it reaches very far throughout the region into many countries lebanon palestine yemen iraq

well first of all no iranian leader. controls any capitals and that is just a fabrication and i assume that your guess and beirut doesn't understand persian otherwise he would know better i would refrain from listening to our arab year so the propaganda and look at the facts themselves before making or passing judgment. does have a great deal of influence but. germany has influence and france britain has influence in germany iran to relationship with iraq is with a government that has been democratically elected and ironically the americans themselves overthrew saddam hussein and that been onto the iranian allies in that country they have seats in parliament and they are members of the cabinet in yemen ironically saudi arabia did more than anyone else to push the people of yemen and

iran closer to each other before the saudis initiated this ridiculous and disgusting and disturbing war against the people of yemen there was no strong relationship between iran and yemen but now that's changed dramatically and just a couple of days ago when hundreds of thousands of people in yemen were participating in the funeral of their leader and the saudis bombed the the rock right beside it and no one moved and it shows how resilient the people of yemen are against saudi arabia these people do not have with you look at the footage of their battles they fight in their slippers they were not they're not well armed and the saudis have hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons from the united states and the french and the british and the canadian two are all they all are guilty of war crimes in yemen alongside the snow days are not well called contently not forget the problem is that this is already a side run died on the side of the weapons in yemen as well to the who the rebels

is in comparable to what the other side does it's nothing if we assume that it's exactly what the americans say even though i don't believe the export missiles. ok one what's your opinion on that the threat that iran poses well the so-called threat of iran in the middle east is best lehi i mean talking about iran dominating or controlling these countries is frankly bizarre lebanon has a saudi dual national as its prime minister it has a slight. majority coalition on the cabinet favoring hizbullah and therefore maybe iran but that includes christians who are allied on that side in syria the. secular socialist kind of semi style and us baath party is in power doesn't sound very much like ayatollah has and she has them and in yemen there are rural eighty's

who are only distantly connected to the shias a movie iran and they have mounted an indigenous. fighting force which by the way is well armed but mainly with the american weapons that were given to it by the faction of the yemeni army from its depots that supported it so the idea of iran as dominating these places is bizarre is iran has. of convenience and it's supporting as i said a secular regime in syria in the same way that saudi arabia supports a secular regime in egypt despite both of these countries being devoted to political islam but the washington. and tel aviv of course and now riyadh are going to be doing a lot of this kind of propaganda it doesn't stand up to analysis ok so if that's my

phone then we can teach and if we just take it as propaganda that doesn't stand up to nonsense as ones that how does saudi how does israel how does perhaps even the u.s. see being kept in baton check we want moves with these countries like to say against her on. well i mean. i know it's propaganda it's bizarre everything that i say is always propaganda and bizarre and i'm and i have no ill dick abilities to analyze any again thanks very much but iran has received international backing through a disagreement that was signed in two thousand and fifteen that allows it to essentially down the line within a matter of a decade or so to acquire nuclear weapons and the fact that they have been allowed to enrich uranium is a major concession this is a real threat to the region iran is a major power as i have said at the beginning it is not

a minor trumpery that can be dismissed it is not being dismissed it is being taken very seriously therefore its ideology is very important and no other person then i upload the whole meaning the founder of the ringin revolution in one nine hundred seventy nine essentially castigated the dice if you would like and and talk spoke against all of the monarchies of the region as being illegitimate this is not me this is ayatollah khomeini same act now of course with the agreement that isn't place now all of the countries of the region led by saudi arabia have got to take measures into their own hands because the agreement is a reality we will wait and see whether president trump in his administration will introduce an changes walk away from to be i don't know what's going to happen on may twelfth but that agreement this step at a time be an old countries of the region including saudi arabia must take it into consideration and i am very confident in saying that if you run pursues its nuclear

program and its aggressive policies throughout the region make no mistake that saudi arabia will also embark down the line to acquire its or nuclear capabilities into future right this is not good for the region ok because that let me just ask you then if it is the region is the well that launch safe without point born in iran. no question about that i think that we are seeing you nuclearization being adopted just about every where where this situation arises including in going to korean peninsula between north and south there is a genuine effort to denuclearize it because you have been set up a few years ago we all recall that libya and south africa you have up south africa gave up their nuclear weapons as well and there are lots of other countries that were contemplating acquiring nuclear weapons but walked away from it there is no

need for iran to have a nuclear capability except except in one case that is to protect the pride john ridley lucian of nineteen seventy nine that we are seeing is creating all kinds of problems and a country iran is a is a huge society it's a dynamic society right but it has its own internal problems as well so therefore the nuclear capability helps the regime in tehran to maintain itself ok in power why didn't the steel let's look at a little bit more it's under threat from the company ministration. terror on at who are willing to renegotiate any part of it. no definitely not the the iranians have they made many sacrifices to get to the deal many people in iran were opposed to the deal and they were now many of them are telling the government i told we told you so so the government made many sacrifices and but both

sides whether those who oppose or those who supported the deal once the face the government decided to sign up to the agreement they all agreed that once that iran since we've made a commitment we will stick to it and iran has been abiding by the agreement from day one in fact they the iranians have been more than what they were even supposed to do in order to create a better environment or for decreasing tensions and that but on the other hand the americans even under obama they began violating the agreements especially articles twenty six to twenty nine from almost the beginning not only they did they passed the iran sanctions act which kerry promised foreign ministers that if not to do they promise they passed a visa restriction laws and the treasury not only does a add individuals and companies to the sanctions this but more importantly behind closed doors they threatened major banks insurance companies and others not to do

business with iran and under trumped the tide even worse so many ronn are saying that we're not benefiting from the agreement and as we speak i cannot send you a single dollar to your bank account or your own four pounds and you cannot do the same either so they're saying well if we exit the green we don't lose too much and right now the situation with russia is much better especially with the relations with between the united states and russia the talk of trade war with china all of these are pushing iran ok and russia and china closer to each other so you ron has options today that it didn't have before but just in response to what your guest in beirut was saying although. he said does it make sense when you listen to what pompei i just said when he went to the senate and he said to the foreign relations committee that before the nuclear deal you ran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon and he was saying this to justify that if the united states exits

the iran is not going to develop a nuclear weapon because they were doing so before and right so basically we're pompei you did unwittingly is that he destroyed and demolished fifteen years of anti iranian propaganda because that's what the americans have been saying for fifteen years that iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon ok but here he says as the head of the cia that this wasn't the case read the one given that iran appears to have these options these other alternatives seems to be happy to walk away from the deal is the u.s. really willing to risk it just so that it can see iran being weakened in the region . well i think what everybody has to remember is that it's a seven nation deal as the u.n. security council plus germany as a kind of representative of the european union and so you could argue it's. thirty six nations deal if one nation the united states pulls out that's it's not clear that the deal can't survive and what the deal did was to lift international you and

security council imposed sanctions on iran boycotts of its economy. and it did not it did not lift the american sanctions in toto as your guest in tehran said but that that was the reason for which the iranians made the deal they want french and russian and chinese and italian and other investment and trade which they can now have and there's no prospect of that necessarily drying up because mr trump in a fit of pique withdraws from the agreement now the united states department of the treasury can impose sanctions on third parties on european and chinese and other firms who do business with both the united states and iran if they feel that they are violating u.s. sanctions and so it is

a stumbling block but it wouldn't necessarily destroy the deal ok joe is it just a minute we've got left in the shifting jay politics of this region what is the extent of it sounds in israel and now on the same page. not just so good in israel but so good yet most of the world in fact i think that joke what if the speaking the region is going through a dramatic transformation you have now if very serious escalation of the conflict with iran turkey and russia essentially reaching all kinds of agreements and a saudi arabia other gulf countries in general with egypt still a pivotal country in the arab world and in coordination with israeli port nation with the united states and major powers on the other side and i think that joke what a deeply speaking what we are seeing now is a dramatic transform ation with few people are willing to really accept this status

school lots of changes are taking place oh should not expect these changes to occur overnight and did you might survive i have i don't know whether it will circle or not but he will certainly be writing out in the coming weeks and months ahead that unfortunately we do have to leave it for today denver and thank you all very much for joining us here on inside story one call mohammad marandi and jessica kitchen and thank you to you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website this al jazeera dot com and if i was gushing to go to a facebook page that's facebook dot com for slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is as a.j. inside story from a laura kyle and the whole team here by. there

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