middle east. we know that. they continue to do that. they continue to try to put instability in the region. their interest is to try to develop a kind of triangle there andeen beirut and damascus baghdad. we know they are working on that because it is obviously a force that has been involved in disrupting areas not only in the middle east, but frankly, elsewhere around the world. so, he yeah. yes.-- so, he that represents a threat as well. but we deal with that question mark that is obviously the fundamental issue. i believe, and i made this recommendation a lot but unfortunately it did not get very far. but i strongly believe that we have to develop a coalition, in middle east coalition of countries. that will work together in cohesion. israel should be part of that collision, frankly. because they, too, are concerned about isis and terrorism and iran. made up ofalition, moderate arab countries in the region, ought to be coming together to establish even a joint military command. identified targe

♪ yousef: welcome to the best of "bloomberg markets: middle east." i'm yousef gamal el-din. the major story driving headlines this week, the saudi king's first ever visit to moscow. president putin hinted at an agreement. meanwhile, weak oil prices continue to impact the economy in qatar. washington says president trump will dump the iran nuclear deal. some in his administration disagree. our executive editor joins us about what to expect from the saudi king's visit to moscow. >> it shows the extent to which russia has succeeded in inserting itself in the middle east. also, a much broader role in building relationships with the saudis. for the saudis, it is crucial. they are seeing the russians as a diversification effort, not the full reliance on u.s. power. no one is saying the relationship with the u.s. is bad, but they are looking for other allies, other relationships to build to protect their own interests. yousef: we've seen big energy deals coming out of this. can we expect tangible results in terms of foreign policy? will they have measured results in key areas? >> s

in the middle east. we have to make that clear and then you have to back it up. and if you do that they will respond. that's the way you deal with them. if you're not tough with putin, if he doesn't understand where the lines are he will continue to take advantage of you. and i think for that reason it is very important for the united states to make very clear that there are lines that he cannot cross both in the middle east as well as in europe. >> and how do you think the administration is doing with russia? >> not so good. i think you have to make those points clear. we know what russia is up to. what they tried to do here in the united states in trying to impact our election process was a cyber attack on the united states. let's face it. this was a cyber attack against our most valuable institution which is the right of american people to exercise their right to vote in an election. and they tried to go after that. and obviously we're now trying to determine just how extensive that was and how we can

we talked with our middle east editor. they have a plan that has a 14, 15 year horizon, if you don't get the balance on, you will struggle to win investor confidence. let me put it in context for you. in the finance minister told ons on tuesday that they are going raisew down austerity and energy prices more gradually, the reaction is, you have different reactions. one is great, this will support the economy and is crucial, the other is itenergy prices more g, the reaction is, you have different reactions. is saudi arabia all over again. it is like past reform attempts. they don't follow through. they nibble to win the narrative battle that they can do this. yousef: we have put this up on the bloomberg for our clients. me, into the chart with 9613. it really lays out the monthly nonoil gdp year on year versus the complete headline gdp at constant prices. the nonoil gdp has grown a little bit. that is the best way to put it, but far away from levels we have seen in prior years. what are they going to do to prevent a further

east given the properly seen our greatest enemies in the middle east sunni islamist terrorism are in fact the same. james speak that is u.s. relations that important with war because i mean if you if you look at all of the numbers you know russian defense spending versus the united states and nato i mean they're not even comparable i mean russia's actually cut down on defense spending people focus in on that looking for a conflict when there really isn't there peter first of all russia u.s. relations of enormous importance to russia the united states remains russia's significant other and despite that discrepancy let me present you with another discrepancy if you look. at the balances of military power in the areas where actual tensions are taking place and where differences of interest are most acute the statistics are tiley the opposite of what you have presented no will be where you you're looking at russia's border here not looking it broke water is also the border of europe now on the border of nato and in this sense this sense alone the situation is more dangerous than a cold w

>> welcome to "the best of bloomberg markets middle east." of the major stories driving headlines. iran reacted to president trump 's harder line by saying it could walk away from the nuclear deal if the u.s. imposed sanctions. we spoke to the ceo. oil traded around three-week highs as exports from northern iraq fell amid fighting between kurdishnt troops and forces. it came as the agency warned geopolitical tensions could affect the rebalancing of oil markets. here's our exclusive interview. >> what we see in terms of demand, very strong growth of oil demand this year. about 1.6 million barrels per day strong growth. we see 1.4ear, million barrels per day. again, strong demand. in terms of supply, we expect the united states, canada, a decent amount of oil to the market. it will depend on what the producers will decide in november of this year to understand the dynamics for next year. if they continue with their tolicies, we expect nex year will will see a rebalancing of the markets. effect not taking into some geopolitical developments. yousef: you have been on record saying you

east given the properly seen our greatest enemies in the middle east certainly islamist terrorism are in fact the same. james speak that is u.s. relations that important war because i mean if you if you look at all of the numbers you know russian defense spending versus the united states and nato i mean they're not even comparable i mean russia is actually cut down on defense spending people focus in on that looking for a conflict when there really isn't there first of all russia u.s. relations of enormous importance to russia the united states remains russia's significant other and despite that discrepancy let me present you with an. the discrepancy if you look. at the balances of military power in the areas where actual tensions are taking place and where differences of interest are most acute the statistics are entirely the opposite of what you have presented no will be you're looking at russia's border here not looking at brussels border it's also the border of europe now on the border of nato and in this sense this sense alone the situation is more dangerous than the cold war bec

♪ yousef: middle east mission, u.s. secretary of state arrives in saudi arabia to begin a tour of the region. that includes iraq, syria and iran. catalonia crisis. the prime minister said he will dismiss the regional president and his government. that an attack on democracy and thousand to fightt on. stay with geopolitics in japan's snap election. are live in tokyo with the very latest. all options are open. opec and its allies say nothing is off the table when it comes to rebalancing the oil market. a.m. in dubai. midday in hong kong. this is "bloomberg markets: middle east." been, weekend has especially in the united states with the equity benchmarked indices hitting records. it is not so much that they are hitting records, but the pace it is being done. these are your friday closings for the s&p 500. 7% for the dow jones. the nasdaq was up 4/10 of 1%. it was not all positive because general electric tumbling after slashing the 2017 profit forecast. this goes to the story of optimism around what donald trump is doing

they wanted the british out of the middle east the germans wanted the british out of the middle east so decided to make common cause with the nazis tried to make contact with them in istanbul the nazis weren't interested nothing came of it. it was a mixture of stupidity and fanaticism they thought that they who should join the enemy of england in order to obtain help for the girls in palestine which was just stupid they were very brave and very stupid people. in february one thousand nine hundred forty two during his arrest in tel aviv by the british. after him stan was shot dead. on the sixth the november one thousand nine hundred forty four left he commanded now by yet sack shania struck back in an unexpected place. cairo. two assassins killed lord moyne the british minister resident in the middle east outside his home. it's hard for me. was a terrorist and not just he but the other members of the stern gang defined themselves as terrorists and wrote that terrorism is a perfectly legitimate means for expelling the foreign occupier from the land of israel. after the end of world war

they wanted the british out of the middle east the germans wanted the british out of the middle east so decided to make common cause with the nazis tried to make contact with them and stumble the nazis weren't interested nothing came of it. it was a mixture of stupidity and fanaticism they thought that they have should join the enemy of england in order to attain help for the girls in palestine which was just stupid they were very brave and very stupid people. in february one thousand nine hundred forty two during his arrest in tel aviv by the british. after him stan was shot dead. on the six that november one thousand nine hundred forty four left he commanded now by yet sack shania struck back in an unexpected place. highroad. two assassins killed lord moyne the british minister resident in the middle east outside his home. it's hard for me. was a terrorist and not just he but the other members of the stern gang defined themselves as terrorists and wrote that terrorism is a perfectly legitimate means for expelling the foreign occupier from the land of israel. after the end of world

this is "bloomberg markets: middle east." i am tracy alloway. lau.: i am angie that optimism in japan is what we are seeing today across the equities space. topics rising to its highest level in more than two years after robust u.s. manufacturing data. what he did was strengthen the u.s. dollar, pushing the yen down and helping to lift the nikkei 225 above that 20,000 mark on .9%. u.s. dollar strength on a number just on e.m.ncy currency. -- on e.m. currency. the austrian dollar on $.77 against the u.s. dollar after the rba kept rates unchanged. tracy? tracy: let's take a look at what is going on in the middle east, starting with oil. both brent and wti treading water but they did have a sharp fall overnight. we are going to be digging into those price moves. take a look at what happened in terms of gulf equities. edx index was the big story, bringing it to its highest level since february. lots of stock specific stories driving that outperformance. title -- thee tadawul was up. dhabi, we dobu have a big story in the debt market. if you take a l

♪ yousef: welcome to the best of "bloomberg markets: middle east." here are the major stories driving headlines in the region. trum's iran policy in focus as donald trump makes a call on whether the u.s. should stick with the deal. meanwhile, the relationship between the u.s. and turkey tumbles to new lows as they stop issuing visas to each other's citizens. let's kick off the show with president trump's attempt to wiggle out of the iran nuclear deal a few days ahead of the deadline to recertify. our correspondent has more. >> president trump has shown he can be unpredictable. there are a few things we expect from this announcement. one is that we think he will be declining to recertify the iran deal, not on the basis they have not been complying with at the deal, because all of the other signatories that oversee the compliance, they all have said iran has been in line with the agreement. but we expect him rather to say it is no longer an interest of the u.s. to have the deal. that's one thing; the other thing is, he will try to put more pressure on

a lot in the middle east are not willing to do that, qatar is one of them. therefore most of the leaders there would say they wish they would say they had a better relationship to the bottom of than president trump. they should. there's no reason why qatar cannot have a very good and strong relationship with the united states. improved weapon sale to them. we have a close partnership on many matters. it is president trump is that, rightly, we need qatar to come back and the fold of our coalition and stop the support for muslim brotherhood affiliations, iran, for instant sending back to tehran a couple years ago after withdrawing it a couple years ago along with all of the other gcc countries. all but one, take that back. so we should have a close relationship. i think president trump is committed in a way president obama never was because of his of session with the nuclear deal with iran, to tell qatar to quit playing both sides of the street in the middle east. to join our coalition once and for all. stop this alignment with extremist muslim rutherford grou

can have peace in the middle east. it is my opinion that we are going to need to solve the ,sraeli-palestinian conflict and it will have to result in a two state solution. one stage for the palestinians and another for israel. once that is done, it will go a long way towards diffusing all a radicalism that is in existence in the middle east that issue of course is not the only issue. it is not the greatest threat to america, but before i begin my talk, let me say how much i appreciate the hudson institute, an organization committed to dialogue and understanding. institutethe hudson for its dedication to american leadership and global engagement , for a secure, free, and prosperous future through the disciplines of defense, economics, health care, technology, culture, and international relations. as well as the rule of law. before we can begin to talk about peace in the middle east or the suppression of violent extremism that is really threatening to the whole world, we have got to look at the issue of islam and islam i

middle east and north africa. he's also an expert on democratization and human rights, an issue he's worked on over the course of his career. we're going to hear more about that tonight, i suspect. elliott has written widely and well on a wide range of topics, and he's written in books and articles and blogposts. i'm not going to go through his very long list of publications. elliott is on the most-prolific end of the spectrum here in the david rockefeller studies program. his most recent book is "tested by zion -- >> i shouldn't say most recent, next to most recent. he writes his blog, "pressure points," which you can find here at cfr.org. i have to say i am contractually obligated to say cfr.org three times. [laughter] every time i speak. two down, one to go. but, of course, tonight we're not here to talk about the last book or to talk about the blog, as good as it is, but talk about elliott's new book, "realism in democracy: american foreign policy after the arab spring." please join me in welcoming elliott her

envoy trying to bring peace to the middle east how is negotiations with himmler helped save thousands of jews from nazi concentration camps and how these mediation skills put him at the vanguard in the quest for peace in the middle east. killing the count at this time on al-jazeera.

middle east sunni islamist terrorism are in fact the same. james speak that is u.s. relations that important with war because i mean if you if you look at all of the numbers you know russian defense spending versus the united states and nato i mean they're not even comparable i mean russia's actually cut down on defense spending people focus in on that looking for a conflict when there really isn't there peter first of all russia u.s. relations of enormous importance to russia the united states remains russia's significant other and despite that discrepancy let me present you with another discrepancy if you look. at the balances of military power in the areas where actual tensions are taking place and where differences of interest are most acute the statistics are tiley the opposite of what you have presented no will be you're looking at russia's border here not looking it broke water is also the border of europe now on the border of nato and in this sense this sense alone the situation is more dangerous than a cold war because then the line

east given the properly seen our greatest enemies in the middle east sunni islamist terrorism are in fact the same. james speak that is us relations that important war because i mean if you if you look at all of the numbers you know russian defense spending versus the united states and nato i mean they're not even comparable i mean russia's actually cut down on defense spending people focus in on that looking for a conflict when there really isn't there peter first of all russia u.s. relations of enormous importance to russia the united states remains russia's significant other and despite that discrepancy let me present you with another discrepancy if you look. at the balances of military power in the areas where actual tensions are taking place and where differences of interest are most acute the statistics are tiley the opposite of what you have presented no a week where you you're looking at russia's border here not looking at brussels it's also the border of europe now on the border of nato and in this sense this sense alone the situation is more dangerous than a cold war becaus

i will pivot is something we care a lot about in the middle east. let's talk about energy, specifically the u.s. shall players. there is an argument that the shale story has also been a capital market story in that you have had a lot of easy financing available to those companies to keep them going. what is the financing environment able for u.s. shale players right now? have an energyou crisis, obviously oil and gas go down drastically as they did, 18-24 months ago, you see who is caught out in terms of over providing, the over providing leverage to the energy world. there ishere has been, so much capital out there you are seeing a lot of people regain access to the capital market, even the world where the prices have rebounded. we've spent a lot of time in direct access to loans to oil and gas companies that have suffered as a result of the prior collapse of prices. given the buoyancy, people are prices goingr for it in resetting capital structures based on that. given the ease with which middle market companies have been able to borrow in high-yi

greatest enemies in the middle east sunni islamist terrorism are in fact the same one james speak to that is u.s. relations that important more because i mean if you if you look at all of the numbers you know russian defense spending versus the united states and nato i mean they're not even comparable i mean brushes actually cut down on defense spending people focus in on that looking for a conflict when there really isn't there peter first of all russia u.s. relations of enormous importance to russia the united states remains russia's significant other and despite that discrepancy let me present you with another discrepancy if you look. at the balances of military power in the areas where actual tensions are taking place and where differences of interest are most acute the statistics are tiley the opposite of what you have presented no will be you're looking at russia's border here not looking at brussels border it's also the border of europe now on the border of nato and in this sense this sense alone the situation is more dangerous than the cold war because then the line of demarc

of the middle east conflicts especially given the kid that received managing successfully managing so far to its own interest the conflict in syria after geneva failed a stand led by a russian is making progress and the other major reason actually russia built with the bill it is in the region that it's able and willing and supports its allies even autocratic allies in these these countries all the way to the end no matter how much the price is going to be like as again the lessons learned from from syria russia goes all the way in supporting autocratic regimes and this is especially important to link it to the current visit of king solomon is that we have to keep in mind that preparations for succession in saudi arabia is happening. as searching for support of power transition to his son after actually the love the very good lessons. drawn from the war and the gulf crisis so for russia to be at this particular stage i think the more support to the succession that saudi arabia is preparing and that's what also contributed to the motivation of. can we also see is perhaps as saudi arabi

that year transformed the middle east and changed the world. in that year radical islamist ideology rippled around the globe. and the revolution in iran brought the ayatollah and his oppressive shia theocracy to power. that same year a dark veil of sunni extremism fell over saudi arabia and other arab nations and also that year the soviets invaded afghanistan and the mujahadin under the leadership of osama bin laden became a force to be reckoned with. it was as if time had gone backwards. and today 38 years later and 16 years after 9/11 the threat landscape remains. the ayatollahs more powerful than ever. the sunni extremists continue their reign of terror. and the russians have returned to the region to control the ports in syria and prop up the dictator bashar al assad. fortunately, last week we saw a crushing blow to ice nis ra isi syria and before that in mosul. as i watched the so-called caliphate metastasize in iraq and syria under the previous administration and over the life of my chairmanship and after constant briefings on their exter

♪ yousef: welcome to the best of "bloomberg markets: middle east ." here are the major stories driving headlines in the region. iran's policy in focus as donald trump makes a call on whether the u.s. should stick with the deal. meanwhile, the relationship between the u.s. and turkey tumbles to new lows as they stop issuing visas to each other's citizens. let's kick off the show with president trump's attempt to wiggle out of the iran nuclear deal a few days ahead of the deadline to recertify. our correspondent has more. this is bloomberg. president trump has shown he can be unpredictable. we think he will be declining to recertify the iran deal, not on beenasis they have not complying with at the deal, because all of the other signatories that oversee the compliance, they all have said iran has been in line with the agreement. we expect him rather to say it is no longer an interest of the u.s. to have the deal. that is one thing geared the try tohing is, he will put more pressure on iran and probably pointing to elements of contention traditionally be

deals with the middle east it doesn't think about the consequences the unintended consequences and i think we're at one of those nexus points right now well very clearly i mean it's it's run by reflexes and prejudices and we have people pointed out the neo cons that a lot of the democratic establishment are equally anti iran as well so but i don't think most american people are really ready for another war in the middle east i mean afghan this. iraq syria how many more wars to they want the congo for the ones they've got i mean this is you know it's a proxy war at the moment there's yemen coming up i think that once people begin to realize what's behind these obscure foreign names on the people americans will start to die and we have to come back to the logic of this no matter what you think of the regimes in pyongyang altera if you are threatened by the super bad in the world with overwhelming i have mentioned general names they may run out of time but one they want a weapon seems a ruptured irish unlocked and i think we all would agree going down the path of war never makes any sen

deals with the middle east it doesn't think about the consequences the unintended consequences and i think we're at one of those nexus points right now well very clearly i mean it's it's run by reflexes and prejudices and we have people pointed out that the neo cons that a lot of the democratic establishment are equally anti around as well so but i don't think most american people are really ready for another war in the middle east i mean afghan this. iraq syria how many more wars to they want they can cope with the ones they've got i mean this is you know it's a proxy war at the moment there's yemen coming up i think that once people begin to realize what's behind these obscure foreign names on the people of americans will start to die and we have to come back to the logic of this were no matter what you think of the regimes in pyongyang or terror and if you are threatened by the super bad in the world with overwhelming i have mentioned general lives on a daily mail run out of time then one day will be a weapon it seems the rest should i rush unlocks i think we all would agree going

of the middle east conflicts especially given the kid that received managing successfully managing so far its own interest the conflict in syria after geneva failed a stand led by russia is making progress and the other major reason actually russia built cleared the billeted in the region that it's able and willing and supports its allies even autocratic allies in these these countries all the way to the end no matter how much the price is going to be like as again the lessons drawn from from syria russia goes all the way in supporting autocratic regimes and this is especially important to link it to the current visit of king solomon is that we have to keep in mind that preparations for succession in saudi arabia is happening . as searching for support of power transition to his son after actually the love the very good lessons. drawn from the war and the gulf crisis so for russia to be at this particular stage i think the more support to the succession that saudi arabia is preparing and that's what also contributed to the motivation of. can we also see is perhaps as saudi arabia tryi

east given the properly seen our greatest enemies in the middle east sunni islamist terrorism are in fact the same. james speak that is u.s. relations that important war because i mean if you if you look at all of the numbers you know russian defense spending versus the united states and nato mean they're not even comparable i mean russia is actually cut down on defense spending people focus in on that looking for a conflict when there really isn't there peter first of all russia u.s. relations of enormous importance to russia the united states remains russia's significant other and despite that discrepancy let me present you with another discrepancy if you look. at the balances of military power in the areas where actual tensions are taking place and where differences of interest are most acute the statistics are tiley the opposite of. what you have presented now will be you're looking at russia's border here not looking it broke it's also the border of europe now on the border of nato and in this sense this sense alone the situation is more dangerous than the cold war because then

middle east politics that this is a good they commit the problem that we have is donald trump's promised campaign to turn up the nuclear age limit and then we have a small minority of iran harks that don't like the agreement and what they are planning to do apparently is to have it both ways basically to have sanctions to have more sanctions and then at the same time not technically while at the agreement so they will have restrictions iran's nuclear program and this is not going to be good news for you know indian officials that accepted the agreement the agreements the idea behind the agreement was to reduce sanctions not to increase sanctions and iran has the old feel like that says that this could be good in your mind around the wing of the. yes i think so because. nor iranian politician can justify putting severe lacerations on iran's nuclear program and at the same time get a new sanctions alone reveal so this is going to be difficult for you don't know officials to continue it and i think this is going to put the nuclear agreement in serious jeopardy hellery him what's the strateg

we will be interested in the middle east middle east for a long time to come. they could actually make the middle east more important for the source of oil and i think people find it quite interesting. this is the value the foreign policy and energy markets together. i think the assumption is if they could play out. i see others here that could talk to us about the different projections about how energy markets could look in the future. they were in a world most people would say that to be bad for the middle east. it could be bad in some ways. a lot of higher cost producers outside of the golf could no longer decide to produce. it's not commercial for them to produce. more of the oil that is consuming would actually come from the middle east. you could find us in a situation they have more influence than they do right now on global politics. in your view with the sanctions on iran that got them to the table the nuclear deal. i think this is the really interesting story here and i do think the situation in the united states and increase it really creates an envi

they wanted the british out of the middle east the germans wanted the british out of the middle east so decided to make common cause with the nazis tried to make contact with them and stumble the nazis weren't interested nothing came of it. it was a mixture of stupidity and fanaticism they thought that they have should join the enemy of england in order to obtain help for the girls in palestine which was just stupid they were very brave and very stupid people. in february one thousand nine hundred forty two during his arrest in tel aviv by the british. after him stan was shot dead. on the six the november one thousand nine hundred forty four lead he commanded now by yet sack shania struck back in an unexpected place. cairo. two assassins killed lord moyne the british minister resident in the middle east outside his home. it's hard for me. was a terrorist and not just he but the other members of the stern gang defined themselves as terrorists and wrote that terrorism is a perfectly legitimate means for expelling the foreign occupier from the land of israel. after the end of world war

a nuclear agreement and you know and has been asking for many years for a nuclear free middle east and the people who have been opposing it. hawkish elements in washington that are in power the israeli government and basically u.s. allies all right leave it there we thank you very much for joining us to all of my guests. hellery mann leverett and thought it out to thank you for speaking to us on inside story and thanks for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com for further discussion you can go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com for its story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story from myself and the whole team here in the by for now. in the hash tag era when news coverage consists of a punk jihad line a five second sound bite and an easy solution. delve deep of them says challenge the status quo expose double standards and debate the contradictions join me sunday for a new season of the show the frank. and up front. about this time i'll just hear it . with bureaus spawning six conti

east, equilibrium in the middle east, which would mean a percentage gained by iran in the region and that is what we are seeing. >> how do you feel about the trump administration's policy? >> they have said the right thing, a week and a half ago, they said the right thing, the focus, the question is the ground game, the question is that granularity in detail on the ground that you need to do the challenge not just by passing some laws or talking about money coming in. that is a small part of it. can you really have a ground game with half the state department -- >> that is part of the ground game. the work of development, politics, relationships, the work of the intelligence community, all of that has to be part of our response to what they are doing. >> i would not trivialize things, they are not a small part, there's a whole bunch of big parts, not just going to go away on their own. i know you didn't say that. >> last time -- >> there has been a great deal said that is true and needs to be said, i won't go over the same ground, from the earlier discussion, the flexibility of the u

s celebrate with troy all small national contribution to the creation of a democracy in the middle east sharif for those who suffered from anti-semitism and fear its rise again and in the state of israel a true friend of the united kingdom mase reply ritually came within an hour that israel announced illegal jewish settlements in the heart of a palestinian neighborhood of east jerusalem we are proud of the role that we played in the creation of the state of israel and we will certainly mark the centenary withdrawing of course it is the creation of israel which fostered islamism in the middle east israel after all funded them us the belfer declaration would also help to cause havoc in the region rich in fossil fuels but a different kind of fossil fuel havoc was addressed by the s. and p. at this week's pm queues the scottish parliament voted by ninety one votes to twenty eight to fracking in scotland. the prime minister why she wouldn't consider . following school and introducing an interesting a moratorium in the rest of united kingdom in order that it could be a fleet of valuation of t

deals with the middle east it doesn't think about the consequences the unintended consequences and i think we're at one of those nexus points right now well very clearly i mean it's it's a pretty it's run by reflexes and prejudices and we have people pointed out the neo cons that a lot of the democratic establishment are equally anti around as well so but i don't think most american people are really ready for another war in the middle east afghan this. iraq syria how many more wars to they want they can cope with the ones they've got i mean this is you know it's a proxy war at the moment there's yemen coming up i think that once people begin to realize what's behind these obscure foreign names on the people of americans will start to die and we have to come back to the logic of this no matter what you think of the regimes in pyongyang or terror and if you are threatened by the super bad in the world with overwhelming i have mentioned gentlemen on a daily mail run out of time then one day will be a weapon it seems the rest should i rush unlocks i think we all would agree going down t

envoy trying to bring peace to the middle east how is negotiations with himmler helped save thousands of jews from nazi concentration camps and how these mediation skills put him at the vanguard in the quest for peace in the middle east. killing the count at this time on al-jazeera. again and a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera the u.s. secretary of state is warning that found here arabia is not yet ready to begin to wreck talks with doha to resolve the gulf crisis japan's prime minister shinzo ave has swept a victory in the election after promising to strengthen toughen his stance on north korea and revive the economy. and a u.s. bikes rebel group has captured syria's largest oil field from i saw the kurdish led syrian democratic forces are in a race against the russian backed syrian troops to seize parts of the oil rich region. spain's foreign minister is urging people in catalonia not to listen to their regional leaders as madrid moves to take control of the region on saturday the spanish prime minister mariano rajoy announced measures to suspend the catalan parliament and

most american observations of iran and the middle east politics that this is a good accurate the problem that we have is donald trump's promised new campaign to turn up the nuclear energy mentor and then we have a small minority of iran harks that don't like the agreement and what they are planning to do apparently is to have it both ways basically to have sanctions to have more sanctions and then at the same time not technically while at the agreement so they will have restrictions iran's nuclear program and this is not going to be good news for you know in a fissures that accepted the agreement the agreements the idea behind the agreement was to reduce sanctions not to increase sanctions and iran has the old feel like that says that this could begin in your mind around the wing of the. yes i think so because. nor iranian politician can justify putting severe the sections on the un's nuclear program and at the same time get a new sanctions alone reveal so this is going to be difficult for you don't know officials to continue it and i think this is going to put the nuclear agreement in s

deals with the middle east it doesn't think about the consequences the unintended consequences and i think we're at one of those nexus points right now well very clearly i mean it's it's a it's run by reflexes and prejudices and we have people pointed out the neo cons that a lot of the democratic establishment are equally anti iran as well so but i don't think most american people are really ready for another war in the middle east i mean afghan this. iraq syria how many more wars to they want they can cope with the ones they've got i mean this is you know it's a proxy war at the moment there's yemen coming up i think that once people begin to realize what's behind these obscure foreign names on the people of americans will start to die and we have to come back to the logic of this we no matter what you think of the regimes in pyongyang or terror and if you are threatened by the super bad in the world with overwhelming i have mentioned general lives on a daily mail run out of time then one day will be a weapon it seems the rest should i rush unlocks i think we all would agree going d

we are calling for peace in the middle east. we are pleading with those people who have degenerated to the point that they are using innocent people as shields, where their bodies will be cut part by slap nell or enemy fire. so it is just and right for us today. this is part of a bigger problem, and that is that you have the leadership in that part of the world and the middle east, islamic leaders in that part of the world, refuse to recognize israel and its right to exist. whether they are using their people as human shields to accomplish their mission, whether they are allied with the mullah regime who chants death to israel, no, when those people, whether it's iran or hezbollah or allies throughout the middle east recognize israel has a right to exist, a major step forward would happen. instead they play games about the right of return. so how would israel ever be able to accept the fact that their country is going to be taken over the minute they make some kind of an agreement to let them do so. no, what we are calling out f

of the middle east conflicts especially given the kid that received managing successfully managing so far to its own interest the conflict in syria after geneva failed a stand led by russia is making progress and the other major reason actually russia built with the billeted in the region that it's able and willing and supports its allies even autocratic allies in these countries all the way to the end no matter how much the price is going to be like as again the lessons learned from from syria russia goes all the way in supporting autocratic regimes and this is especially important to link it to the current visit of king solomon is that we have to keep in mind that preparations for succession in saudi arabia is happening . as searching for support of power transition to his son after actually the love the very good lessons. drawn from the war and the gulf crisis so for russia to be at this particular stage i think the more support to the succession that saudi arabia is preparing and that's what also contributed to the motivation of. can we also see is perhaps as saudi arabia trying t

have a strategy of post isis middle east? let's asked retired four star general jack keane, fox news military analyst, so general, welcome, good to have you back. let me ask you first before we get to raqqah about general john kelly's statement at the white house on thursday. what did you make of that statement? jack: well, i've never seen anything like that 17-minute message that he delivered to the american people, the eloquence of conviction, zingerty -- sincerity was powerful civic lesson to the american people letting them understand the most sacred process and i agree with crushing rebuke of congresswoman wilson and entering into that process and discrediting the soldier and his family as a result of exposing it to a public discussion and debate. paul: all right, thank you. now, on raqqah, how big a defeat is this losing that territory, the second capital after they lost mosul in iraq? jack: first terrorist organization that took safe haven right in middle of active country like that. this is a resilient organization, s

whether in asia or the middle east. such as saudi arabia. but if the administration, the president has a kind of happy and and half out attitude toward something that mary just described, our allies in the middle east, such as saudi arabia, the kurds who we just more or less abandoned to the iraqis are going to stand back and say, i don't know if we can get in this by that you're going to try and take to the iranians. >> for mary, the president and a basic campaign just it would -- and going to defeat isis and stop iran from getting a nuclear weapon. he eedidn't say anything else about what to do is syria and no strategy, no plan. i don't see any real willingness to deploy any american troops back there. was the president also said he was going to get out of afghanistan. remember that? they spent six months studying the issue and went on national television and said, i made a mistake during the campaign. i was wrong. here is my comprehensive strategy. we are changing paths and hopefully he will do the same when it comes to policy in the midd

east and beyond. importantly, iran is not living up to the spirit of the deal. so today, in recognition of the increasing men ace imposed by iran and after extensive consultations with our allies, i'm announcing a new strategy to address the full range of iran's destructive actions. first, we will work with our allies to counter the regime's destabilizing activity and support for terrorists' proxies in the region. second, we will place additional sanctions on the regime to block their financing of terror. third, we will address the regime's proliferation of missiles and weapons that threaten its neighbors. and finally we will deny the regime, all paths to a nuclear weapon. today, i'm also announcing several major steps my administration is taking in pursuit of this strategy. the execution of our strategy begins with the long overdue step of imposing tough sanctions on iran's islamic revolutionary guard corps. the revolutionary guard is the iranian supreme leaders' corrupt personal terror force and mil

our middle east team leader joins us now with more. we didn't have this positive signal last week,a big deal, women being allowed to drive, but it came hot on the heels of another crackdown on dissent. for me it is difficult to measure those two things. how is saudi arabia effecting reform while handling its traditional, conservative saudi scholars and clerics? >> they are linking both. there is a crackdown on dissent, and the justification is, according to analysts, to push these controversial reforms without much opposition. especially before that current administration, the saudi ruling system was based on a consensus among senior princes and with the clerical establishment. some of these clerics have been sidelined so the reforms can go ahead. obviously, what could be risky doing awayically with the alliance between the ruling family and the clerical establishment and relying on the wider population. it's risky because we don't know how it will pan out. >> this is the other thing i wanted to ask you. there is a great bloomberg stor

in certain parts of the middle east but i don't think that there is ever going to be such a territorial territorial project again unless the main players which are the syrian regime and other powers in the middle east a letting it happen either voluntarily or out of carelessness and i think this is the danger of the ideology of jihadism the ideology that that that empowered or the so-called islamic state is still present globally it's still having a lot of attracting a lot of disciples and even though the territorial project might be dead jihadism a still alive and still very dangerous ok daniel fascinating stuff here and you're going to actually stick with us because we want to get your perspective on happenings elsewhere in the region we're actually going to head now to syria's neighbor iraq where government forces say that they have taken control of all major oil fields in the disputed northern province of care cook as follows fast on the heels of their capture of the kurdish held city of kirkuk have a lot of. celebrations as iraqi forces ruling. supporters of the iraqi central gover

look at what's happened in the middle east. we have done more in eight months than the previous administration has done in many years. now, what happens is you decimate them and that's what we've done. we have decimated isis in the middle east. they go to africa. they go to places. when they get there, we meet them there. that's what goes on. it's a tough business. it's a tough war. but we are winning it and you know what? we're going to continue winning it. with that being said, my generals and my military, they have decision-making ability. as far as the incident that we're talking about, i've been seeing it just like you've been seeing it. i've been getting reports. they have to meet the enemy and they meet them tough. that's what happens i was extremely nice to her. she sounds like a lovely lady. i've never met her but she sounds like a lovely lady. but i was extremely nice to her. i was extremely courteous. as i was to everyone else. you know, it's interesting, you folks evacuation called many people that i spoke to. every

that's not a viable group for us to be supporting in the middle east. one of the other groups that is frequently pointed to is the green movement. this is the sort of moderate reformist group that was, that rose up in the context of the 2009 contested presidential elections in iran. the reason we can't support them in the hopes of regime change is because they have articulated no desire to overthrow the iranian regime. in fact, they want to work inside the political system. and any whiff of support from the united states would quickly evaporate their domestic support base. so they're not a viable candidate. we really don't have any viable candidates inside iran to try to support and overthrow the regime. so then there's direct military action. perhaps the most dramatic and drastic option. hopefully, the trump administration's not actively pursuing this approach at this moment, but the first problem here is that a strike against iran would be illegal, right? in both international and domestic law. i don't really -- i'm not, i try not to predict things ab

and france and most recently the us have had to have done in the middle east these are all things that are historical that go back a long time and there cannot just be fixed in a matter of a decade or more. the borders of many of these countries see both in the middle east and in africa a completely artificial and all of those things now a plane rolled into this mr by the mature you just said that there is things cannot be fixed in an hour in a matter of years and yet there has been some a temporary solution to it i know that you believe that you're bound migration was state stabilized largely because of the agreement between the e.u. and turkey and i'm correct recently has been i think very blunt about using blackmail to get what it wants how stable is that migration stabilisation isn't europe still add at the mercy of president erred on the whole i think once referred to migration as a tap that can be turned on and off yes and you know certainly he holds the upper hand on this and he always threatens to use it but so far he hasn't. and the reason that he hasn't i suspect is because h