arabia saudi arabia cannot last for two weeks i mean they have to pay they have to pay and the saudi has not given a single clear stronger response to. the statement and the other hand we see them they thought they took really serious step i got guns canada this show you that what you were thrown by has actually said it was really that the existence of saudi arabia cannot continue only with the help of the united states and i'm going to just tell you that here in yemen actually we think that trump can say one of the best president of the united states because all the previous president for example they have started war in afghanistan in iraq in syria in libya. obama. raised in this war against yemen and why we think that is the best because he actually exposed the united states is not about the value is not about spreading democracy is not about the freedom of speech is about who's going to pay trump is likely he's now leading the largest medicine every army in the world and clearly that you pay him he can silence the anyone on his step that he that he will continue his relation with

saudi arabia i'm joined by my guest hussein. and suddenly he's a yemeni journalist in riyadh we have made it bram he is a us sodhi relations expert and in brighton we crossed to katherine shocked she is a senior analyst with bio on center all right cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate command let me go to you first in riyadh how are you reacting to the rebuke from the u.s. senate was quite strong unanimous when it came to close shogi and the majority when it came to america's at least how the senate sees america's role your countries led war against yemen so what's the reaction there your reaction and if you just want to repeat the government's reaction that's all right as well go ahead in riyadh. well definitely peter as you know with the saudi arabia. news they actually denounce what the congress have done the congress itself you know too many people does doesn't understand they always have these kinds of symbolic agreement of doing things but that doesn't mean that it'

and over a year saudi arabia there is a young man who was 17 who was picked up on death row and set to be executed and chris on - - crucified. so we believe in god but we will execute and crucify. >> i just passed-- democratic senator on the way over here and he had not heard of it we are reading about this from the media i could not be asked to be included we did not know it would happen this is not the way it should be she should have testified before all senators and if you have some senators that our more equal than others that is not democratic representation every senator should have equal access to intelligence . >> i worked for four people jimmy carter, bill clinton, barack obama and donald trump to my surprise. i also came to understand about donald trump and this is profoundly important for the way things work now is in his heart of hearts he believes he always wins. here is a guy who has been in new york real estate boxing and wrestling beauty contest television construction never been subject to a criminal investigation that is astonishing in new york city. [applause] go

senate is turning against saudi arabia. that is a war powers act trump would not have authorization to attack iran. i do not think it is excluded, but the possibility has lessened. we should ask -- how did the west get it so wrong? we love reformers. he let women drive. cinemas. he cracked down on the religious police. a reporter for the new york arab springd about in saudi arabia and we fell into this trap until he started doing and rash, destabilizing, immoral things. basically the west thought he was good news. how did we get it so wrong? >> saying one man would like to offer mohammad bin salman the benefit of the doubt. >> they have not assessed anything yet. it is a premature report. we will see. we will have a report tuesday. it will be very complete. we will be doing things to some people we know who were involved and we are being tough on people. >> what is the calculus of the president? >> i have a new year's resolution which i have started. -- i refuse to discuss anald trump unless there is american medical associ

it is extraordinary what happened, but it is on the heels of bad behavior by saudi arabia. on the heels of an on just war killing civilians in yemen. on the heels of irrational behavior blockading cutter and also on the heel of saudi arabia have thousand people in prison with no trial, there been in prison for over here. there is a young man who was 17 when he was picked up at a relative. he is on death row is said to be executed and crucified. there is a game being played. we are going to let women drive, but we're still going to execute and crucified people. >> i was not notified of the hearing. i just past a democrat senator on the way over here and asked about it, he had not heard of it. we are reading about this in the media, so i can't even asked to be included because i did not know what happened except for reading about it in the media. that is not the way it should be. she should've testified before all senators, and if you have some senators more equal than others, that is not democratic representation. every senator is equal and should have equal access to the in

saudi arabia has a young man who is 17 when he was picked up at a rally. he is on death row and set to be executed and crucified. there's a game being played. we're going to let women drive but we're going to execute and kill people. crucify people. >> sen. paul: i was not notified on the hearing. i passed a democrat senator and he had not heard about itch we're reading it in the media. i couldn't ask about being included in it, because i wasn't told about it 67 am if you have some senators that with are more equal than others that is not democratic representation. every senator should have equal access to the intelligence. >> when the new congress takes office in january it will have the youngest most diverse freshman class in recent history. new congress, new leaders. watch it live on c-span. starting january 3rd. >> here's some of what we're covering wednesday. president george h.w. bush leaves the capitol after lying in state for two days. the departure ceremony is at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. 24 first lady and president trump will attend with worl

arabia taking to twitter donald trump urged saudi arabia to refrain from output cuts in order to keep gasoline prices low for u.s. consumers saudi policy makers may be reluctant to go against him off to the murder . and it unleashed a fuse a lot of criticism from american lawmakers leaving the president as one of prince mohammed's few remaining allies in washington that might throw drivers but countries relying on oil exports to finance their economies toppy about current price levels for the last three months oil has been heading steadily downhill for the start of october a barrel of north sea brant crude stood at a respectable eighty six dollars. by the end of november it was struggling at fifty seven dollars though it stabilized for now at sixty that's causing oil producers a lot of financial problems so much so that the organization of petroleum exporting countries has put production cuts high on the agenda of its latest vienna meeting. with the if. you. want to see where you. should be tied to. this is. economics one zero one if output and supply falls prices rise. the u.s. is by

it is on the heels of that behavior by saudi arabia. an unjust warf killing civilians in yemen. on the heels of irrational behavior blocking -- blockading qatar. saudi arabia has a young man who was 17 when he was picked up in a rally and he is on death row. there is a game being played. we will let women drive but we are still going to execute and crucify people. sen.ter: [indiscernible] paul: i was not notified of the hearing. i just passed a democrat senator on the way here and he had not heard of it. we are reading about it in the media. i could not ask to be included. it shouldt the way be. she should have come to testify in front of all senators. if you have some that are more powerful than others, that is not equal representation. reporter: [indiscernible] >> this week on the , christina chaplin whose government accountability office report says that the pentagon's weapon system cyber security is vulnerable. they do not even test systems for the kinds of threats you might see from russia, china, and north korea. they are not allowed to in terms of testing. they do not wan

handled it afterwards for several weeks we've had saudi arabia embarrassing. behavior one day after another losing credibility when the n.f.l. another and set in losing legitimacy in the eyes of its own partners especially in the west whereby there was no more trust that three odd could in fact do go with business as usual so it was clear that something got to give it could be regime change because it is what it is in saudi arabia and the crown prince is in charge and he is the one who is god fathering any change in the kingdom. and yet he needs to do something so it is far less than regime change but it is more than cosmetics in the sense that i think saudi arabia has to be responsive to the international community especially to the international business community because if so you're a b a wants to go on with the plans two thousand and thirty and so on so forth that the crown prince championed for the last three years then it had to do some changes now it got rid of bad record alger bad could not defend the indefensible which is the murder of her job she ap

the the construction process in yemen is saudi arabia's number one priority yemen is saudi arabia's war it's not the case in syria for saudi arabia to pay for yemen it becomes more of a creative syria which is not the case here and as he's talking about a nickel a let me go to you i saw you nodding along as ibrahim was talking about the economic situation in saudi arabia and whether or not saudi arabia would actually have the money to pay for reconstruction in syria what are your views on that. well i agree that the price of the reconstruction will be huge at least two hundred billion dollars and that will require participation of many countries. well the saudi participation will be definitely welcome but will well the europeans will have to participate well the iranians will have to participate the russians everybody who is engaged in this conflict will have to invest in the future of syria otherwise the country will remain in ruins so my expectation is that this eldest will provide some money but not even. well unlike it's unlikely that they will give more than ten billion dollars

well you know saudi arabia has been the linchpin of u.s. policy in the middle east that in israel for ever since the iranian revolution and seventy nine when the united states really was pushed out of the entire gulf region because saddam hussein was in iraq and doubled down on saturday via built nine nuclear hardened bases around saturday with the saudis paid for it all but the pertinence is the military complex in saudi arabia is better than anything in nato and the united states can project power from that region and keep its control over the persian gulf and that means it has its hand firmly on the oil tap and if the united states learned one thing in world war two it was that oil makes the world go round and in many ways the allies defeated it later yes because hundreds of the control of oil and the russians know this better than anybody because they fought stalin grodd which was about hitler getting to russian oil and by the caspian sea they stopped hitler they won the war and today the united states is geared up for world war three o

president donald trump's policy to stand by saudi arabia no matter what the u.s. senate has passed a resolution symbolically ending all u.s. military support for saudi and emirates the forces fighting in the yemeni civil war the war in yemen is on authorize there has never been a vote in congress who allow our men and women to participate in that war and therefore that war is unconstitutional i have also been deeply concerned that the president continues to ignore human rights violations the suppression of dissent and the deaths of thousands of civilians in yemen in order to maintain good relations with the saudis. legislators have been worried for some time about the civilian suffering in yemen but the saudi government's murder of journalist jamal khashoggi in october set off a wave of anger bipartisan anger not seen on capitol hill in some time legislators have demanded and received closed door briefings from the cia director and the secretaries of state and defense i can't mention some of the things that they have told us yesterday and today but i do think that

arabia in yemen then he further says on the other hand saudi arabia would gladly withdraw from yemen if the iranians would agree and saudi arabia would gladly withdraw from yemen if the iranians would agree to leave this would immediately provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance additionally saudi arabia has agreed to spend billions of dollars in leading the fight against radical islamic terrorism and we could spend hours to selecting those few sentences here it seems to me that the reality is completely opposite of how president trump and mike palm pale john bolton are characterizing what's going on in yemen right now your reaction joshua. well it is and the u.n. resolution they passed on yemen is really it requires the who these in the north to completely surrender and it is quite clear they're not going to do it and any effort to force them to surrender is going to require taking data the pork and from which all of the grain goes and humanitarian assistance it would cause widespread famine from one end of yemen to the other right now that peace talks are going on to try

a must take a tougher stance against saudi arabia in the wake of jamal because. to me it is a defining moment for us as a nation for the future of saudi arabia and for the mideast in general there are a lot of that actors in the mideast we just don't need to condone any more than we have to. and this is a situation where you don't have to they need us a lot more than we need them the relationship paul valuable in the past has become too much of a burden and as long as india says around. don't think it will ever be normal again well al-jazeera castro is live for us from washington d.c. heidi they've already been a few procedural votes how's it all progressing that's right it looks like the final vote may not happen until tomorrow morning but with the bipartisan majorities those procedural votes have cleared those hurdles so the final vote is expected to be yes come morning and when and if that happens this will make u.s. history it would be the first time that the war powers act of one nine hundred seventy three has been enacted that act stipulates that it is only

saudi arabia has with the. assassination of jamal khashoggi that probably the trouble is capitalizing on this because the saudi regime at the moment is in the most vulnerable position probably since two thousand and one since september eleventh so sound at a bit of this at this moment is not able to engage in this. struggle in the region because again it's its image of consideration as to how to end this political crisis which by the way a charm but mr shin has used very well with that in terms of. trying to build relations and build deals and make autumn sales and supporting does the saudi regime so the saudi him is vulnerable but i don't think that this is going to reach to a point where saudi arabia is willing to finance a huge task like that he financing of the reconstruction in syria so for the. even if they want they don't have the money to do with a nickel at this stage with russia playing such an outsized role in syria any reconstruction effort that goes ahead would have to be coordinated closely with t

with regard to mbs >> with regard to mbs and saudi arabia, the decision-making process in saudi arabia, not only is murky, it's always been murky, it's harder than the kremlin, a more complex puzzle, the dearth of good information and knowledgeable sources, et cetera, makes it almost a fool's game. i do think, though, we can be sure of two things. number one, mbs, young, audacious, et cetera, has an enormous amount of power. the degree to which the changes that he has overseen in the past two years constitute a self-coup, which i've been calling it from the beginning since the ritz-carlton thing. it can't be overstated. the old system of saudi arabia, which was a monarch and modern f futilism and checks and balances in the royal family, all that is pretty much wrecked and there's been a tremendous concentration of power around the crown prince. it also needs to be said that the authority for all of this comes from the king, you know. in other words the king is a non-controversial figure relatively in saudi arabia. his authority is uncontested, his right to be king is uncontested, his a

in the saudi consulate in istanbul saudi arabia has faced international backlash including from the u.s. congress who said crown prince mohammed bin son man was responsible for murder during a regional summit earlier this month denied the crown prince's involvement and see this with regards to issuing an arrest warrant we don't extradite our citizens i believe turkey's constitution prohibits the extradition of turkish citizens to be a was appointed foreign minister by king selman in twenty fifteen a month after saudi arabia went to war in yemen is strikes were launched with the aim of quickly crippling who think fighters backed by iran and stage the war has dragged on for almost four years killing at least sixty thousand yemenis he's also overseen turmoil within the g.c.c. including a saudi lead in land and sea blockade of qatar for the past eighteen months or moves that have stalled controversy around the kingdom something his successor at last if no one here it's by having brought him last of who was an he's a veteran he was a minister of finance for twenty years from one nine hundred

arabia saudi arabia is not in a position. to finance our reconstruction reconstruction process in syria first of all because reconstruction of syria for saudi arabia means one major thing which is that a move all of the iranian influence from syria which is not going to happen because iran has invested so far seven years military finance and the troops on the ground it's not going to influence for money and for that reason that's the only thing that saudi arabia would be an incentive for so that it to finance and to pay for the reconstruction process there is no political settlement there is no political agreement that has been breached between the parties which would allow saudi arabia to pay for this and the other major problem actually when we talk about funding any construction process in syria we're talking about the most conservative numbers two hundred to three hundred billion dollars saudi arabia does not have the money to pay not even fractions of this one and dual which is more important to be taken into considerati

of course, this is not true of saudi arabia. particularly under mohammed is anti-muslim brotherhood to some extent come in a more general sense, but you can't have saudi arabia standing in the way between religion and politics because saudi arabia presents itself as an which is a religious state, custodian of the mosques and a pure islamic state with the koran as its constitution and all that, so it's not possible. secondly, you know, you could say well, the difference between status quo islamic politics or republican versus monarchical, the point is, there is no clear break in saudi arabia, the way there is. the second thing is that mohammed is not categorically opposed to all muslim brothers. the example here is yemen. saudi arabia in the northern part of yemen, where it has been operating has been increasingly working with a muslim brotherhood party in yemen which presents itself as part of this wave of post- islamist groups, who have broken with three aspects of muslim brotherhood structure,, which is the revolutionary natur

and saudi arabia. the absolutely right i think the saudis they had been pursuing a very damaging from policy in my opinion especially over the past two years since the ascendancy of france mohammad pencil man since he became competence in on two thousand and seventy. and i think the saudis this out with the saudis this for this foreign policy actually is in might be in backfiring because at that time when they are actually saying that they want to cut through contact. policies and the region and yemen and syria and iraq and and lebanon everywhere they are in fact as i said best selling a very damaging foreign policy because they. policy led in fact to dividing. the air it also actually led to increasing iranian influence somehow and and the region by actually forcing qatar to. get closer to iran and you know qatar in fact has withdrawn its ambassador from thailand in two thousand in early two thousand and sixteen during the crisis of. the storming of the of the saudi embassy in tehran and the saudi con

arabia in between what common interests to saudi arabia pursue with russia where they're interested of course and high oil prices of course they have also some connections on other political issues but they are both interested on high oil prices because their country is very much rely on oil exports and the income which comes out of it and this is one reason why they stick together and want to have. high overpriced now but will be defied donald trump and he mocked the saying you know don't talk to oil prices what trump is ambiguous because of the one hand he says we want to have no lower gasoline prices in that in his country for his voters on the other hand who represents also the oil fracking industry and they want to have high or prices so i would say the opec a will most likely also agree on an opec reduction production reduction or cut or oil production but we will see how trump reacts definitely very soon afterwards i'm sure about that claudia comfort energy expert at the german institute for economic research thank you so much for the time thank you. asian markets dropped tod

punishing saudi arabia may come as early as next week. military support is for the saudi involvement. it's something very rare indeed. not just in yemen but as a punishment for the killing of jamal khashoggi. as there has been a new twist in the trunk russia investigation. robert mueller says the former national security advisor michael flynn should not be sent to prison for lying to the fbi. flynn gave assistance in the meddling. the trump administration has repeatedly called that probe a witchhunt. substantial assistance. 19 entities, firsthand information, and help collecting the dots. as they investigate investigateg with u.s. elections. the government lawyers said the will be to plead guilty forthcoming. and flynn was a national security advisor for just 24 days. a light sentence of possibly no jail time and no fine. they wrote the former army general should've known better. it comes a similar team is preparing briefs for other people. they will explain how paul manafort reached a plea deal. it should finally provide written answers

. >> record spending for saudi arabia. battered by declining oil prices, the kindt -- the kingdom plans to boost expenditures. today, the king has directed a continuance of monthly allowances to offset the high cost of living, which go on until next year. the government said next year's deficit would fall to 4.6% of gdp with a major chunk of state revenue at 68% continuing to come from the oil sector. to crown prince has vowed diversify the economy. it has seen employment hit its highest level in a decade. the killing of jamaal showed he caused a khashoggi has loss of foreign investors. guests pulled out of a major investment conference in riyadh. the economy is expected to grow by more than 2% this year. without private sector activity, they plan to wean the country off of oil with little success. >> investors will watch america's central bank to find out what it's expectations are next year. the federal reserve expected to raise interest rates for the fourth time this year. effort to stop things from overheating. joint u

arabia you know on the campaign trail the president often said why wouldn't i love saudi arabia they give me tens of millions of dollars and since this murder of jamal khashoggi he's come out and said i have no business dealings at all with saudi arabia there are questions about his son in law and whether his real state empire has received some funding from saudi sources and in the house say they are going to be looking into all of that and they have tremendous power to do that they have the power of subpoena so and the financial records they want they can demand they see that he was. always patient data has to come back to the house to give further briefings because some of the some of the senators and others have been unhappy that they weren't able to listen in to sevens. depends on how how much they dig in on that we see senator rand paul say no this is unacceptable you can't just brief it does happen though i think we should point out that there are times that there's information that the cia consider so sensitive it really only a hand selected member and certain committee member

military support to saudi arabia and the u.a.e. that will go to the house next to house of representatives but it would also face a possible veto by president trump the second vote has hailed the saudi crown prince mohammed bin someone personally responsible for question he's killing and there has been reaction from around the world that includes turkey of course with the journalist was mooted back in october. god hug. as you know yesterday there was a vote in the american senate this will develop more because we shared all the information with the american intelligence the english asked for it we gave it to them the germans asked for it we gave it the saudis asked for it we gave it to them the french asked for it and we gave it to them whoever requests this information we're ready to share why because justice is the foundation of the state we want justice to be pursued more and this was the now in washington d.c. she had the washington post that is the newspaper that jamal khashoggi wrote for is also up to its own pressure today.

has never rebuked saudi arabia there's been almost no criticism of saudi arabia and so this actually is more significant than it may appear to be simply because they're trying to send a clear message that they do not agree with the way the saudis are conducting the war though we can be pessimistic or cynical about well that really isn't. the fact the outcome came of us mari if the us then can't do it and the united nations are trying their hardest but there's a long way to go is there any other partner any other honest peace broker that may be able to significantly change the outcome of the war in yemen or and bring about an end to. the us can't help stop the war and the idea is not to have our congress and senate vote for it in the u.s. to step aside and forgetting that it's one of the reasons why this war is happening in the first place or are a reason that it was prolonged so the idea of nothing the us have a boat and i'm done with my right it's to put pressure on saudi arabia which your us can do put pressure on saudi arabia to eason. it's a tax i meant to come to a peace deal an

or with saudi arabia is incredibly important and it kind of doesn't matter because it's an important relationship and we have to preserve it and more to the point it's the relationship between the central figures in the trumpet ministration between trump and george kirshner and on peo and b.s. himself it's not just the sort of big strategic relationship between the two countries that kind of personalization of the relationship has long term problems for both sides but i think it also points to a kind of log jam in the u.s. system the cia is clearly leaking this because they. i don't see an option in through through the internal channels either through the state department or into the west wing itself hence their sudden willingness to speak to reporters it's an interesting point her for the us to be at med let me let me ask you something you're in istanbul i'm a model jane brought up the point that turkey seems to be drip drip drip releasing information and kind of he says dragging this out i guess for the sake of keeping the public interest what do you make of the way that they have

an issue with nine eleven they have an issue with the way saudi arabia as many predicted its way into washington and they certainly have a big issue with the killing of a journalist residing in the united states and writing for the washington post what you're talking about when we discuss an executive being powerful i mean under george w. bush we're just about see him deliver a eulogy in a few hours because of george bush sr last week but people said his executive was disproportionately powerful and it was for his time in office trumps executive is about to become less powerful you touched on this because of the aftermath of what's happened as a result of the midterm elections are so there are people in political office now who were not in political office before the midterm elections who are going to hold him to account and try to get him to do something but what can they get him to do if he says nothing he says. thing well there is no no we have to the the house of representatives is on the side the trump is going to be very hard to get a big vote against trump there the senate seem

involvement saudi arabia's war in yemen and that same day they actually linked mohamed bin solomon in the saudi family for the killing of jamal khashoggi now now that democrats are taking the house nancy pelosi has said she wants to bring up another war powers resolution to call and question. and then us involved in the saudi war in yemen so i believe the senate is going to also take that up so that further for constricts the president and puts a lot more pressure on donald trump we will see if he backs off this position is on wavering support for the saudi family and saudi war in yemen hopefully we can prevent you know him vetoing this legislation which we think is going to pass almost definitely ok even if that legislation passes however if the central message to donald trump from those incoming relatively new politicians is look you've got to reset the relationship with riyadh that surely however will go precisely no place because we've seen the reshuffle just over the past week in saudi arabia and the crown prince mohammed in some on there he is and there he stays. exactly yeah th

arabia increased its all production and i think that now the sacrifice the saudi arabia is supposed to be making is not really any kind of a sacrifice because it increases all production by quite a bit yet this year and so when you take that from a base to cut back from that base is not that much of a sacrifice i think that when i look at the history of opec. i can tell you that i don't think that this decision will do very much opec has never been able to. not sheep to be able to stick together and now we're really talking more about not just opec but opec including not opec so i don't think this will have that much of an effect on prices i think what's much much more important in this room of things is the state of the world economy if in fact what happens to the money i think right now is the key where you are in the u.s. has a nascar what about the trump factor in all of this and we know we know the u.s. president has been tweeting about and wanting to keep prices low yet the saudi arabia's energy minister. said that this decision was made out of economic necessity and in his words