aramco is almost like the basis of politics in saudi arabia they are always intrinsically tied everybody in saudi arabia in one way or another is a beneficiary saudi aramco a strong saudi arabia it needs a strong rand paul and vice versa as well the history of saudi aramco is the history of saudi arabia transforming itself from an isolated tribal society into a global presence. get it right you reap a windfall get it. and the risk is huge the whole saudi economy was at stake that all the balance be done how did you face that and. living. in the world they run the risk of being toppled the royal family could be running for the. issue is really you know is an i.p.o. best for the company and when you look at graeme coke the company you have to realize that unlike other companies. ram co operated for years without ever imagining and i p o. so they've never had to make decisions with the thought of oh maybe going to be publicly listed or we'd like to publish this here's how we need to have our finances a great here's the kind of growth that we need to be showing in our financial statements to

administrationon has plowewed ad with this idea of sharing nuclear power technology with saudi arabia. and the reason they got so excited about this idea has a lot to do it to people close to the president who potentially had a financial interest in that idea. amy: house democrats are accusing several trump administration officials and allies of pushing a plan of pushing highly sensitive nuclear energy technology to saudi arabia in potential violation of u.s. law. critics say the deal could use the technology to build a nuclear bomb and spark nuclear arms race in the middle east. then we speak to a saudi scar lurk whose father is in jail facing a possible death sentence for speaking out ainst the monarc. anwe gto portld where inveigation the orenian wspaper s revealed a number of saudi students living in the united states ha vananisd whe facing sereriousriminal charges, i inclung manslauteter d rape. >> what we are essentially looking at here is the possibility that a foreign government has systematically subverted the crimiminal justice totem in the united states help its citizens escape pros

investigation into alleged secret plans the white house is ready to transfer nuclear power to saudi arabia. from the russian capital you're watching us he international the russian defense ministry has unveiled new footage of a successfully tested underwater drone named poseidon. here's the video of those tests on the new weapon system news they had been successful came immediately off to vladimir putin gave his annual state of the nation and press the president said in his speech that the drone is expected to be in full operation by spring. the president stating the brand new poseidon naval system was designed if necessary to counter u.s. navy forces and washington surface in creating a global missile defense primarily out sea it's thought that the russian system. and the water vehicles is small and difficult to locate and intercept resume putin will say provided an update on a new hypersonic missile known as the cone which he says is a work in progress here's what the russians need to have to say about the weapons they are. we conducted successful drills of a nuclear powered cruise missile wit

technology to saudi arabia made concerns in washington over iran's nuclear program a democrat led committee is now launched an investigation into the matter it expects. if there is one thing that congress gets touchy about it's when the president tries to swerve around them this point we've got the house oversight committee looking into whether donald trump was trying to rush nuclear technology to saudi arabia within the united states strong private commercial interests have been pressing aggressively for the transfer of highly sensitive nuclear technology to saudi arabia a potential risk to u.s. national security absent adequate safeguards these commercial entities stand to reap billions of dollars through contracts associated with constructively and operating nuclear facilities in saudi arabia the concern is that this could lead to saudi arabia developing nuclear weapons now for what we understand the saudis were refusing to agree to prohibitions on processing good talent and enriching uranium that other countries in the region have agreed to prop was apparently directly engaged in the ef

of the reserves it's a top secret in saudi arabia and i think that's a significant concern on the part of a ram co-executors they treat their reserves with kid gloves their duty is to get the most out of these reserves in the best way possible and the reserve confidence will only be consistent with third parties verifying the information that's got to be done through regulatory fashion that everyone's comfortable it can't just be something a company says and and hopes is the case you've got to verify. whatever other qualities god may have given the saudis he gave them a lot of wealth in the ground and that's not going to go away. so you want my quibble over the over the reserves. you know the saudis have the ability to fracking really haven't even started basically. but would the possibility of higher reserves be enough for investors to finance or impose i.p.o. probably the biggest downside is the transparency that would have resulted around saudi reserves saudi oil reserves that doesn't change very much from year to year and really hasn't changed much over the past couple of deca

jamal so what happens next and despite mounting international pressure will saudi arabia ever be held accountable for the killing this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm peter dobbie it's been more than four months since the journalist jamal ji was murdered inside the saudi consulate in istanbul and since then there have been widespread calls for an international investigation and demands to hold the saudi government to account but the u.s. president told trump has largely stood by his ally the saudi crown prince mohammed bin sol man the us president has now missed a friday deadline to tell congress who's responsible for the killing of a shrug instead his secretary of state mike pompei o wrote a letter to the senate committee on foreign relations insisting that the trumpet ministration will seek accountability for the murder of a leading member of that committee senator bob menendez says the response isn't good enough and the united nations is the latest to demand answers to its special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions called a shock to his death a brutal and

that that saudi arabia is taking internal measures to weed out they are already taking internal measures to go after seeking even the death penalty on people who are responsible for the killing of scott look at some birmingham coming to you know this comes down to personal culpability surely and everyone doesn't just think it was the crown prince who greenlit this everyone believes it was the crown prince yes or no yes u.s. intelligence agency think it state department thinks that they still want to spoil i mean we're going to spend this troop at least make it believable this had nothing to do with the government shutdown why the white house didn't respond yesterday it has nothing to do with the preparation of a detail report without the matter is that for four months u.s. intelligence agencies in the state department and the military believe that mohammed installment is responsible for the us we know that congress including republicans you normally support from want accountability but we know that donald trump is holding out against that why because donald trump's on the way to

topics included cultural shifts in saudi arabia. the impact of israel's upcoming election and the withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria. from the washington institute for near east policy, this is just under an hour and a half. good afternoon, and welcome to the washington institute. i'm rob satlof, the director of the institute. this is our >> good afternoon. good afternoon, and welcome to the washington institute. i'm rob satloff, the director of the institute. this is our first major policy forum of the year and i'm delighted to welcome and you delighted to welcome people around the world watching on c-span and on live stream and on all the various ways in which one can watch washington institute events. thank you for joining us. if i could ask you to please make sure your phones are on mute, feel free to tweet as much as you like. but make no noise about it. but make no noise about it. i'm delighted that we can meet at a time when the federal government is now open. there is so much on the middle east agenda in 2019. it's good to have a government that's focused on that. i'm de

over and do a tour around saudi arabia. so i went to the same three cities. and needless to say, it's a very different saudi arabia that i found. and i have been going at regular intervals over the succeeding years. as recently as january of 2017. but what i found was really almost disorienting. just visually. so the social change is real. it's visible. the gender segregation in the public arena is just simply dissolving almost in front of your own eyes. women, saudi women are visible literally visible in the public space in a way that i've never seen. heretofore you would see saudi women fully cloaked, garbed or you didn't see them in most places. you certainly didn't see them in ministries, government spaces, and you really by and large didn't see them in the work space except for some real niche sectors that were opened up under a former king abdullah to women. i mean, so uncovered hair, just shocking. if you haven't been to saudi arabia, and i was traveling with a group by and large that had not, it became very difficult to explain why all this was so extraordinary. because this is

that nuclear power technology to saudi arabia a democratic led committee is now launching an investigation let's go live to new york and artie's kill of mufon for the briefs on all of this kind of intriguing stuff what does the report claim. well it's a report from the house oversight committee that's the congressional committee that overlooks the activities of various areas of government and it essentially shows that according to certain whistleblowers who are involved and other sources there was talk of transferring rather sensitive nuclear technology to the kingdom of saudi arabia and enabling them to develop nuclear power some of this some of what was said in the report can be heard here these reports indicate that saudi arabia is refusing to agree to prohibit an enriching uranium and processing plutonium similar to those agreed to by other countries in the region however experts worry the transferring sensitive u.s. nuclear technology could be a to produce nuclear weapons that country b. to the proliferation of nuclear arms now according to the report donald trump actual

now saudi arabia plans to invest ten billion dollars in south africa the bulk of that money will flow into the energy sector including the construction of new refineries the two countries already have close ties saudi arabia supplies forty percent of south africa's oil needs next in line is nigeria which feeds thirty percent of south africa's oil consumption and in third place is and gola with a route sixty percent of south africa's market share now for years now south africa's refineries have needed urgent upgrades but so far little has happened to make this a complaining that he due to the low quality of the fuel new models can't be introduced to the south african com market well for more let's bring in now d.w. business correspondent stephanie moon who joins us in johannesburg stephan good to have you with us so we just heard that south saudi arabia plans to invest ten billion dollars in south africa is that a win win situation we're looking at here. yes indeed you know this stuff was actually rather celebrated by local media here who saw that as a step or an increase by you k

us saudi arabia's crown prince has just arrived in pakistan his first visit to the country since he was appointed to the throne these are live pictures from an air base near where the saudi crown prince's plane has just landed he's about to get off in just a moment hopefully we will see those live pictures when he does the pakistani government has stepped up security ahead of mohammed bin solomon's arrival some social media sites or posts to the visit have been shut down and gatherings of five people or more are banned in areas covered by the special security measures pakistan is the first stop of an asian tour taking in five countries but the crown prince's trips to indonesia and malaysia have been postponed. due to visit india and china in what is being seen as an attempt to restore his image after the scandal over the murder of journalist. and the ongoing saudi led war in yemen. now let's take a closer look at the three countries the saudi crown prince is visiting and their human records rights record in particular in pakistan international and human rights watch say in forces ap

alleged secret plans the white house is ready to transfer nuclear power technology to saudi arabia. thanks for joining us live on r.t. international and. welcome to the program. the russian defense ministry has unveiled new footage of a successfully tested underwater drone code named poseidon is the video of those tests on the new weapon system news they've been successfully came mediately after vladimir putin gave his annual state of the nation address the president said in his speech the drone is expected to be. all operation by this spring. the president stated the brand new precise enable system was designed if necessary to counter the u.s. navy forces and washington's efforts in creating a global missile defense program really see it was thought that the russian systems on manned and underwater vehicles are small and difficult to locate and intercept but here putin also provided an update on a new hypersonic missile known as ican which she says is a work in progress here's what the russian leader had to say about those weapons earlier. we conducted successful drills of a nuclear power

arms exports to saudi arabia violate international humanitarian law and the justification as applying weapons to the saudi emira to coalition is flawed they say well written as more from london. since the yemen war began in march twenty fifteen s strikes in military operations by the saudi led coalition forces are estimated to have directly killed more than sixty thousand civilians and that's not including the tens of thousands more who have died from starvation and disease . britain has licensed nearly seven billion dollars of arms exports to saudi arabia and the coalition nations since the war started and in twenty eighteen the un report alleged that u.k. and u.s. weapons have been used in attacks which may amount to war crimes now this house of lords committee has concluded that u.k. arms exports narrowly contravene humanitarian law and the government should act challenge the apparent violations much more vigorously put the pressure on the stock of agreement and reveal export licenses and tie them up certainly yes. which would mean clearly closing down to some extent the flow of we

trump to tell congress by the hill thanks in saudi arabia over the killing of jamal khashoggi. the venezuelan president warns of catastrophic consequences if the u.s. blocks his country's oil exports. and the u.s. makes a new appeal to venezuela's minute tree to allow american aid into the country from colombia. a man who killed six worship is it a mosque in canada and twenty seventeen gets life in prison. well the deadline has now passed for a u.s. president donald trump to tell congress whether he'll impose sanctions on saudi arabia over the matter of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi under legislation called the magnitsky act the president must outline what action if any he intends to take both sides of congress triggered the act one hundred twenty days ago trump has previously said he doesn't want the issue to jeopardize u.s. relations with saudi arabia well mike hanna is live for us now in washington d.c. so mike the deadline has been and gone. yes it has indeed and no formal response from the president whatsoever the secretary of state might come payer has sent a letter to the

my return to kosovo and the little village of but one decade on i've come back to find out what happened to those hopes and dreams rewind on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera. the whole raman you're watching the al-jazeera news our life my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next sixty minutes. says india needs to produce evidence for its claim that islamabad was behind a car bomb in the disputed kashmir region. also brazil is sending aid to venezuela and the quest of opposition leader. russia opens a passage for tens of thousands of people trying to escape from a remote syrian camp. and white house officials accused of repeatedly norene legal concerns while pushing nuclear sales to saudi arabia. welcome to the news are pakistan's prime minister has rejected india's accusations that his country was behind last thursday's car bombing in the disputed kashmir region that attack killed forty one indian soldiers but iran can ask for evidence of pakistani involvement and promise retaliation if india attacks his country but he also offered to cooperate with his neighbor to investigate the blast india's foreign ministry expressed disappointment at the pakistani leaders remarks saying failed to denounce the group jaish e mohammed which has claimed responsibility for the attack. that the prime minister of pakistan refuses to acknowledge the attack on our security forces and. as an act of that as prime minister of pakistan has neither chosen to condemn this act not. with the family's disclaiming any link between the attack and pakistan is an oft repeated excuse by pakistan it is a fact that. and. are based in pakistan this should be sufficient proof for pakistan to take action. from new delhi. the funerals continue across india as the bodies of the security forces killed in recent attacks are returned to their homes as the country mourns pressures on the government and officials to show that action is being taken. down in. security officials in indian administered kashmir blame pakistan's spy agency the i.s.i. for the car bombing by the group jaish e mohammed or jem that was. brought out reductive order by a site. while the investigations continue many in india are wondering how it was allowed to happen critics say that any major attack can be considered an intelligence failure but the scope and complexity of this one made it the worst attack on indian forces in the region in three decades it leaves the question what went wrong. indian agencies in kashmir rely on locals for intelligence but some analysts say the goodwill needed for that intelligence has dwindled. have been off extremely disruptive. communal politics now that is undermining. d.n. vironment that is what is resulting in more and more frustration and more and more recruitment. this analyst says the current intelligence agencies are understaffed and resources are mr directed but it is involved in political intelligence that is involved in a whole range of other activities many of them under a limited to two core security as indian officials continue to blame pakistan for supporting armed groups prepared to launch attacks on indian troops critics say the government needs to take a look at its own security apparatus to prevent more deaths as jamil al jazeera you delhi. he is pakistan's ambassador to the united nations and she joins me now from u.n. headquarters in new york ambassador lodhi thanks for joining us live on al-jazeera you were to meet the u.n. secretary general to discuss the issue of what is going on between india and pakistan at the moment have you had that meeting and what's come out of it. yes i met the u.n. secretary general this afternoon and before that i met the president of the u.n. security council and to both of them i emphasized the need for the u.n. to play its role and live up to its obligations i told the secretary general that he had put prevention at the very heart of his agenda this is the time for him to act because the situation between pakistan and india is deteriorating we see an escalation in rhetoric from the indian side we see a spate of threatening statements by indian leaders and in occupied kashmir we also see attacks on ordinary kashmiris and on muslims so the situation is very fraught we in pakistan would like to see a resumption of dialogue with india so that we can address all our outstanding issues prime minister in round one only this morning renewed his offer of talks to the indian leadership he also said that he is willing to talk about terrorism he's willing to talk about the occupied territory of kashmir so i think what we have is a situation which can turn into a very grave security threat not only to our region but also to international peace and security if that's the case you general i have to say was very very he was very attentive let me just finish it because he was very attentive and he said he we live in troubled times he said he was willing to offer his good offices and pakistan certainly would like the good offices of the u.n. secretary general to have a conversation with india so that we can address all these issues in a peaceful manner we don't think that the kind of irresponsible rhetoric that's coming out of delhi is the way to go ok well let's get to the nitty gritty then ambassador can we just get this on record did the pakistani government its military or secret service have anything to do with the planning coordination or execution of that attack on indian servicemen last week. we have categorically denied this allegation because that's what this is an allegation my prime minister this morning again rejected these allegations we believe these are irresponsible statements coming from the indian side this is not the way to proceed in an environment which is already fraught the only where that the two countries can resolve their differences is to talk to each other that is reasonable that rational and that's important and i believe it's also urgent because i think with electoral politics in india coming in the way and when perhaps on the minds of indian leaders there's all the more reason for the two countries to sit down and talk about the issue let's not forget the context the backdrop against which this violence occurred and that context is the denial of the right of self-determination to the people of jammu and kashmir they have suffered they have suffered last year in fact it was one of the deadliest years in recent history but in occupied kashmir five hundred civilians died they were killed and let me say that every time somebody dies in occupied kashmir it's not just another statistic it's somebody who's mother somebody is father somebody is. going to get to know because they're different from others i've got to get in there because you obviously are talking about sort of pakistan's point of view if we get back to obviously what's been going on and the rhetoric what is it what it is what the pakistani government talk about not just you talk about the backdrop ambassador you talk about the backdrop the backdrop is also the jaish e mohammed does operate in pakistan as a masood is there he's taken responsibility. for that attack in. what is the government going to do to the group's leader when he so openly said i'm responsible is he going to be arrested and questioned at least nothing seems to have been done even on that score when an individual or says i on an individual has said i am responsible for this. i think you already decided and determined what is happening and what is responsible all i can say in response to what has actually been. responsible. it's a prescribed organization let me finish it is a proscribed organization in my country and as i said every time there is an incident in occupied kashmir the indians operate in a kneejerk manner they put all the blame on pakistan and then never acknowledge their own failure in managing a situation where they are an occupation force i think unless as my prime minister said the indian leadership is willing to introspect it is willing to look inward it is willing to look at its record of human rights violations in occupied kashmir violations that have been documented not just by international human rights organizations but also by the un by the high commissioner for human rights of the united nations and this is something i did in ninety eight the un secretary general today i told him that is all on organizations report has said that there is a need for an independent commission of inquiry into the brutal violation of human rights in occupied kashmir we need to look at this issue in its proper context indeed. this issue of context and instigator and then begin to and then begin to see it from that prism i mean you speak from your prism i am here to give you the government of. the prison doesn't have any and the president doesn't do that at the moment ambassador. a we know that your you've got the pakistani position certainly sacristan to in your mind but we also need to know i think as an international community if information is gathered by the indian authorities and they present that to pakistan as the prime minister has requested in islamabad today how is he going to act because we've seen dossiers given to pakistan in in the past that have been backed up by the americans if we just take the attacks for example and they've been dismissed by islamabad and this is the worry that the indians have what do you want to see in terms of documentation handed to your capital. let me repeat what the prime minister said this morning he said he is prepared for an investigation provided there is actionable intelligence of credible evidence that is provided to pakistan i think his words are loud and clear there is no need for you to be either skeptical or doubtful about this but i think you should also examine india's not doc's posture they need to be talking to pakistan and we are ready able and willing to have this conversation not just about the incident that occurred but about all the outstanding issues that divide our two countries we think the situation is a dangerous one we don't think this kind of escalation is in the interest of either pakistan or india or the entire region or indeed of the international community that you speak off it is irresponsible not to have a conversation the conversation cannot occur through the media it cannot occur through threatening statements it cannot occur through television interviews it has to occur directly between the governments of the two countries and for that my country is ready well if that conversation does happen between the two countries where we look forward to welcoming you back on this news program ambassador to discuss developments there for the moment ambassador lodhi thanks very much for joining us from the u.n. thank you onto our other top story in venezuela the military has reaffirmed its loyalty for embattled president nicolas maduro defense minister vladimir adreno says the armed forces will remain in position along the border to prevent potential threats speaking on state television during the describe the u.s. president's recent speech about his country arrogant and senseless the trumpet administration has been calling on murderous army to defect and support opposition leader on quite a. or brazil is creating a task force to deliver humanitarian aid to the venezuelan border it's working with the united states to send shipments by saturday brazil says it comes at quite as request and that the opposition leader will be responsible for its distribution. june is in the brazilian town of of east or near the border with venezuela mohammed of course what are we hearing now from brazil in terms of that aid effort. well there was a press conference in the last hour and a half in brasilia in which the presidential spokesman. told a news conference that it was going to be this interment a serial task force that is set up to try to set up these logistics for supplying a that would be distributed in israel as well as you mentioned just a moment ago the form that this would take as we understand right now is that brazil ward name cooperate with the united states in order to get medical supplies and food supplies to brazil's border with venezuela and that then the venezuelans would be the ones that would be in charge of coming into brazil picking up that aid in taking it back into venezuela and distributing it again as you mentioned this request according to brazil's government comes from venezuelan opposition leader. now it's going to be interesting to see what form this takes we don't yet know where exactly this is going to happen we have courts are involved that is the capital of the state here in the north of brazil now we assume that this would happen that is a town a border town right on the brazilian border with venezuela we were there just a few days ago we will be going back in the next few days it has been widely assumed that because that is the main entry point for going israel in migrants coming from going into brazil that that is where this aid distribution center would be set up but that's still not quite yet clear it's a very fluid situation in terms of where the aid is building up or where it could actually end venezuela so any statements by respective neighboring countries have to be taken with a pinch of salt because nobody knows whether they can get that aid into the country itself. yeah that's a very good point and also we should remember that you know it took until today until we finally got clarity from the brazilian government look it had been expected that there would be some kind of formal. smith made either today or tomorrow because this looming deadline of february twenty third which has been said many times by the united states and by why go this is just this next saturday the brazilian government had not confirmed until just in the past ninety minutes that in fact they were making preparations to start having aid being supplied on that date clearly there was you know clearly there was pressure to release some kind of a statement because the media has been asking questions but up until yesterday we were speaking to local officials here involved who said they had not yet been informed by the federal government when exactly this was going to happen if some kind of task force was going to be here in this state in the north if an aid distribution center was going to be set up to even though this announcement has now been made whether or not it will

that speech live on the newsgroup is that you were critical of obviously saudi arabia but perhaps more critical right now of the white house and its inaction i don't think there are more critical than saudi arabia i mean you know it's the officials are the ones you merchant all show me are critical of the white house and we are really hoping that they will comply with their deadlines morrow to respond to the magnitsky act and respond to the senate who are asking for answers about what the white house believes is responsible for assassination of john marsh and she and whether sanctions are not. yet met maybe i should have rephrased us i guess looking for actual action from the white house because that is i guess who you've. got the ear of more you're right outside the white house there your expectations. because you know it's it's hard to say what president trump will do but we know that he has protected the relationship with saudi arabia a lot. unfortunately we have seen a calculation from the white house and president trying to put some sort of special relationship that arms sale

voted to end military aid for saudi arabia's military operations in yemen in 248-177 48-177 about -- vote. it now goes the senate, which passed a similar measure in december. . the debate before the -- here is the debate before the vote. for the house, madam chair. for years under administrations of both parties the congress has handed away our authority and abbreaux gated our responsibility when it comes to foreign policy, particularly the questions of how and where our military is engaged around the world. article 1 of the constitution gives congress the responsibility to declare war. yet we have given presidents of both parties a virtual blank check to send our brave service members into harm's way while we have stood on the sidelines. with the measure we're considering today, we take some of our power back. and we do so to restore a sense of american values and american leadership to the worst humanitarian catastrophe in the world. for the last few years, we have all seen horrific images of the civilian casualties in the yemen war. starving children, millions displaced, outbre

want to say i don't support everything that goes on in saudi arabia and everything they do outside of it and i want people held accountable in the point about the government shutdown is i strongly don't think a detailed report would be done with forty percent of the time for it for having it to be that thing on the other hand the relation ship with saudi arabia it's second to what's going on in yemen i think the people who are trying to push push this through congress push sanctions on saudi arabia the point of it is to end u.s. support of saudi the u.a.e. and the joint operation in yemen which is effectively fighting off the iranian proxies and al qaeda for controlling yemen which would in turn give them control of the bob element straights meaning that could shut down the red sea and they'd have control of the strait of hormuz they could shut down the persian gulf effectively giving iran full control over the red sea and over the persian gulf and this is what it's about i don't think is about our relationship about saudi arabia about what's going on in saudi arabia it's about pro

sell nuclear technology to saudi arabia an investigation is under way. hello again i'm. live from doha also coming up the president of pakistan administered kashmir tells out there there's a real risk of conflict with india after last week's bombing in the disputed region . twenty four hour window closes for syrians to get out of a desolate can find out why they didn't take the opportunity plus. an estimated fifteen billion dollars worth of oil and gas was discovered off the coast of san diego find out next how this new found wealth is now part of the presidential campaign just days before the election. the first an investigation has been launched into whether senior officials in the trump administration have been trying to sell sensitive nuclear technology to saudi arabia a committee in the house of representatives led by the democrat says whistleblowers warned business interests pushed ahead of the law like had a ripples from washington. the twenty four page report is extensive and reach in detail providing names dates and specific communications relating to u.s. nuclear technology i

. i came back a week or so ago from 10 days in saudi arabia. and i wanted to give you just a sense of the atmospherics the conversations that i had, moving between day ran, riyadh and jildal with a group of international businessmen and women and with a set of largely private saudi engagements, private sector saudi businessmen and women, some government engagements but largely of a sort of economic policy orientation. but lots of engagements with private saudis, cross generationally. and give you a sense of what i found there. and i would just start by saying that my first visit to e kingdom or the kingdom was march of 1990. when i was assigned in jerusalem and i was anticipating an assignment back in washington and our embassy asked me to come over and do a tour around saudi arabia. so i went to the same three cities. and needless to say, it's a very different saudi arabia that i found. and i have been going at regular intervals over the succeeding years. as recently as january of 2017. but what i found was really almost disorienting. just visually. so the social change is real. it's

deadline passes for donald trump to tell congress whether he'll sanction saudi arabia over the killing of jamal khashoggi. council raman you're watching al-jazeera life my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next thirty minutes. of one another. i want to go to the venezuelan president warns of catastrophic consequences if the u.s. blocks its oil exports. also the u.s. makes a new appeal to venezuela's military to allow american aid into the country from colombia. and the man who killed the six worshipers at a mosque in canada in twenty seventy that's life in prison. welcome to the program the deadline is now passed for u.s. president donald trump to tell congress whether he'll impose sanctions on saudi arabia over the murder of a saudi journalist jamal khashoggi under legislation called the back next act the president must outline what action if any he intends to take both sides of congress triggered the act under twenty days ago trump has previously said that he doesn't want the khashoggi issue to jeopardize u.s. relations with saudi arabia mike hanna said this report i

in neighboring countries since two thousand and seventeen the four our states of egypt saudi arabia bahrain and the united arab emirates have imposed a blockade on qatar. we need the world to discover the gulf region which is beautiful which is full of. people who want to open themselves to the world and i think we should grab this chance in qatar and maybe in neighboring countries as well and this will be i think very very positive for football. based t.v. now to be in sports has teamed up with six major north american sports leagues in its ongoing. broadcasting piracy they're asking the u.s. government to take action against the saudi arabia about our operation b. out cue the n.b.a. is just one of the leagues being shown on be out q legal channels for avoiding providing access to live sport in a statement being said saudi arabia has permitted the operation of the most sophisticated broadcast piracy that the world has ever seen topsy simona halep is one step away from winning the cut open and moving up to second in the world's rankings but the world number three was made to work hard in he

holiest sites saudi arabia's real source of power comes from oil and saudi aramco turns that black gold into dollars and results a company which is never to be noted independently was the crown jewel of the so-called vision twenty thirty there is no doubt that iran co is one of the key pillars to this vision to the growth of our economy and to the progress of the entire kingdom of saudi arabia. to put the company which funds saudi arabia's budget never appeared on any stock market and the kingdom's economy has tanked since then al-jazeera has investigated the ideas behind vision twenty thirty the politics of the kingdom which revolve around oil money and the reasons why the proposed saudi aramco sell off did not work the secretive company has never had to declare its financial reports as a massive transformation had gone public one of the major objections by people in the kingdom was their fear of the money would go into the pockets of the royal family the other issue is the nearly constant oil build saudi arabia has claimed to own since it took over from american big oil firms whi

to come in the region. topics include cultural shifts in saudi arabia, israel upcoming elections, congressional foreign-policy priorities, and the withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria. this washington institute event runs about one hour 20 minutes. >> good afternoon. good afternoon and welcome to the washington institute, i am the director of the institute policy our first major forum of the year and i am glad to welcome you and people around andworld watching on c-span on livestream and the various ways in which one can watch washington institute defense. thank you for joining us. if i could ask you to please make sure your phones are on mute, feel free to tweet as much as you like but make no noise i am delighted that we can meet at a time when the federal government is open. there is so much on the middle east agenda and 2019. it is good to have a government that is focused on that. joined onhted to be this panel, to be introducing a panel of three of my colleagues, two of whom have made journeys around the world in recent days, coming back to report for what they have observe

parliamentary committee finds british weapons sells to saudi arabia tied to civilian deaths in yemen. and children behind bars in the philippines critics say the president's crackdown on crime has gone too far. we begin with some breaking news out of nigeria where presidential elections have been postponed until next weekend voters were set to go to the polls this saturday . if we review all the implementation just an operational plan on the determination to conduct free fair and credible elections the commission came to the conclusion but proceeded in the election of a should do. it's no longer. going squarely the commissioners decided today should the presidential and national assembly elections started twenty third february twenty ninth. mohamed atta has more from the capital budget now. according to some of the independent national electoral commission of nigeria they're saying that they have been acts of sabotage some of the polling but serial did not glitch some of the state in the country and it has been. impossible to continue with the plan are set to hold the elections today

could saudi arabia possibly say that they have been accomplishing in yemen besides killing thousands of people and destroying that country. not much quite frankly i mean i understand that so durable when in to try to to kind of. you know it's a gemini in the region and actually ensure that whatever transition of power whatever you know yet yemen's political landscape would actually be in its favor and that riyadh would continue to to exert great pressure on the yemenis future political future but they haven't they haven't manifested that at all if anything i think they exploded yemen even more so i mean it was already a very fragmented very tribal country now it's an infrastructure had to have been completely destroyed and that would lead to further instability you know poverty will drive people maybe to radicalization so there's a real issue where you know yemen is i would say kind of landscape has been completely exploded and it will take decades to actually fix that so we're not in terms of the kind of future this idea can hope for in yemen or the footprint that we will

house the president refused to punish saudi arabia for its murder of journalist jamal khashoggi. and a bomb shell story david peck against jeff bezos of the "washington post." on thursday, bezos, who also owns amazon, accuses the parent can company of "the national enquirer" of extortion and blackmail. this after the enquirer had a front-page expose including pursesinal text messages and photographs. shortly after publication, he hired a team to find out how the tabloid got hold off those text messages and photographs. onblog post yesterday, bezos writes that tabloids editor threatened to publish additional photos unless bezos called off his investigation and made specific false public statement to the press that there was no basis for claiming that ami had a political agenda. this can be seen as yet another battle between trump ally and his critics. ami says it was merely involved in good faith negotiations. they are using the practice of catch and kill to keep two women from publicizing their claims they had affairs with the president. throughout the campaign ami acted as a pr wing

isis and al qaida and we know that saudi arabia saudi arabia promotes that ideology in iran if you run an intelligence says that this group and other groups that have carried out attacks are linked to so the and amorality intelligence directly looking at the tweets again netanyahu his office change the choice of words in the tweet from war to combat inc do you think this backtracking will help calm the situation. i think it just shows that the israeli prime minister is has has made a major mistake and that he's hurt himself and his allies in saudi arabia and the emirates and the u.s. regime by making such an explicit statement of course the europeans are not all that different from the israelis and the americans because during the conference in poland we had the any k it's a which is a cult group a terrorist organization which fought for saddam hussein for many years against the iranians and crushed the iraqis who rebelled against saddam hussein for many years this group which went to move to europe and is operating freely in europe in the united states they had it an enormous presence

saudi arabia to germany here they hope for safety and freedom but these women still live under threat from their families. the had to i thought i was safe that the psychological warfare of the violence and oppression would be over but i still feel like they could get me. the women offer to talk to us only on condition of anonymity we have changed their names and voices . l. say shortly after arriving in germany they received threatening messages from their families. before i knew my family knew i was in germany in one city all of that info so they're threatened me with my location can animate or not i am sure that through their connections with the saudi embassy and through the saudi embassies connections and it's spies that are everywhere they can get information but i do not know the kind of information and what they know exactly in my heart of no way you talk to me a ten minute mark to loose. some activist claim that the cases of murder and russia l. are part of a wider pattern. people are followed we have people breaking into apartments and the families back home always kno

another twenty three countries including saudi arabia the name states are accused of failings in regards to financing terror and money laundering but some of the inclusions have ruffled feathers as pay telephone reports isn't the first time that riyadh has been accused of having either direct or in direct links to terror organizations but what the european union is hoping to do here is provide some kind of prophylactic for its own financial institutions against those that are trading in this money we have to make sure the dirty money from other countries does not find its way to our financial says. dirty money is the lifeblood of organized crime and terrorism i'm by the country's leaf did to remedy their deficiencies swiftly saudi arabia for their part say that they regret the decision taken by the european union to include them in this list riyadh says it is committed to tackling the financing of terror and also money laundering the list comprises of twenty three names among them some places you may expect to be on there iraq afghanistan libya panama but it also includes for us

clearly we guide you in your government as puppets of saudi arabia, and frankly, one can't really blame them, can one? steve, steve, this is nonsense. we are not receiving instructions, you know who receives instructions from tehran on a daily basis. last week, i will give you an example of what happened to be last week, last week i was talking to all my colleagues and the european union and they mention to me that because of iran, the houthis except the deal in stock wrong, because iran instructed them to go and be engaging and accepting the deal. —— stock wrong. then a asked why they are not in lamenting the deal, they said no, something changed and maybe they are under a lot of pressure in syria and they wa nt to lot of pressure in syria and they want to again use yemen as a leverage issue. this is how we say that who is receiving instructions? yemeni government is a sovereign government, it is not receiving instructions from any we have. —— stockholm. we are partners with the saudi arabians and united arab emirates to establish peace and order, stephen. what you havejust sai

increasing the risk of war in the region. saudi arabia's crown prince signs deals worth twenty billion dollars with pakistan on the first stop on an asian tour. and a region on high alert a twenty four hour curfew is imposed in indian administered kashmir. and i'm peter salmon in doha level with latest board including austrian ski chain marcel hirsch clinches victory in the slalom with a record equalling seventh gold medal at the world championships. israel's government has implemented a law that will take away millions of dollars of tax revenue from the palestinian authority the palestinian government pays compensation to the families of people convicted by israel on charges of carrying out attacks israel will deduct an amount equal to that compensation from tax funds it raises on behalf of the palestinian authority well that will cut the revenue to the p.a. by one hundred thirty eight million dollars a year before so it has more from west jerusalem. benjamin netanyahu began his weekly cabinet meeting insisting that he would follow through on the course he said we could go to start wi

hostilities, unquote. this overreach has dangerous implications far beyond saudi arabia. this approach will not allow -- this will now allow any single member to use his privilege mechanism to second guess u.s. security cooperation relationships with more than 100 countries throughout the world. under this model, if one member doesn't like something that any of our security partners does overseas, that member can force quick consideration of a resolution, directing the removal of u.s. forces from hostilities in or affecting that situation. it no longer matters that u.s. forces are not actually conducting those hostilities. this could impact our assistance to israel. it could affect our cooperation with our nato allies. it could impact counterterrorism cooperation with african nations. we could recklessly undo security relationships that we have spent decades building. that is not what the war powers resolution has ever meant, and i don't think that's what congress designed it to do and it should not be used in this way now. no one is saying u.s. security assistance to saudi arabia or anyone

benefit pakistan needs investments and saudi arabia needs friends the saudi crown prince lands in pakistan at the start of an asian tour as his country faces international criticism over the merger and his job culture of jeet. welcome to the program on nick spicer. u.s. president donald trump called on european states to take back their citizens if they are among captured fighters from the so-called islamic state in a tweet that mentioned britain france germany and other countries trying threaten to release imprisoned combatants if their home countries refused to allow them back in december he alarmed western partners by saying he was withdrawing american troops from syria because he considered the islamic state to have been defeated. by us jihadists on the march in syria these images from the fall of rock in twenty fourteen. islamic state has since been defeated here and across nearly the entire country many fighters are dead and more have been taken prisoner recently the u.s. backed kurdish led syrian democratic forces or s.d.f. besieged the city of backcross the last remaining

russia is not. a democrat controlled committee questions u.s. ties with saudi arabia afternoon report reveals washington is ready to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to. publicly. project with russia after a heated in the white house. good evening and welcome in moscow. putin has warned that moscow is ready to target perceived threats with this latest hypersonic missile although the russian president stressed the new weapon would only be used in self-defense threaten to retaliate by targeting western capitals with his own new weapons lattimer putin threatening to target the united states with its new generation of hypersonic missiles if the u.s. bases intermediate range missiles in europe though quite a confrontational step quite a confrontational speech by the russian president. during his annual state of the nation address president putin announced the corner new hypersonic cruise missile a committee ploy from both land and sea learned to go testing later in the year. explaining its. another day another excuse to panic for the mainstream media for them for the second year in a