situation and position and they're just caught in between see at the end of the day you have to remember you can you hear all these things about the european union stop request one of several vehicles some hold on to your chief if you're out on a quest to buy oil from iran what you need to understand is that at the end of the t.v. entity that is buying any kind of from orders from iran it's not the government not any government it's the company and if not found any on the financial schemes but i think all of them think this child's actions during transactions targeted by the u.s. security sanctions may need to get locked out of this financial system that's a huge judgment for them so essentially what they're going to europe or any of you are not equal you're not probably not going to want to take the risk of being locked out of the u.s. financial system essentially. which is why i believe it's great looking that you are with joel in terms of actually helping it on of trade times and you are right. we thank you very much for speaking to us from singapore and the chairman of the

u.s. house foreign affairs committee is pushing for a gulf countries to work together to contain what he describes as the threat posed by iran eliot engle says this can happen while saudi arabia the u.a.e. bihari and maintain their almost two year a blockade on qatar the united states and gulf partners share economic opportunities anti-terrorism concerns and can be working together to counter the threat posed by iran for this to happen a unified go off is essential but so far we have not seen unfortunately enough progress to end the guitar blockade it is in our party's interest to end this blockade so that we can work together to counter the real threats in the region i think very least gulf countries should allow qatar overflight rights. the u.s. president has accused china of breaking the deal had a further tory talks between the two countries donald trump vowed to more than double tariffs on two hundred billion dollars worth of chinese goods china says

it's ready to retaliate with similar measure it's the us president also threatened to impose a new round of duties as trade negotiations negotiators meet in washington on thursday the world's two biggest economies have been embroiled in a trade war since last year by the way you see the tariffs were because they broke that. they broke the law. so their flag is a device for me or to mars flying a good man but they broke the deal they can't do that so they'll be paying we don't make the deal nothing wrong with take it in over one hundred billion dollars a year. and you think we never did that before we won't back down to kill china stops cheating our workers and stealing our jobs and that's what's going to happen otherwise we don't have to do business with them we don't have to do business we can make the product right here if we have to like we used a number like we used to do for reaction

a dream brown is joining us from beijing is there now an acceptance in beijing that more u.s. tariffs on chinese goods are simply inevitable. yeah particularly after hearing those comments from president donald trump i think the resists sort of grim realisation now that the terrorists are going to happen and there's also another reason for that we have so little time left for chinese negotiators to avoid that now the talks to resume in washington on thursday but they are jus to last just two days just two days to try to achieve a deal that can somehow prevent this trade dispute escalating you know there could be a possible surprise but i think it's more likely that there is unlikely to be a deal in the short term i think the question is you know will the two sides continue negotiating if they do that will be enough to i think stabilize markets remember stock markets here in china had their worst week in three years during the

past few days but if the talks rupture then i think you know the markets could be in negative territory again you know on friday and also next week so you know china i think is also matching what the united states says with defiant words there was a commentary in the official news agency on thursday saying essentially if the united states wants to talk then let's talk but if the united states wants to fight the next fight so the response from china are also very much you know bring it on the commerce ministry also has issued a statement saying that they regret the announcement by president from threatening more sanctions but they also say that they are prepared to respond with counter measures although they haven't specified what those counter measures could be but china could hamper u.s. operations here in any number of ways all right adrian brown giving us an update

from beijing thank you. still ahead on al-jazeera we'll have the latest on be fighting in syria's rebel held hama province that's coming up in a moment. it's wet and windy fits of us in europe at the moment so thanks to this is larry of low pressure that spinning its way towards the east already lots of rain with us and the winds picking up even more to it's going to be very very windy over parts of france there on thursday and then on friday this whole system works its way further towards the east so generally for many of us across europe that it's really fairly miserable is looking wet and windy the exception really is in the south so forcing greece it should be fine twenty four degrees will be our maximum temperature it

should also be warm and sunny fourth in rome at twenty three and some of that sunshine will just be sneaking its way into parts of spain and portugal as well but the other side of the mediterranean the temperatures have really east forcing cairo so no higher than around twenty six the thursday that we've seen back after that so by the time we get to friday we'll be up to around twenty eight elsewhere looking quite quiet really for many of us here for about getting to around twenty three degrees which is seventy three in fahrenheit across the central belt of africa formal showers has some particularly heavy ones of a possible uganda campout is expecting quite a few here and we're also expecting quite a few showers over parts of the board even vail there will be getting to around thirty one degrees and force in lagos will be at around thirty to. mr struction and despair

a group of friends resist. rescuing books from the rubble they build a refuge for freedom and democracy. a secret library of hope from which they endeavor to rewrite their story and that of their country. to witness. on al-jazeera. and over again the top stories on al-jazeera the u.s. has imposed new sanctions on iran targeting its deal and mining industries as follows to around announcement that its stepping back from some of its obligations under twenty fifty nuclear deal president hassan rouhani says world powers are

failing to uphold their commitments and the us president has accused china of breaking the deal ahead of further trade talks between the two countries donald trump vowed to more than double tariffs on two hundred billion dollars worth of chinese goods china says it's ready to retaliate. vote counting is underway in south africa as general election twenty five years after the country's transition from apartheid to democracy it's seen as the toughest test yet for the ruling and see the party of the late president nelson mandela voters have expressed frustration about corruption unemployment and racial inequality however despite that opinion polls suggest the a.n.c. will win most of the poor. elements four hundred seats zeroes from the members joining us from cape town what are you hearing about the results so far. well so far we know about

a quarter of the results have been counted or quarter of the votes have been counted and as expected the a.n.c. is in the lead with about fifty four percent of the vote at this stage it may be slightly lower than what the a.n.c. had compared to the last election but this is also to be expected given that strongholds of the a.n.c. predominantly townships in provinces like coating in the western cape haven't been counted yet and also in. the da the official opposition is in second place with about twenty six percent of them of course and third is that another opposition party that has been very vocal in recent years that is only about five or six years old and that's the economic freedom fighters the concern for the a.n.c. at this point really is the voter turnout which right now is about sixty four percent compared to the last election that was at seventy one percent but it is early days at this point and the a.n.c. is waiting for some of its key areas where it's very popular for those results to

come through and have there are any issues following about. one of the opposition parties the democratic alliance will be launching dozens of complaints with the electoral commission here in south africa and these complaints are all tied to issues around the inquest we used on voters thumbs which would indicate that they had voted but many voters say that that rubbed off quite quickly after they voted also issues around scanners the delivery of ballot papers that a number of polling stations but essentially the electoral commission says the election went to relatively well and these aren't major concerns opposite political parties in south africa have until friday to lodge any disputes or complaints before the final result is declared on saturday all right some of them are thank you. at least nine people have been killed in the democratic republic of

congo during an attack at a treatment center dozens of fighters from the are a group known as my my invaded the northeastern city. and fought with security forces. reports. this is what remains after the latest space of violence in the city of the temple in north kivu a province at the heart of the democratic republic of congo's outbreak. on wednesday armed men from the my my rebel group descended on the city leaving behind these scenes of destruction. according to local officials the fighters attempted to attack a treatment center but were forced off by security forces deployed in the area to thank your sunni premium this attack of my my militias is not the first one in this town of the tambo today again we've seen loss of life and these repeated attacks militias are taking advantage of the political unrest and also the fact that people

are trying to politicize it it's about five days now that the medical team is on able to work because of the fragile security situation we may lose control of people outbreak and will be very bad for a population of. more than one thousand people have died of the august of last year authorities and aid groups have struggled to control the outbreaks due to people's mistrust of health workers but also because of attacks and treatment centers the region is also experiencing a violent insurgency some members of the my my militia group were killed in clashes with the army this my my fighter a seventeen year old boy who jonas was arrested but it was no particular only says along with around twenty five men he was armed by their leader and sent to attack the medical team treating a boner. call upon these young people to join the community efforts in order to build the city of bhutan both for those who are able to serve in the army they can

join the army and police instead of staying in the bush to destroy their own community the my my are among dozens of armed groups operating in the troubled province most are fighting for control of the country's rich natural resources while armed groups violently compete for resources destabilizing the region the insecurity seems to have created the first help breeding ground for the deadly ebola disease. al-jazeera. syrian troops say they've captured a rebel on klav in the northwestern province of how mama pro-government military media says soldiers entered a town and fought with rebels the offensives included aerial bombings and shelling has more from beirut's syrian government troops have pushed into rebel controlled territory it is the first time they've taken ground since launching an offensive in the northwestern corner of syria they've captured the town of far no one of the

biggest towns in northern how much it has a strategic location because the government can now cut rebel supply lines from northern logic here nor there in hama and southern the area really of military operations the past ten days has really witnessed relentless bombardment syrian and russian planes carrying out dozens of air strikes according to the united nations fifty villages have come under fire it has caused massive displacement one hundred fifty thousand people are on the move they've moved further north away from the fighting civilians continue to be killed now the scope of the operations it is not believed to be about this this military operation is not believed to be about recapturing the entire province of idlib before it started the russian president vladimir putin said that it would be unpractical for a full scale assault for the time being because in his words the militants are

among the civilian population and on wednesday russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov for the first time commented on the ongoing operation he said that the russian military is carrying out the memorandum the cease fire deal that was agreed between russia and turkey last september in his words this memorandum is so supposed to root out terrorists and not protect them so russia making it clear that they're unhappy that turkey did not fulfill its commitments according to the steel . to clear a demilitarized zone around the province but at the same time it is believed that these two stakeholders are not going to rupture their relationship and are going to find some common ground that common ground could involve the government just pushing the north just to recapture the main international highways and not take the entire province of. iraq's ancient city of measure for its houses or

seminaries they faced restrictions on the rule of saddam hussein but since his death there has been a revival jabari met with some of the fellows and of students who travel to nudge off in the hope of joining the next generation of religious leaders. this is one of the dozen houses in niger it opened in the one nine hundred thirty s. . houser is a seminary where shia clerics are educated and there are more than seventeen thousand students in not just hoping to reach the highest level of religious studies to become a grand ayatollah or a martyr these students go through a rigorous testing process before they are accepted into the seminaries once here they are provided with a room and board and a small monthly allowance the verdict. the goal of the seminary students is to keep the faith and religion erected without flaws and continue to call on people to cling to the right path it is here where the next generation of religious leaders

are being prepared in iraq and as well as some of its neighboring countries they will have to tackle many challenges including politics but we're told that's not the main goal here unless it is absolutely necessary well you know most of. the growing awareness of society about seminaries has contributed in showcasing the leading role of the seminary leader especially during the security crisis in iraq when terrorists infiltrated the country such an example was clearly seen with the fact one of the. offensive jihad was announced by grand ayatollah ali sistani people realize the importance of the seminary in iraq in protecting the sanctity of the country this is the man who is in charge of all the seminaries in iraq eighty eight year old grand ayatollah ali sistani is the highest religious authority in the country. during the rule of saddam hussein to seminaries had their powers and number of students limited but now they are witnessing

a revival. our message and theme is for the coexistence among the different religions the highest religious authority keeps its distance from politics but when there is need to preserve the sanctity of the people religion and property of the society then we step in to rectify the wrongdoings by providing guidance as the reach of these seminaries continues to grow so does their role in society. these places are much more than just seminaries where thousands come to find a higher calling there are also becoming powerful institutions with a growing support base and the potential to influence millions around the world door so to party al jazeera. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera the u.s. has impose new sanctions on iran targeting its tail and mining industries it

follows the harangues announcement that it's stepping back from some of its obligations under the twenty fifty nuclear deal president hassan rouhani says world powers are failing to uphold their commitments u.s. for u.s. president has accused china of breaking the deal ahead of further trade talks between the two countries donald trump vowed to more than double tariffs on two hundred billion dollars worth of chinese goods china says it's ready to retaliate. by the way you see the chair because they broke that. they broke the law. so they're flying good advice for me or to mars flying a good man but they're broke. they can't do that so they'll be paying we don't make the deal nothing wrong with take it in over one hundred billion dollars a year. hundred billion we never did that before we won't back down to jail john to stop stealing our workers and stealing our jobs and that's what's going to happen otherwise we don't have to do business with them we don't have to do business we

can make the product right here if we have to like we used to. like we used to counting is underway in south africa general election twenty five years after the country's transition from apartheid to democracy it's seen as the toughest test yet for the ruling a.n.c. the party of late president nelson mandela voters have expressed frustration about corruption unemployment and racial inequality but despite that opinion polls suggest the a.n.c. is set to win a majority of the parliament's four hundred seats. syrian troops say they've captured a rebel in the northwestern province of how much pro-government military media says soldiers entered a town and fought with rebels offensives included aerial bombings and shelling president bashar assad's troops have also carried out strikes in the province and on sunday there are reports that a hospital was destroyed. those are the headlines on al-jazeera inside

story is coming up next to stay with us. until now the coverage of latin america that most of the world was about covering couldn't tod's tragedies quakes and that was it but not how people feel how they how they think and that's what we do we go anyway five and a half months september when it occasioned system that was introduced. in latin america this year has come to fill a void that needed to be filled. his iran nuclear deal dead a year after the u.s. abandoned the agreement teheran suspends parts of it and gives those countries which signed up to it an ultimatum to meet their commitments including protection from u.s. sanctions can the deal be renegotiated this is inside story. hello

and welcome to the program on im wrong donald trump called it the worst steel ever the u.s. president decided the year ago to pull out of the iran nuclear agreement which imposed limits on tehran's nuclear activities then reimpose sanctions against iran and recently extended them to threaten those countries still party to the deal iran's now reacted warning the u.k. france germany china and russia it will step up your reign in production unless they meet their commitments within sixty days britain says the decision is an unwelcome step while francaise more sanctions could be reimposed. has more from terror. exactly one year after the united states pulled out of the twenty fifth two nuclear deal iran says it will suspend cooperation with some of the commitments

under the agreement president hassan rouhani let world powers know his country will not abide by stockpile limits on enriched uranium and heavy water but he said it was a reciprocal move after the united states introduced new sanctions earlier this week designed to target the framework of the nuclear deal itself iranian experts say that the latest u.s. sanctions effectively forced iran to take some sort of action hammy him out of the main mall that john bid on routes. and people around the world should know that today is not the end of the nuclear deal today it's a new step for the j c p a way and it's within the framework of the j c.p.o. way the deal has given us this right if the other party violates its commitments we can raise it in the joint commission in a scheduled time and that time was passed we had meetings at the level of deputy ministers and foreign ministers and europeans and our friends several times emphasized that they would compensated somehow but practically they didn't meet

their commitment which iranian leaders maintain that limiting their level of cooperation with the joint comprehensive plan of action is still in keeping with the wording of the deal if in the next two months remaining signatories to the deal can do something to help mitigate the economic pressure on iran from u.s. oil and banking sanctions rouhani said his country would gladly return to abiding by its side of the bargain but as tensions escalate between tehran and washington president hassan rouhani has latest comments put more pressure on his own partners the remaining signatories to the nuclear deal to do something to salvage an agreement that's been in jeopardy since u.s. president donald trump took office same for inside story. we'll get to our discussion in just a moment but first let's take a look at some key developments since the u.s. withdrawal in january iran's european allies began looking. for alternative channels to keep trade going despite u.s. sanctions but the trump and ministration continued putting pressure on to iraq last

month the u.s. impose strict sanctions on iran in all exports and put iran's revolutionary guard on a list of terrorist organizations and recently the american aircraft carrier group the u.s.s. abraham lincoln was deployed to the strait of hormuz seventeen million barrels of oil are taken through the sea routes in the gulf every day iran has threatened to close it multiple times. let's bring in our guests in tehran mohammad marandi professor of north american studies at the university of tehran on skype from reston virginia rhenish a republican strategist and consultant and in berlin. visiting fellow brookings doha center a welcome to you all like to begin with you mohammad marandi in teheran this has been a very aggressive policy by this administration this u.s. administration to iran we are all of always expecting iran to react in your opinion

is this a fair reaction the events of the day. i think it's a rather mild reaction but president rouhani has said that there will be further acts on behalf of iran if the european union does not change its policy iranians have shown strategic patience for the last year at least actually far more than that in my opinion when the americans exited the dream and the europeans promised that they would abide by their commitments and iran has for a year now been waiting for the europeans to doing to do something and they've done nothing that they've said all the nice things that need to be said in a word to not enough and to so far the europeans have not. to run to the global financial sector which is what they have promised and they have not purchased any iranian oil which is also part of their commitment to them there are other things

that they should be doing and they haven't so the iranians are giving the european sixty days to decide whether they're going to abide by the commandments of trump are they going to protect their citizens their businesses their banks and abide by their commitments when the helmets we talk about this sixty day deal but the reaction almost immediately from said let's say from britain and britain said it was unwelcome step and then france said well more sanctions may be expected i don't know if that's encouraging for iran i don't know whether the europeans are going to play ball. well the iranians don't have any expectations it is rather extraordinary that the french and the british who have not been abiding by their commitments whatsoever that they have made all sorts of promises but have not delivered on any of them at all for them to say that this is unwelcome or that or

to threaten iran. i think that only angers ordinary iranians but it's expected by iranian policymakers iranians really have no option the americans are trying to strangle the iranian people and the iranians see how the american government is trying to brutalize ordinary people in venezuela how the americans are start helping the saudis starve the people in yemen how the americans destroyed libya what they've done to syria iraq afghanistan and the iranians know quite well that of appeasing the regime in washington is not going to get the country anywhere so i think what they're the rowhani administration has done is that he's shown the international community that it is iran that is abiding by its commitments that it is iran that is trying to ease tensions and that it is the united states that is pushing for escalation along with its friends in the region like netanyahu and b.s. and. mohamed bin ziad and i think that itself is

a big plus and so from here on i think many or most if not all fair minded people in the international community will recognize that iran has every right to push back really show in reston virginia iran has every right to push back now that doesn't seem to be a unified policy from this administration toward iran on the one hand you have the u.s. president donald trump who says. rouhani is a good man he would like them to come back to the negotiating table then you have like pompei a who seems to take a more middle ground suggesting that all actions. all options are on the table and then you have john bolton who is sending the u.s. lincoln carrier group to the strait of hormuz so it doesn't seem to be unified but much mauled not is that a unified strategy here or is the republican party really just making up as it goes along. i think that's an interesting assessment there at the making it up as you go

along because it does seem that this administration tends to do that in many ways and now in foreign policy in which we've been unified for a very long time whether you look at whichever party is in power the united states likes to show a very composed organized deliberate front when when confronting regimes like the one in iran so this is unusual but i have to say as you heard me talk about on your program before here i am i'm not exactly the biggest fan of this president's strategy his approach the way in which he speaks about certain leaders in the world where i don't find to be leaders however i think that we would have been best served by donald trump continuing to go about it in a way which he wanted however when he surat decided to surat in south with war hawks people like john bolton there was no other strategy of john bolton's mind he wants war and i think it's a very scary proposition at this moment in time where we have so many things we're

juggling on the world stage and to think about this is another issue that came in and blow up really you know right now it's in and it's in a point where i think this relationship is certainly strained the the reaction from iran i'm not surprised but i don't know how the trumpet ministration really moves forward without letting pompei you know and bolton take their front seat and that's what president trump has decided to do you know he has listened to them they have said this iran deal was non functional and it's been flawed from the get go it's a remnant of obama's era and as we as many people know the international community president trump doesn't like anything that that president obama left behind so let's see where we go from here if this is this is a moment it's a pivotal moment and i think there's a lot of uncertainty i had no doubt. berlin we are at a pivotal moment there is a carrier group steaming toward the strait of hormuz as we speak europe has been

given notice of sixty days to come to their commitments that they agreed before do you think europe is going to be the peace broker here or do you think europe is going to have to choose a side. well things are getting more complicated for the europeans obviously now with this kind of iranian deadline and. it is hard to see how the europeans would be able to transform the special purpose vehicle instax into something that the iranian side would economically benefit from and be happy with because so the fact remains that we have the dominance of the us sanctions regime globally on the banking and financial sectors and this is not going to change there's a strong compliance regime when it comes to u.s. sanctions so it's really hard to see how the europeans could encourage their

companies to engage in trade with iran something that they have been reluctant to do so up until now as we see from different reactions in europe europe of course remains committed to the nuclear deal it doesn't want to see it on rival. and on the other hand there is obviously more skepticism in paris talking about the potential reimposition of sanctions on iran while in berlin we've heard from the foreign ministry that while they remain committed to the nuclear deal they're also warned to get iran against. aggressive steps this might be something kind of an escalation in the persian gulf region or in the wider west asian you know theater where you might see some kind of confrontation between iran and allied forces and u.s. forces. are no i mean a shell hinted at this you said that this president doesn't like anything that

president obama did maybe the quickest way out of this is simply to go back to the renegotiating table negotiate a treaty which is almost exactly the same as the one you have already and be done with it. that's impossible because if the iranians begin to appease the regime in washington then this will be the first step of many the americans will conclude that every time you bully another country every time you strangle ordinary people every time you make ordinary people suffer every time you impose hunger like they do in in yemen then you get results and that is a very dangerous move and would push iran in a very dangerous direction the iranians have already made significant concessions in fact in the nuclear deal was controversial as you know from the very start many people in iran were opposed to it from day one and they said it wouldn't work but

the iranians negotiated for over a decade they gave significant concessions they were flexible and ultimately they signed the nuclear deal and they ended certain parts of the nuclear program and they toned down other parts even though there was never any real evidence to show that iran's nuclear program was anything but peaceful but iran wanted to brings stability to the region to show the international community that despite the narrative from washington the new iran wasn't the trouble maker and now after making giving those concessions this is how the united states behaves and worse than and i think even what's even more ugly is that is how the europeans are behaving because on the one hand they're they expect iran to commit itself to the nuclear deal yet they're not committing themselves at all to what they promise to do and i think that this is this is this creates a more dangerous situation because iran will have to begin to push back countries like saudi arabia and the emirates should expect the road ahead to get more bumpy

there is serious talk in iran of beginning stop and searches again with or in towards saudi and m.r.c. ships coming from into saudi an emirate or its weather there. rago or oil. they are pushing and they are pushing the region towards a very dangerous situation the iranians believe that the american that the president us president doesn't want war and he did us the cia or the the military because they know that if there is a war in the region everything in the persian gulf will be destroyed the the shutting of the strait of hormuz would be a sideshow all the oil facilities the tankers in the gulf of oman and in the persian gulf they'll be will be destroyed that's the route that's what our war will end and it will lead to a global economic catastrophe and trump knows that so whether the military and the and those who are more sane in washington can push back against bolton

and pompei oh that's an open question but the europeans and besides their commitments they should also be putting pressure on so you arabia and the emirates otherwise i think people in these two countries should start pulling out their money from the suits regimes really show it's clear that the europeans are now key players once again in this goal it has been throwing down the bulls and they can use all the cliches that you want but it's down to the europeans in the sixty day deadline now what is america thinking when it comes the europeans they think that they've got allies there that they will eventually side of the america well the republicans thinking republicans think that when american leads europe will follow and i think that's sort of rock in this moment and my conventional wisdom tells me that things are really changed and she and some in my party are unwilling to accept that so i think it's time for something new i don't know what that

something new i think that we've got too far down the road to have president shot sort of pull back it's a let's come back to the table and negotiate something that might be on it i think that's his first preference. but we're too far gone from that but if you know again about your guest in toronto i know i disagree with some points but the larger picture is true this is about america's relationship with saudi arabia in this very moment and as many know that the president's son in law gerry question has been tasked with creating peace in the middle east and he's been wildly unsuccessful at it if you ask me. so when you have the naive believe that sort of prevails in this administration what you're going to find over and over is a lack of unity as we talked about earlier and a lack of an approach that is going to be thoughtful and going to be fair rather to our allies and in this very moment our allies that we used to have are really no

longer allies so everything is very very fractured on the world stage at this moment and certainly these cliques that are prevailing in this moment are not helping the many people that are suffering but i don't i take great issue with the united states constantly being blamed for all of it i mean there are bad leaders in these countries and iran being one of them that that have caused people to suffer for a very long time this is elementary what i'm talking about i mean this is the p. iranian people not suffered entirely because of america's decisions and so to to continue forward and say that everything that happens from this moment forward that america is continuing to make iranian people suffer i think is a bit is disingenuous when you are sending a cary grant to the strait of hormuz the iranian people are going to feel uncomfortable about that. correct but they had a lot of options as well as you come to the table and there yet different way i think but i did come to tell you what it is i think i did wait

a while and i negotiated in good faith let me bring in the early. days it in that there was an agreement it was negotiated in good faith i mean europe must be looking at this and thinking to themselves how we go. well absolutely there was an agreement and obviously the u.s. administration with its withdrawal last year violated the agreement and because of the predominance of the u.s. in the financial and banking sectors as i said earlier it's very difficult for europe to provide for the economic benefits but i think what is happening right now is also what the europeans understand is that what iran is trying to do it's to re-establish their real leverage they had visa v. the west was all but also the united states by trying to you know to reenergize the nuclear program to an extent where they would be able to reach a nuclear threshold at some point in time so by reste abolition it's leverage. a

decade ago was the precondition for getting us concessions back then it was the u.s. dropping the zero enrichment demand on iran so this is what the iranians are trying to do to regain leverage for any future kind of engagement or negotiation with the united states as we've seen for iranian foreign ministers that eve's recent visit to the united states was trying to actually appeal to the u.s. president trump and to potentially open channels of communication because the iranian these number public knows that because of its huge economic crisis at home it has to you know look for a solution when it comes to sanctions when the united states on the other hand despite this iranian overture if he's of the president sean. there is still some controversy in iran there are some hard line elements who argue that iran cannot

now enter into negotiations with the united states because it's it is in a position of weakness in order to remedy this iran is now you know going into phases of a potential gradual retreat from the j.c. pure way that would raise the abolitionists leverage for any future negotiations with the united states what do you think of the iranians actually negotiating by stealth going back to what it was doing a decade ago thinking they can poly this into a new deal is that what's happening do you think. no i really spoke with dr zuhdi yesterday he is very much against negotiations with the united states the united states has to go back to the nuclear deal in order to begin negotiations with iran as they were a negotiating the iranians and the americans alongside the other members of the p five plus one they were all negotiating for years and even at the beginning of the

of the trump presidency teller's and was at the table it was the united states that that so the only way forward really for iran is to show that the united states that they cannot believe the country in iran does not accept the claim that the europeans don't have leverage the europeans if the if they don't have leverage if they can't protect their citizens if they can't protect protect their businesses and their dignity then they have no right to be sitting at any negotiating table and i think other countries across the world should take note of that if the europeans on the other hand a want to be respected and to take be taken seriously then they have to use that leverage their economy is larger than that of the united states and they have the opportunity to cooperate with countries like russia and china to make sure that they abide by the nuclear deal it's not a one sided relationship between the united states and europe so from the iranian perspective that excuses is completely unacceptable but what i think is is going to

happen is that yes the iran will continue to use its strengths and iran is strong iran's allies in iraq are strong enough on the sun and across the region and the americans know that if there is any confrontation and remember that's not what iran wants that's why iran signed the nuclear deal there that we already had to talk about do want to get as many other guests as well had to take a very very good points we know want to bring you in here iran isn't iraq in two thousand and three it's not afghanistan in two thousand and one this is a country that is military. really strong and has friends in the region well don't forget that there are a number of people in washington today who believe that the former points you made are true they do see iran to be something relic of the past and they're trying to deal with it as such like i said the mentality of the neo conservatives the establishment here still prevails despite the president the current president

desires to really do things differently so when when that mentality is what sort of rules the day you're not going to convince these people otherwise there's there is the idea that american military strength and a power move like sending the tanker we have that this is this is what's going to work and again there is no creativity here so what i think is we are we are headed down a really bad road no doubt but but i know that this is a prevailing mentality and there's no way to change it right now what we have sixty days the deadline is in place and europe has to react and i'm sure we'll be talking about this subject again i want to thank all our guests and i haven't more on the rhenish on an early fall and i said and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting a website al-jazeera adult called and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story and you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a.j. inside story for me in wrong and the whole team here like you know.

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a collapsed economy babies the very people are struggling to survive setting the discussions people having to wait i don't think you can look away any more sharing personal stories. with a global audience explore an abundance of world class programming designed to inform the behaviors motivate and inspire. the. al-jazeera. i felt compelled to authorize new sanctions on iran john are still a long enemy copper and. the us targets iran's metals industry a day after attack iran gives europe an ultimatum on the nuclear deal. and you reject the ultimatum given by iran to abide by the twenty fifteen nuclear deal.

is out there on live from doha i'm also ahead of the u.s. also ramps up the rhetoric on china accusing it of cheating american workers ahead of trade talks vote counting has begun in south africa's national elections in what's being seen as a major test for the governing party. hello the european union has rejected the sixty day ultimatum iran gave world powers to fulfill their commitments to the twenty fifty nuclear deal earlier the us president donald trump impose new sanctions on iran targeting its second biggest source of revenue metals it comes after to her on a rollback nuclear restrictions but stopped short of violating its twenty fifteen deal with world powers in

a moment we'll go live to her on for the latest but first here is a report from washington d.c. . like the sanctions on iran you know oil that we recently told them about the trouble to destroy the nuisance. target the funds not just of those within iran who operate in the eye and steal aluminum copper sectors but also those who engage in the international trade in iranian metals around the world donald trump said nations were on notice quote allowing iranian metals into your ports will no longer be tolerated and quote the us secretary of state was in london when he called for unity among u.s. allies against iran we're on the same side we're on the side of the use driven democracy we're on the side of freedom we're on the side of creating a nation for the iranian people where they can have religious freedom and they can have a democracy but it was impossible to escape the truth it is the us there's a mag on the un ratified treaty that was working iran must never be able to acquire a nuclear weapon it's no secret that we have a different approach on how best to achieve that u.k.

has continued to support the nuclear deal which is a key achievement of the global nonproliferation architecture because we believe it's in our shared security interests a message underlined elsewhere so the shame of not prejudging war for a few months now the deal that was signed in vienna to keep iran's nuclear activities in check has been undermined because exactly a year ago the us decided to pull out from the deal and not respect it going to china approves of the way that iran has carried out its duty to comprehensively fulfill the agreement we oppose the unilateral sanctions implemented by the u.s. and its so-called long jurisdiction even in washington members of congress and commentators usually only too happy to criticize terror on all deeply skeptical of the trump administration's recent claims of an imminent threat from iran particularly once it transpired that the u.s. aircraft carrier group that had been deploying to the middle east had been heading there anyway despite national security adviser john bolton's presentation on sunday

of an escalation of u.s. conflict right in this in the region. at a rally on wednesday the president repeated his contention that he's not interested in more but simply to renegotiate and unfortunately just today i felt compelled to authorize new sanctions on iran giant steel along with them and copper industries. because i hope to be able at some point maybe it won't happen possibly want to sit down and work out a fair deal we're not looking to hurt anybody we want to fair deal we just don't want them to have nuclear weapons it's always but a fear is being expressed at so many traumas ministration are attempting to go much further she represents the outer zero washington so as we said earlier the european union has not rejected the sixty day ultimatum iran gave world powers to fulfill their commitments of the twenty fifty nuclear deal and in the joint statement with the foreign ministers of france germany and the u.k.

they said this we note with great concern the statement made by iran concerning its commitments under the g c p o a we remain fully committed to the preservation and full implementation of the g c p o a at the same time we recall our own firm commitments under the agreement in regards to lifting sanctions for the benefit of the iranian people we regret the reimposition of sanctions by the united states following their withdrawal from the g c p a us robbie's joining us from the herat and i suppose we just have to wait and see what official reaction comes out off iran from iran to that e.u. statement. yes exactly we can get a sense of how the iranian government might have seen this coming or might generally feel about their european partners the other signatories to the nuclear deal in multiple statements from government officials yesterday they actually chided the

european signatories to the deal for not being more independent from american policies not just against iran but across the board and iranian leaders have said that it is time for european leaders to really make a decision of whether or not they want to implement their commitments to this deal in the face of american pressure for the sake of their own sovereignty as zarif also suggested during his trip to moscow to meet his counterpart sergei lavrov the foreign minister of russia and we were really getting a signal that in the last few weeks and months there have been lines drawn in the sand by the united states and by iran and iran is has slowly over the course of the years since the united states pulled out of the nuclear deal drifted away from depending on european partners for anything but moral support they've said over and over again that the words that have come from european capitals have been fantastic but it has not been followed up by tangible action the european countries have not been able to win the support or the trust of their own private companies to believe

in the financial bypass that has been set up with iran to continue trade and so that really hasn't had any sort of functional impact on bettering iran's economic circumstances iran has pivoted in recent months more sharply to countries like russia to countries like china we heard china supports for iran yesterday when the president hassan rouhani announced his plans to lessen commitments to the nuclear deal less in cooperation with the nuclear deal and china happens to be one of the biggest purchase of purchaser of raw materials it's metals upon which the united states has placed additional sanctions so with european countries who also imported a lot of iranian raw materials already limiting their economic it or. action of the country iran is likely to focus on our allies like china and russia to continue to be able to sustain its economy through these very difficult times under u.s. pressure as you're saying. these new sanctions were announced by the trumpet ministration on raw materials it does seem that iran is being increasingly corner

is there anything else that the governments can do. absolutely i think yesterday we saw with the foreign minister zarif in moscow iran still has strong allies on the international stage stage it might be isolated economically but it certainly isn't alone in dealing with the united states and u.s. pressure and speaking of pressure there are still certain pressure points to iran independently can also turn to their sort of response to america's ongoing sanctions campaign the strait of hormuz of course is a major thoroughfare for oil lanes for oil shipments twenty percent of the world's consumed oil goes through the strait of hormuz which is in iranian terror and so they have said over and over again they could close the strait of hormuz in response to iranian oil sales being stopped we have also seen the president hassan rouhani in his speech yesterday also mention iran's international role that still

very much is involved in many international efforts he mentioned the afghan refugee refugee population that lives in iran he also mentioned iran's ongoing drug war on the borders with got a stone in pakistan all things that would impact europe if iran was to take its foot off the gas. rouhani suggested that it cost iran billions of dollars to host refugee communities to fight a war against drug trafficking and if it became too expensive because of economic sanctions it would have to reconsider its commitment to those things that could have an international impact that could see a new refugee crisis that could see an influx of of drugs of illicit drugs coming across iran and into other parts of the world so those are things that rouhani tried to use to say that iran should not be isolated it is an international country it is part of the international community and needs to be treated as such ok. thank

you let's cross over to paris and speak to natasha butler who will talk us through that statement that was just released a few moments ago rejecting iran's sixty day ultimatum was it expected. well i think what we're seeing is european powers trying to draw their own boundaries in a way as they've become increasingly trapped in the middle as the situation escalates between the united states and iran what the e.u. are saying in this joint statement it came from. foreign policy chief frederica greenies office and it's done in conjunction with the foreign ministers of britain france and germany what they're saying is that they reject any ultimatums given by ron now that refers to the fact that on wednesday iran told european powers that they had sixty days to come up with some sort of plan a way to bypass the impact on iran of these u.s. sanctions and of course the european union european leaders would know that that's

probably quite unlikely they'll be able to come up with anything in that timeframe and what they're rejecting is the imposition of that timeframe in the first place because what e.u. leaders have been saying all along is that they're doing everything they can to try and support this deal to try and support this twenty fifteen accord that they say is the best bet for regional peace security and stability in in the region they are saying that they are working hard to support iran so i think in a sense this is the e.u. saying to iran we understand we are trying to do our best but we won't be dictated to as to how long we have to try and come up with perhaps a better strategy to contour these u.s. actions and i suppose the big question is natasha's how long. do you feel like they can continue to back the agreement if they think iran is not complying with it because we saw just twenty four hours ago iran saying that it will suspend some of its commitments. that's right and the

french defense minister on the wednesday said that if tehran does violate this agreement then the e.u. would consider re imposing sanctions now the statement that came out today also talks about the fact that iran must not violate this agreement there is a call to tehran not to do so to stay within the commitments that it made. for the twenty fifteen agreement so i think what leaders really want is to try to deescalate the situation they certainly talk about that in this statement and i think today they will actually gather at an e.u. summit in remain in iran wasn't supposed to be on the agenda but i think there's no doubt that that it will be and what they'll have to do is try and come up with some sort of plan or strategy in early this year they created an e.u. payment system called in stakes that's designed to try and bypass some of these u.s. sanctions are allowing iran and.