see the middle east broadly as a place that's dangerous and unfortunately has been growing more dangerous in recent years, there are in my opinion, i would say three coalitions, three alliances, three axises of power. that are fairly stable. and the first, most important, from a danger standpoint, iran, obviously a nation state, with all the abilities and powers of a nation state is primary rebind that, the actors there are primarily nonstate actors, hezbollah and the avant, many of the militia forces in iraq, yemen and many other insurgencies in sunni arab nations. second would be muslim brotherhood and some of its allies throughout the middle east. the brotherhood is a wholly terrorist organization. like hamas, al qaeda and other militant states. and other states who have in lesser or various ways have supported those groups, regrettably turkey in some instances. and our alliance of power, the united states, the united nations and increasingly israel. that's the partners that we have had in the region for many years. obviously there's divisions within those alliances and cross

. failed states in the middle east, isis, the war against terrorism. iran and their continuing support for terrorism. north korea, russia, china, cyber attacks. i mean, this is -- this is a dangerous world. and it demands very strong u.s. leadership to be -- >> your leadership and you have policies that created -- >> i don't think that's helpful. let secretary panetta finish. okay. okay. i think you should let secretary panetta finish please. [ booing ] >> okay. please. >> a policy that creates terrorism! >> okay. i would like to add that i -- during this mayhem, i would -- okay. my goodness. oh, my gosh. >> okay. [ yelling ] >> wow. >> okay. [ yelling ] >> these are the terrorists that exist in our country! these are the terrorists that are on the stage. they are not -- they're right here! >> well -- >> okay. >> welcome to a congressional hearing. >> i would like to say, i completely forgot, i completely forgot which was my intent to introduce for secretary panetta, as everyone in the room knows, he was secretary of defense. is there any chance people will be quiet? okay. he has served th

bloomberg markets: middle east." i am yousef gamal el-din. major stories driving headlines this week. as saudi arabia's rush for foreign investment continues, we discuss whether higher oil prices could slow reforms. the king is pushing for extending beyond the current deadlines and may have managed to win over \key oil producers. our first guest is playing a long game when it comes to investing in the middle east and africa. bob diamond is known as an optimist and some of it seems to be paying off. bob: the original vision was to have position in key countries. we are in seven countries. we are continuing to invest in union bank of nigeria. i think our focus right now is completing the next stage of investment in ubn. we really like nigeria. we think it is in a better position with the collapse of the oil prices. we think the agricultural sector has grown very nicely. we have just made a second very large investment in ubn. yousef: are you on track to double your fiscal year profits? bob: yes, that's the statement we made and we expect to do that. yousef: other asset sales planned? mom:

since the end of world war ii. failed states in the middle east, isis, the war against terrorism. iran and their continuing support for terrorism. north korea, russia, china, cyber attacks. i mean, this is -- this is a dangerous world. and it demands very strong u.s. leadership to be -- >> your leadership and you have policies that created -- >> i don't think that's helpful. let secretary panetta finish. okay. okay. i think you should let secretary panetta finish please. [ booing ] >> okay. please. >> okay. i would like to add that i -- during this mayhem, i would -- okay. my goodness. oh, my gosh. >> okay. [ yelling ] >> okay. [ yelling ] >> okay. >> welcome to a congressional hearing. >> i would like to say, i completely forgot, i completely forgot which was my intent to introduce for secretary panetta, as everyone in the room knows, he was secretary of defense. is there any chance people will be quiet? okay. he has served the country as secretary of defense and director of the cia. so i think that gives his views -- oh, my goodness. anyway. i think that gives his views added -- a gr

and adviser jared cushion or to the middle east in part to work out a blueprint for a deal the white house says closing the p.l.o. office doesn't mean it's cutting off communications with the palestinians and could be viewed as a way to expedite the peace process but a middle east analyst says the trumpet ministration is not bargaining in good faith the u.s. is not an honest broker the u.s. is representing its own interests and they correspond primarily with the right wing of israeli interests the closure isn't a done deal president trump has ninety days to review the decision and could keep the office open if he thinks the palestinians are engaged in meaningful and direct negotiations with the israelis die a nest of rock al-jazeera washington. thank you eat it with the palestinian liberation organization is recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the palestinian people by more than one hundred countries including israel it was established in one thousand nine hundred sixty four to liberate palestine with the help of armed struggle for decades the p.l.o. sat on the

quadriga coming to you from the heart of berlin now in the middle east is currently own edge with so-called islamic state forced into what looks like full scale retreat another longer term conflict is intensifying with this man saudi arabia's ambassador young crown prince mohammed bin sound man confronting the other big power in the region that is of course in the two countries are already locked in a proxy conflict that's impacting lebanon and is devastatingly yemen but now the fear is that the two strands of islam they represent sunni and shia could be drawn into a greater conflagration so our question on quadriga this week is middle east tensions a new war and to discuss that question i'm joined here in the studio by. brooky senior editor with deutsche of well as far as the service he say's military support for saudi arabia is just as wrong as abandoning the iran nuclear deal also with us is freelance journalist an expert on saudi. rapier pacer. who believes there won't be a whole war between saudi arabia and iran and a warm welcome also goes to show the result as from t w two why

best of bloomberg markets: middle east." oil was on a tear, helped in part by the situation in saudi arabia, but opec warned that it may be a double-edged sword, shalee what created production will grow considerably faster than expected. i got to speak to standard chartered's global chief economist, but first asks tracy alloway if this was a miracle but from opec. >> it certainly reads that way. this comes from their annual world oil outlook, affectionately known as the woo. forthing is the forecast u.s. shale production, opec wrapping them up. they expect shale output to soar to 7.5 million barrels per day by 2021. that is 50% higher than the forecast opec made a year ago. the other thing is the language. the quote where they say, most strikingly, "u.s. shale oil production has exceeded previous growth expectations." you and i both know that is slightly different to what we normally see from opec, both in its official reports and from members themselves. traditionally, a year or two ago, if you ask him about u.s. shale, they would swat it away as not much of a competitor. i should s

>> welcome to "best of bloomberg markets: middle east." the major stories driving headlines, the corruption crackdown continued to reverberate, saudi's superrich stashed their cash, just in case, even if they had not been implicated in wrongdoing. robert bugabe calls time on his 37 year rule. and global equities hit record highs yet again. but does the sale of the da vinci for forgery $50 million paint a picture of the market over exuberance? we hear from one senior analyst who thinks alarm bells should be ringing. the oil market year it for the much anticipated opec meeting, which takes place november 30. saudi arabia's energy minister has told bloomberg the cartel and its allies should announce an extension of their output curbs when they gather in vie nna. russia has not sounded quite as convinced. we have more with our guests and our middle east reporter. i have a chart that i think encapsulates what we have seen in the oil market. this is hedge fund short positions in brent. the red line is the short position just beginning to pick up. it does not look like much. are we seei

all religions let's bring in our guests joining us in beirut joseph kitchen a middle east analyst and senior fellow at the king faisal center for research and islamic studies in london and there's craig assistant professor at the defense studies department at king's college london and also in beirut nicholas no editor in chief of mideast wire dot com good to see all three of you joseph kitchen let me start off with you a staggering couple of days have passed i'm just wondering what we are in the middle of witnessing what's happened we are witnessing tremendous changes system of government of saudi arabia we have a new leadership that has been in place for about two years now but obviously a consolidation of power on the part of the heir apparent public been so the man who is determined to push forward with it is very complicated economic political and social agendas so there who are what we are seeing what we are witnessing is the implementation of the plans that he has presumably thought through. for the past several months i'm not surprised by the changes that have taken place i

danger here in that we have a very complicated security architecture of the middle east that has been under tremendous strain and threat indeed for many of us we see it as basically breaking and broken and the idea of adding yet another layer of incredible new stresses with outcomes that none of us can can can pretend to really understand and to map out this is incredibly dangerous moment and that's why i would disagree with your your first speaker perhaps was not surprised by these events perhaps he wasn't but i'd say in this next stage it's going to be incredibly difficult for any of us to try and guess what is going to happen we are in a real period of unknown contingent possibilities and i know at least on the u.s. government side that is tremendously worrying to folks but a lot of people are worried for example just about the leadership of our president in this matter who has apparently wholeheartedly supported the crown prince's actions and who even deemed the people that have been arrested as being guilty essentially of having quote unquote milked the cow for too long so t

♪ yousef: welcome to the "best of bloomberg markets: middle east." i am yousef gamal el-din. here are the major stories driving headlines. crude comes on and oil fixes. -- and oil takes a dip. why is the view of the market so different from opec's? airbus and boeing battle for supremacy. and the saudi arabia crackdown continues to reverberate. local retail investors keep selling as political risk rises. but first, abu dhabi's state own oil giant, 10% of the subsidiary could be sold off. plans to pay shareholders $400 million in 2018 and 2019. tracy alloway spoke exclusively to the ceo and asked for more details about the plan. >> the announcement said at least 10%. we might go a little higher, that will depend on how the market is over the next few weeks. tracy: is there particular valuation you are targeting? >> not really. a firstto demonstrate of its kind ipo in the region. what we are trying to achieve is a way to ensure an unprecedented [indiscernible] market and domestic and local investors to work alongside. tracy: there are of course rumors you might look to float other bu

prologue and at the archives and look back at the year 1979. that year transformed the middle east and changed the world. in that year radical islamist ideology rippled around the globe and the revolution in iran brought the iotola to power. that same year a dark veil of sunni extremism fell over vaud and other arab nations and also that year the soviets invaded afghanistan and the group under the leadership of osama bin laden became a force to be reckoned with as if time had gone backwards. today 38 years later and 16 years after 9/11 the threat landscape remains. the sunni extremists continue the rein of terror and russians have returned to the region to control ports in syria and prop up the dictator, bashar al assad. last week we saw a crushing blow to isis in raqqa, syria and before that mosal. after watching the caliphate mastasticize over the previous administration and after constant briefings on operations and threats to the homeland we can finally see a defeat of isis in the region. before we celebrate or claim victory i believe it is important to caution the radical islamist

pacey candidates at the university of oxford samuel is a specialist in russian middle east of says and is a regular contributor to the diplomats and washington post and via skype in rome but i'm audie ambassador of the syrian national coalition to italy a very warm welcome to the three of you imadi russia's plan kind of where you like it they were using the plan of russia actually to change may interact the international agreed about by the security council. resolution two to fight for it stimulated that peace process should start in geneva and. united nations facilitation and this has been given important for some time unfortunately did not want to negotiate russia is supporting now what is what is what is happening now and is an attempt by our effort to change that. jack the reason these forces from geneva and change it into sochi to take their sortie now the problem is that in sochi they are going to invite about one thousand or more. from syria and from outside but they will invite more people. who are supporting. the opposition who started the revolution in the first place so i th

turn the tide of history. with consequences that still scar the middle east. this is the story of killing the coward. february one thousand nine hundred forty five. count falcon by an adult is about to board a nazi plane bound for land. as vice president of the swedish red cross he was leading the biggest humanitarian effort of world war two. he had come to germany to negotiate with heinrich human nazi minister of the interior. this meeting would secure the release of thousands of concentration camp person use. by the end of the war byrne adults mission known as the white buses. would successfully evacuate thirty thousand prisoners of over twenty nationalities to safety in sweden. one third of them were jews. in the aftermath of war those jews who had survived the holocaust began to leave a continent that had become for them a personal hell. after there was. a big guy. like the birds to flee to palestine. the lists of ships say just that. they didn't the l.o.'s. the british the ruling all thirty in palestine had decided to put a stop to the tide of jewish immigration. the tide the

beginning to shift the geopolitical dynamic. where once it was dependent on the middle east for much of its energy, the us is now producing more of its own, allowing it to potentially forge a new foreign policy. a geopolitics of oil. next, on great decisions. (trumpeting music) - [narrator] great decisions is produced by the foreign policy association in association with thomson reuters. funding for great decisions is provided by pricewaterhouse coopers, llp. - [narrator] nations have always been in competition with each other. often, it's in the search for natural resources like oil and gas. a steady supply of energy is needed to fuel the country's economy and military. - [sachs] typically, american foreign policy like british imperial foreign policy before it, paid a tremendous amount of attention to securing oil for the economy. that includes who we have befriended, but it has also included us launching wars; stationing military bases; engaging in coups and orienting a massive amount of our foreign policy around oil. - [mcnally] by world war one, oil was transitioning to becoming the

♪ yousef: welcome to "best of bloomberg markets: middle east," i am yousef gamal el-din. and will fixes that as stock prices right and global demand estimates are cut your why are the views so different from opec's? airbus and boeing battle for supremacy. crackdownudi arabia continues to reverberate. dhabi 68 point -- 10% of theil giant, subsidiary could be sold off. tracy alloway spoke exclusively to the ceo and asked for more details about the plan geared -- the plan. >> at least 10%. higher, go a little that will depend on how the market is over the next few weeks. tracy: is there particular valuation you are targeting? >> not really. [indiscernible] -- a one-of-a-kind ipo in the region. ist we are trying to achieve a way to ensure an unprecedented [indiscernible] market and domestic and local investors to work alongside. tracy: there are of course rumors you might look to float other businesses. what else might be in the pipeline? >> were looking for ways to maximize value to shareholders while keeping it wholly owned. having said that, we are looking at exploring the whole va

conflagration. our question on "quadriga" this week, middle east tensions, a new war? to discuss that, i'm joined in the studio by jamsheed faroughi, senior editor with dutch avella welle's farsi service. also with us is freelance journalist peter boehm, who believes that won't be a hot war between saudi arabia and iran. a warm welcome also to shani rozanes, a producer and analyst. shani can bring us the israeli perspective on things. she says it is not saudi arabia that israel is looking too, but russia. faroughi, i would like to begin with you. the tensions between iran and saudi arabia go back a long way. why is this cold war now heating up? jamsheed: there is a kind of explanation for that. i should also say, it is not a kind of cold war, what we are seeing at the moment, because cold war is a war of words. it is more than that. it is a proxy war. you can also see in the different parts of the regime that they are confronting themselves against each other. ornow, i think there's two three issues to help us understanding this. for example, we have donald trump in america. trump pla

biggest powers in the middle east iran and saudi arabia has escalated directly affecting other countries in the region. hundreds of thousands of taken to the streets of boston logan outraged at madrid's crackdown on for months on leaders who were behind the region's independence declaration. a highly anticipated full meeting between donald trump and saddam and putin fails to materialize at the padded chalk on the sidelines of the apec summit and agreed to cooperate on syria. the u.s. justice department demands that all see america registered as a foreign agents by monday if elster can fly the channel's bank accounts could be frozen. a warm welcome you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international the latest headlines and a roundup of the stories that shape the week i'm mccarran. the geo political rivalry between two of the middle east's main powers saudi arabia and iran has been destabilizing other regional players yemen and lebanon. with the latest development of saudi led airstrikes targeting the defense ministry in the yemeni capital it was back in march twenty fifteen that saudi

leadership. leaders in the middle east respect a strong horse to defend american interest and stand by close allies more preferable to defaulting on a key promise like past leaders have done. four the embassies can be relocated to the sites in jerusalem the us already controls, this is the simplest changing the sign in one of the existing consulates. the consulate annex, combined initially with the adjacent diplomat hotel can be a sizable complex with adequate security. this straddles the 1949 armistice line councils in its favor of potential site. the trump administration delayed moving the embassy in light of its efforts to pursue a peace deal and the palestinian era but there are incremental steps the trump administration could take in the meantime. the state department allowed americans born in jerusalem on their passports, the us ambassador should make a point to conduct the work week from jerusalem and the american consulate should report to the american embassy not directly to the state department. some say the us can't move it embassy to jerusalem because that would enrage a

dubai. clock looking at some a.m. local time. welcome to "bloomberg markets: middle east." what a dramatic start to the we. >> the saudi crown prince appears to be melting something of a purge against several high-profile princes in the world family. yousef: the list, i keep having to look through it again. accused of everything from corruption to of using public funds, some very big names on the list. including a very well known as this man. -- businessman. looking at a lot of foreign officials. a lot to digest here from a market perspective. tracy: that is exactly right. it's bringing out executive editor for the middle east. with the obvious question, is this a power grab in anticorruption clothing? >> it's hard to not come to that conclusion. came first, before the reshuffle, before he changed the national guard. the national guard was kind of the last major power center that was not under the control of the crown prince himself. now really every lever of power inside saudi arabia is directly controlled by him and his allies. of course, we have no sense, no way of telling what

. arroyo is snoozing through middle east tensions ahead of the opec meeting. softbank plays hardball. a 30% discount. yousef: it is 8:00 a.m. across the emirates. i am yousef gamal el-din in dubai. here: markets in hong kong have gone into the lunch break. have a look at the broader picture across the asia-pacific. this gives you a simple look at how asia is doing. more red than green. india has just opened up. southeast asia feeling more of the pan. malaysia and singapore leading declines. there is not a lot of conviction to the upside here. yousef: some other assets showing downside pressure. brent crude extended declines. u.s. crude inventories probably shrank for a second week according to a bloomberg survey. gold, flirting heavily with $1300 an ounce. u.s. tenure paper, choppy trade, the curve steepening and dollar-lira there. u.s. equity futures showing a decline. we have been in the sideways grind for some time. let's check in on the first word headlines. japan has raised its alert level after getting indications north korea may be planning a new missile tests. kyoto news has sai

. >> this is bloomberg markets: middle east. >> i hear there are some ancient tribal rivalries heating up in the middle east. i'm not talking about any of this. i am talking about them versus boeing. you are live on the scene. >> the dubai air show is finally here. the last dubai airshow was $179 billion and record-breaking deals. that is a high bar to live up to. in the time since a lot has shifted. the competitive landscape has shifted. we are talking about the -- visa bans. numbers tell a story, middle east operations are growing at the slowest pace in eight years, the monthly growth. let's look politically. the tensions are a lot higher with the standup up with qatar that has halted some key air routes. the economics have shifted as well. have dropped, government have had to rationalize their spending. they will be a lot less appetite this time around for big deals. there is a close one that we are very closely watching and that additional for 36 8380. tracy: this is potentially tim clark's parting gift. before we talk about more things aviation let's get a check of how the markets

but one thing is for sure there is something going on in the middle east right now and it's not the birth pangs of democracy if we remember congolese rice markets some bullet points at least it's a big topic yeah saudi arabia is involved in so many problems and conspiracies from their invasion and starvation mass starvation or yemen right now with western and other gulf cooperation backing their for their failed regime change operations in syria the mess they've helped create in libya now they're going a step further and they've stepped further into lebanese politics by many even western mainstream accounts supposedly the lebanese prime minister. who is a pro u. s. lebanese prime minister pro so to you and pro so he has essentially been kidnapped by the new crown prince of saudi arabia and his has been held this far as i want to tell you his friends by now he could. he was on his way to france we'll see what the verdict is out of that what once he is allowed to speak freely in france but it's it's presumed that that saudi arabia having failed in syria and elsewhere is trying to conf

proxy war between two of the biggest powers in the middle east iran and saudi arabia has escalated directly affecting other countries in the region. i. hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets of barcelona outraged at madrid's crackdown on former catalan leaders who were behind the region's independence declaration. a highly anticipated formal meeting between donald trump. fails to materialize the did chat on the sidelines of the apec summit and agreed to cooperate on. the u.s. justice department demands that r.t. america register as a foreign agent by monday failed to comply channels bank accounts could be frozen. i could even to you my name is neil harvey you want the weekly here on r.t. international. the geo political rivalry between two of the middle east main powers saudi arabia and iran has been destabilization other regional players yemen and lebanon. the latest developments saudi led air strikes targeted the defense ministry in the yemeni capital it was back in march of two thousand and fifteen that saudi arabia first began its incursion into yemen by launching an a

the proxy war between two of the biggest powers in the middle east to iran and saudi arabia has escalated directly affecting other countries in the region. thanks of thousands took to the streets of barcelona angry at madrid's crackdown on former captain leaders behind the region's independence declaration. a highly anticipated formal meeting between donald trump and vladimir putin failed to transpire with a padded chant on the sidelines of the apec summit and agreed to cooperate on syria . the us justice department demands that r.t. america register as a foreign agent by monday but channels bank accounts could be frozen if it doesn't comply. with. a warm welcome you're watching r.t. international broadcasting to you live from the russian capital. but your political rivalry between two of the middle east's main powers saudi arabia and iran has been the subject destabilizing other regional players yemen and lebanon. and the latest development strikes targeted the defense ministry in the yemeni capital it was march twenty fifth that saudi arabia launched its incursion into yemen b

geopolitical rivalry between two of the middle east's main powers saudi arabia and iran has been destabilizing other regional players yemen and lebanon. and the latest development saudi led as strikes targeted the defense ministry in the yemeni capital it was back in march twenty fifteen this saudi arabia first began its incursion into yemen by launching an act pain against the rebels who are backed by iran yemeni civilians have also been affected by the latest saudi led bombings here's what they told our sister channel r.t. arabic. my house was destroyed i'm just an ordinary person in the bus driver i'm not a military commander not an agent of the state why did they do that to me my house didn't hold a single bullet to the fear that i had weapons so i want them to watch this i have nothing this is just a house and i'm a poor person but i was fairly new my head and legs were injured our houses were destroyed this is the result of aggression how how's this and there were affected by the strike riyadh has intensified its bombardment of yemen in response to a missile fired towards t

hear from white house strategist steve bannon talking about administration's middle east strategy and efforts to combat isis. >>> so next up we have catherine herridge interviewing senator tom cotton. katherine is the award winning correspondent for fox news channel. she covers intelligence, justice department and department of homeland security for fox news in her career she report freddie afghanistan, iraq, qatar, guantanamo bay and other places. i would like her to take over the stage. here we are. >> good afternoon. >> i'd like to thank the hudson institute for hosting such a timely discussion and graciously including me and fox news channel and for senator tom cotton kindly giving up some of his afternoon to be here with us. i'd like to start by an overview kind of setting the table. how do you see qatar, iran, the muslim brotherhood, how do you see that relationship and that pillar of power playing out? >> first of all, i'd like to thank the hudson institute as well. they do great work. this conference is another example of that. catherine, thank you for joining me up here for t

go through. iran, turkey, hezbollah, hamas, the muslim brotherhood, the middle east right now is on the knights edge. it will take strong leadership in the pressure president from his under in washington dc as the radical left tries to nullify and they are trying to notify the 2016 election. great minds like professor hirsch with and others would agree with me. president companies are back and president trump needs are back because we are a nation at war and this war will only be one we find together and work as partners. i am proud to be here tonight and i am honored and i want to thank you and am proud to be a christian scientist. thank you. [cheering and applause] >> at that same event us ambassador to israel, david freeman, received an award from the zionist organization of america and made remarks about president trump in the state of us israel relations. this is 15

christian orthodoxy across the you know the middle east and north africa but thomas friedman by referring to mohamed bin solomon's purges and murders to secure the crown for himself as the arab spring in saudi arabia puts the final nail in that tired he is in sydney where i hope our viewers know what i'm talking about victor going to have to go check we have to move gears we're going to talk about the kurds going to finish their apps bring with it let chaos it's disintegration in the middle east its wars in libya in syria in other parts of the each and nothing good and i think we're going to refer all of our readers to robert fisk slater's thing victor just said their us foreign policy in the middle east doesn't exist anymore well just a small conclusion. almost treatment souce arab spring you know. came on roller skates thomas friedman the supreme comes old aircraft be there off the mistreatments a new way in there of the world. with you know with persona's reputation with his failure in lebanon with his failure in his policy in the game and with his other failures inside saudi

broadside at iran saad hariri move back to the middle east but took the middle east by surprise he talked about the evil that iran spreads in the region will live to beirut also coming up u.s. president donald trump and his wife pay homage to the servicemen who died in the japanese attack on pearl harbor world war two trump is about to start an extensive tour of asia with north korea topping the agenda. but also look ahead to tonight's heavyweight bundesliga clash as reigning champions byron munich travelled to a barista dortmund side in christ's. welcome to the program i met hermann it is good to have you with us now the prime minister of lebanon has resigned unexpectedly taking shots at iran as he went saad hariri attacks teheran and its lebanese allies as by law for spreading chaos strife and destruction throughout the middle east in a televised address from saudi arabia ari said the evil that iran spreads in the region will backfire on it or every surprise move plunges lebanon into uncertainty amid heightened regional tensions. all right for more i am joined by ben to beirut sh

, when it comes to the middle east mostly moderate except for political stability which is listed as a very poor. in terms of asia mostly favorable. moderate for political stability. favorable, except moderate in the middle east. why break it down like this in terms of geography and what have you learned about these different places? guest: we provide context. if we called upon the military to go defend the national security interests, what are those interests?defending the homeland . resolving a large conflict on favorable terms. and then prevent the rise of a hegemonic power that would push out western liberal democratic kinds of governance structures. we would know what someone like russia to dominate the european continent and it cut off the united states from access to lines.arkets along those if you had to go to war to defend your interests against a challenger that rises to that level, able to threaten interests in that way, that really only occurs in europe, the middle east and asia pacific. if you have to go to afghanistan and invent everything, there's poor road infrastructur

conor powell is following the story from our middle east newsroom two hello, conor. >> mike, in the last few hours, the egyptian military has launched air strikes in the sinai desert, the first of what's expected to be a series of military responses. today's attack in egypt's northern sinai province appears to have been as well-planned and sophisticated as it was deadly. more than 230 people were killed after militants detonated a bomb outside a mosque in the small village of beer hall -- some 40 militants in trucks open fire, killing dozens more. egypt's president al-sisi who seized power in a promise of restoring column to the country appeared on state tv tonight and from the security forces respond forcefully. >> the military forces and civil police will take revenge for our martyrs and bring back security and stability with force in the near future. this is our response. we will respond to this attack with extreme power when confronting these terrorists and infidel sons. >> while president donald trump tweeted his support for egypt and used the attack to press for tighter security at

rejected accusations by the lebanese prime minister that it's spreading violence across the middle east. saad hariri resigned from his post unexpectedly, saying he feared for his life. iranian officials say his resignation is a saudi plot to create tension. martin patience reports from beirut. it is an honour to be here with you, mr president. for the prime minister of a small nation, saad al—hariri has had some very powerful friends. that is because lebanon matters in the middle east. it is a country outsiders fight to control. and today, an extraordinary sign of that — the prime minister resigned, saying he feared assassination. speaking from saudi arabia, which backs him, saad al—hariri fired this warning to iran. translation: i want to say to iran and its followers that they are losing in their interference in the affairs of the arab world. our nation will rise up, as it has done in the past, and cut off the hands that wickedly extend into it. iran and saudi arabia are fighting a proxy war across the middle east. in lebanon, tehran backs hezbollah, which commands strong support. but

his son in law and chief negotiator jad cushion of the middle east representative jason green blatt traveling between ramallah and jerusalem to see what they can do on the one hand and now threatening to close down the p.l.o. his office in d.c. . i don't think it's i don't think it's very well coordinated from what i understand the trump administration has been pursuing what president trump promised during the campaign was which would be that he alone president trump alone could achieve this great middle east peace this grand bargain in the middle east where none of his predecessors were able to do so and he entrusted that mission to his most is most important advisors his longtime friend mr green and his son in law jared cushion or and they have been pursuing it slowly but surely and very intently that's on one hand i think in a completely unrelated track you have republicans in congress here in washington working with israeli government officials this is something that was even reported on israeli t.v. . republicans in congress here working with israeli government officials to pun

one. this is not what you see on the tv, it is the real middle east. shouting, pushing, people screaming. again, you know, ultimately another person comes in and says simply that i had been accused of taking money from my employer. where is the money. this is... so before the end of the first day you find out this is what it was about? that was it. you have been accused of taking money, where is the money? what have you or did you... how long does this process ta ke you... how long does this process take for you finally are formally charged? how long take for you finally are formally charged ? how long before take for you finally are formally charged? how long before you are charged? how long before you are charged with an offence quest at 15 months. 15 months? and during that time where are you? i was in a detention facility where people are meant to set date for a couple of weeks. i was there for 15 months. during that time, no investigation. there was no questioning apart from the first day and in the morning after the first day and after that, nothing until 15 months later.