Responsibility. Those are the headlines coming up next its inside story. This fury in the white house as a new book lays bad done altos first year in office the us president has slammed it calling the author a loser but whats on the ramifications of this book for the middle east and trumps presidency this is inside story. Hello and welcome to the program. Theres so much demand for a new book on done all trump source counts keep up with demand is published to release it early after the president s lawyers wotton to sue them and the former white house adviser steve bannon the book is britain by my kind of draws a picture of the chaotic first year in office trump has slammed it as phony but what will be the impact of wolf well get to our guests in just a moment but first then reports from washington d. C. Crowds swarmed this washington bookstore at midnight friday snatching up copies of fire and fury inside the Trump White House rose of the criterion i cant take your order of the phone politics and prose opened it ten am within thirty minutes eager buyers had nabbed all thirty copies the store had im super excited to read this i went to a couple of different bookstores even midnight last night there was another bookstore selling this they sold out in twenty minutes why are you so interested in this book. Why would i not be interested in this book it is so salacious and to see. Politics die hard and scary to read it at three hundred twenty pages this is a relatively like home but it is filled with explosive material the author Michael Wolff said he spent eighteen months conducting about two hundred interviews with senior white house staff in one passage wolf says former british Prime Minister tony blair offered this nugget of information to the president s son in law jared cushion or there was he suggested the possibility that the british had had the Trump Campaign staff under surveillance blair is denying the claim. Another passage describes a potential change in saudi arabia the president was considering before his trip last spring to the middle east in the days before his departure he was telling people that the saudis were going to finance an entirely new military presence in the kingdom supplanting and even replacing the u. S. Command headquarters in qatar fire and fury wasnt supposed to be released until tuesday but the books publisher moved the date up after attorneys for President Trump issued a cease and desist letter threatening legal action in an interview friday morning author Michael Wolff stood by his book and added this observation the one description that that everyone gave everyone has in common they all say he is like a childs. And what they mean by that is he has and a need for Immediate Gratification its all about him the white house is labeling fire and fury tabloid trash President Trump wouldnt answer questions about the book friday afternoon but tweeted i never spoke to him for the book full of lies misrepresentations and sources that dont exist still fire and fury is yet another distraction for a white house that is trying to advance among other things a new immigration plan and a spending plan to avoid a looming Government Shutdown dian us to Brooke Al Jazeera washington. As dan mentioned well spoke includes a wind array of into of years and covers a range of topics for todays episode we want to focus on what will says about trumps middle east policy for example his support of sadik rompers one hundred been selman m. B. s as hes known had assumed that position in june soon after trumps visit to riyadh while frights within weeks of the trip and b. S. Detaining one hundred been a quiet in the dead of night would force him to relinquish the crown prince title trump would tell friends that he and joe had engineered this with a man on top lets bring in our guests joining us on the set here in doha a professor of conflict resolution at George Mason University in beirut and im a senior Public Policy fellow and junk professor of journalism of the American University of beirut and in london in black visiting senior fellow at the London School of economics middle east Center Welcome to you or someone who would like to ask you this we weve read the excerpts of the book this show us some they offer us a glimpse into the inner workings of the Trump Administration particularly it comes to the middle east does the Trump Administration has a strategy. When it comes to the middle east well first lets just listen a coalition to deceive is a well documented account of the dynamics of the trumps world as well as his approach to Foreign Policy now we have seen that is this interesting revelation from has or had a major role in fortune or paving the way from having been summoned to be the new Decision Maker in ria dish or here is how far we are in this reality that there is a us order from pissed in mormon deliberate in the same time it proves one thing that trump believes in the club of the powerful man he prefers to deal with individualism who have some clout instead of dealing with institutions or governments the question remains how far this from been summoned see see toward the end philip been kind of lost for a long time i mean generally speaking the idea that we have is that. When it comes to like the why of the white house you would have chief strategist next in the darts pulling of the maps and planning the future suddenly what we get from the book is series of mushy nations and intrigues does it come as a surprise to you or do you think this is quite normal in that environment. Its normal for the Trump White House its not normal for previous white houses and ive been involved with talking to people and reporting on these issues for about the last forty five years talking and offering to people in the white house and washington and other places so this is very trump related policymaking its very individualized its based on a lot of ignorance about the realities of the middle east which is the area were talking about now and also total disdain and disregard for the four hundred Million People who are the citizens of the arab world theyre dealing with individuals as as muhammad just said the deal with the c. C. How many netanyahu and thats about it the others are secondary they dont particularly care about the what happens of the people in the middle east theyre interested in their own partnerships with these people and theyre mostly basing this on the relationship between two people who are acting essentially like adolescents which has been a southern man and jared cushion are younger people thirty to thirty three years old no experience no accountability to anybody and they do whatever they want and this is very adolescent type behavior people get to like each other you know my buddy i can i could do a deal with you and were seeing the consequences of this so this is very peculiar to this white house its also extremely dangerous this a black i mean its really been Interesting Times since june the crisis in this is a crisis the book imposed on qatar the time of the season decision on jerusalem the rhetoric against iran all those series of leading to loads of confusion in this part of the wells now when you read the book does it do you get to the point where you say ill now i do understand why this is a very chaotic scene are you unfolding in the region. A my in my impression that these the excerpts that ive seen from the book relating to the middle east my overwhelming feeling is that its actually really consistent with everything that weve seen so far i mean actually we know an awful lot about how these things work but we have in this book is the the filtered through the in the work of experience journalists we have. Eyewitness accounts of how things work on the inside so for example on the question of Us Saudi Arabia and relations which is probably the most interesting part of the middle east and chapter. We we have trumped boasting weve got our matter we put our man on top now. This is not a work of Historical Research its what people are saying its what people are quoting but thats entirely. Consistent with everything that weve seen so far what i think is important to remember and this comes out across the book and in the storm surrounding it in the never to pull you know twitter wars that are going on is that trump boasts he says i did this i have delivered i am doing things that other us president s of to do now that doesnt mean its necessarily true but i think the insight is there that thats how he trump presents it we can talk about been some man and his motives and how he may have used trump thats a slightly different question but trump overall is a man who boasts about what he has done taking credit of the achievements what has been assured by will definitely how to look now in in detail as about some of those major decisions taken in the region the blockade own qatar which is entering its seventh month was also mentioned involves book rights the president ignoring if not defying Foreign Policy advice gave a nod to the saudis plan to bully qatar trans view was that qatar was providing Financial Support to terror groups pays no attention to a similar saudi history but the i mean this is someone who builds this relationship with matt who becomes conference assad arabia he says well get back in from in exchange well give the go ahead for the building of qatar. This is something new in the way politics is conducted in the diocese of america well as a young student i was always the mire in what is known the american exceptionalism that started a long time ago with the values or the fourteen points of Woodrow Wilson at the beginning of the century or the kennedy doctrine now i see a huge decline of more of politics in the us in favor of some country may or may be the ugly face of political realism we dont see a doctrine here we dont see in money affairs to that has certain strategies basically its the impulses the guts and some tendency is off of power for a man at the white house who feels that he is. Qualified enough to reorganize International Politics and maybe to think of the middle east as this piece of chess he can move things as long as he finds the right strong man to whom play him and to sort of do the political dance with him with the story of the segment that weve run just about qatar i mean we have talked extensively over the last few months about the blockade but just this is something which is really intriguing someone who gives the go ahead for the plan by the saudis to bali qatar without looking into the consequences of a decision isnt this something which should be a source of concern for for many people in the United States of america. Absolutely and youre seeing the consequences here two days ago yesterday at the Security Council the United States called a session and the u. S. Was almost totally isolated and people were lecturing the United States about its ridiculous policies on iran and on drusilla im so theres a huge consequence to all of these actions not just the consequence of us actions but the consequence of. Mans actions the consequence of israeli continued colonial actions autocracy getting tighter in egypt and all across the region and the us are supporting regimes and leaderships that are doing really rough things to their own people and to their neighbors but to be to be fair to trump i disagree with the idea that there is no trap strapless strategy or plan ive been watching them closely i just spent three months in the United States my sense and the documentation in this book that tends to support this my sense is that there are two strands or maybe three strands to american consistent policy in the middle east one is to do anything to oppose and push back iran and thats not really defined but thats generally one the second one is to basically do almost anything that the Israeli Government wants or people like Sheldon Adelson and the big donor in las vegas who supports pro israeli right wing nationalist groups Like Netanyahu and people like that and they gave trump twenty five or thirty five Million Dollars its reported so they do anything to support these people and the third one is to do anything that will generate contracts and money for the United States those three things strike me as the core a strategic drivers of american policy in the middle east now those three things or are implemented by novices and ignorant novices in most cases and uncaring novices in many cases as well so this is a really catastrophic situation but i. Bring this question to mr black but then again is he mr black the problem here is you have people who seem to be poorly we doing the changing dynamics in the arab world theyre talking about key players but they forget about the map and the emerging forces in the region lets take the example of saudi arabia for the for trump is obvious he wants the saudis to be the key players in the region but when you look at the map you look at this happening in the region its a totally different reality is what is a problem right here. Well i think that i agree with a lot of what rami horia just said i think the trump focus on iraq is in many ways the key to what is happening elsewhere including with saudi arabia i think its important to recall this at this stage that when trump became president his first foreign visit was to riyadh that was an amazing thing to do. Why why why go there why not go to moscow which of beijing or to london or to paris somewhere far more obvious in terms of American Global relationships trump went to riyadh the saudis were absolutely ecstatic that decision and beat what he said and what he said mostly was about iran and it was about undoing what his heated predisaster barack obama had done that was the twenty fifteen Nuclear Agreement the saudis were absolutely over the mood at that and i think that a lot of what has happened since then flows from that moment from that initial delighted reception of trump in riyadh whether its moves on iran or the green light as people have often called it for the cash a crisis in the country a crisis its worth pointing out of course that trump had to do in a way that appeared to suggest that he did not even know who or or knew but didnt care that catto was the home to the most important american base in the entire middle east and that the the that crisis was then followed by extraordinary statements from members of his own administration from from Rex Tillerson and from james mattis appearing to contradict exactly what the president to done so its not just a question of a lack of consistency and a focus on very very specific targets is also an ignorance of law mistype. Ending previous u. S. Policy and the implications of a sudden change for americas own position so its both ambition but coupled with ignorance and bloodless what had gone before. Is this something which is going to put more strains on the Saudi Crown Prince mohammed mr man i mean the fact that dose of putting his own man on top in saudi arabia the general perception among the saudis if the read the book is that the crown prince is going to be politically beholden to the americans and that ultimately he will definitely have to return the favor to the side to the americans. Well i think there is a growing stigma now of mr hammond and sort of and have been to support off trump so we will look at all the possible ramifications of this in the. Golf mind at the same time i think that there was a bad investment in the real summit because i think most of the gulf nations or the gulf governments thought that have been a Good Relationship with the powerful man at the white house would give them an umbrella or an extra cover of power but then we study his strategy or would be strategy for example towards our very own do and on the one hand you support him and sort of man but the same time hes criticizing the situation in yemen at the same time we saw how he shifted from being on to china to having a Good Relationship with prison so he this is more of a mood politics and they dont think that there is this indication that men can invest in a different but what seems now is that its going to add to this fragmentation of sentiments base within the saudis the level of the clerics or the youth population so we are looking at a figure who becomes more controversial jerusalem has been dominating headlines for weeks now trump formally recognized the city as israels capital last month according to wall spork this was something former adviser steve bannon has been planning since before inauguration he allegedly sat day one when moving the u. S. Embassy to jerusalem led jordan take the west bank lets take gaza lead them deal with it or sing trying to sell hoary or you command to this jordan take the west bank the egyptians the gaza levon deal with it and sing trying. I would just going to actually do jumping on that because that strikes me as one of the most telling statements in this book at least on the middle east segments of this sentiment of really total disdain and uncaring abandon about even your close allies like jordan and egypt are supposed to be close allies to the United States and the top strategist in the white house are saying let them deal with it or sink trying it also says a lot about their ignorance about both gaza and the west bank in the realities and those places that neither of them want to be part of jordan or part of egypt they want to be part of a independent sovereign palestinian state thats not occupied by israel with a jerusalem is true islam as capital but this is what this tells us what this should tell the c. C. And king of the learned jordan and havent been solomon and others around the region is trump will deal with you like hes not calling bannon a cheat than an idiot and a crook and a liar and and his lost his mind and whatever so you know anybody who builds a relationship political relationship on a person like donald trump is building a castle on sand its really outrageous for anybody to expect trump to be either consistent or faithful and weve seen that with his with his own people in the white house weve seen how they think in the white house and weve seen how people in the top level in the white house turn against each other immediately and again the best word i use is adolescence these are like fourteen year old kids on a playground with no long term strategic values or goals just trying to get the most solid gratification they can miss a block from take it described his approach for the middle east as the ultimate deal now if you couple it with the above lessons in the book what would you say about it. I think the trump decision on jerusalem is very very revealing of course the question i think everybody would would agree that jerusalem is you know the most difficult of the who is that bundle of difficult issues that lie at the heart of the Israeli Palestinian conflict when trump. Carried out his longstanding election promise in early december and announced the recognition of jerusalem as israels capital and a plan to the east eventually to move the embassy there. It was a really really striking a really stark illustration of how he operates he appeared not to give a damn for the peoples of the region locked into this terrible conflict hip it to be thinking suddenly about his own Political Base at home his own domestic constituency he said very pointedly if you remember the previous american president promised to move the u. S. Embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem they failed to do so he was the only one to deliver he emphasized how he had delivered he was flanked by the Vice President mike pence with his well known connections to the evangelical christian lobby it was all about delivering to his constituency had nothing whatsoever to do with resolving helping result i see a point even trying to help resolve the worlds most intractable conflict that was a very very revealing moment and of course it has been enormously damaging as has been his threat no to withdraw funding from the understand to be infuriated palestinians he doesnt give a damn enormously damaging black it was describing the initiative for the middle east muslim have a very briefly whatever he had in mind about the middle east do you think that the idea is to. And theyre going to be relevant selves forever given the developments on the ground brioche is among key players even key players in the region i think what we have known so far havent started trying for two and a half years he is in to this mindset of the contract tricks he comes up with very controversial decisions but he never shows a plan b. So once that is the resistance in the middle is then you he will take us somewhere else so were not going to revisit this issues because he know that the out and diplomatic and it is no way to have them implemented so he is not a man who can resist the resistance coming the other way mr so how is mr black mr holy good to have you on the show and its always interesting to listen to your insights and thank you too for watching you can see the program again and its time by visiting our website dot com and for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is a j inside story for me as a man of all of the whole team here by phone up. A new level of luxury has arrived. An experience that will transform the way. Our Impeccable Service remains but none comes breaking. Business comes. To all to prove the state of florida still. With a conducting business sharing especially. When the been still in the search for a job that. Saddam was. Trying to smile. Youll sanctuary in the sky introducing. Us to use. Cars only were going places together. Education with a difference in the position of his law is absolutely different from mine as a muslim woman a Taliban School for girls in afghanistan reveals a way of life rarely seen. Your go to not only tell them about their bills and regulations that lets not let you teach them about them but gets an exclusive documentary gains access to the goals of the talent. At this time on aljazeera. Hello again. These are the top stories here at out jazeera several pakistani groups facing pressure from the government have held demonstrations in the northwestern city of fish this is the second in the series of rallies initially organized in the wake of the u. S. Decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel the groups behind the rallies include jemma. The Organization Led by the two thousand and eight to mumbai attack suspect has. Come out is there a shortfall or data deal with the Palestinian People after the bloggers stormed a french. Were going to be taking place in different cities across pakistan the last one was general wellbeing and wish tens of thousands of people. Participated now it didnt border nor did i q a nation against pakistan that is also growing considerable anger against the United States for failing to do its job and of honest on and then trying to blame it on a new. Court date is going to be considerable support as far as anti american moves are concerned by the government although the government at their time is trying to have a measured response saying that the community