Transcripts For ALJAZAM News 20240622

Track to defeat isil, that they are much more contained and were moving in the right direction there. That we have jump started a process to resolve the civil war in syria, which is like an open sore in the region. And is giving refuge to terrorist organization who is are taking advantage of that chaos. To make sure in iraq not only have we pushed back isil, but weve created an environment in which sunni shia and kurd are starting to operate function more effectively together. And to be in a conversation with all our partners in the region of how weve strengthened our security partnerships so they feel they can address any potential threats that may come, including threats from iran. That included providing additional security assurances and cooperation to israel, building on the work weve done, and if weve done those things. Then the problems will be solved. Its not up to the president of the United States to solve the problems in the middle east. The people of the middle east will have to solve some of these problems themselves. But well provided at least a foundation for continued progress in these various areas. But the last thing i would say and this is a longerterm issue is we have to address the youth in the region with jobs and opportunity and a better vision for the future so that they are not tempted by the anile listic violent deadend that organizations like isil offer. We cant do that by ourselves but we can partner with wellintentioned organizations states ngos religious leaders in the region. We have to do a better job of that than weve been doing so far. All right michael. Thank you. You alluded earlier to irans role in syria. Lets just focus on that for a moment. Other analysts brief that the political settlement that you say is necessary in syria will require working directly with iran and giving iran an important role. Do you agree and is that a dialogue that youll actively be seeking, and what will isis, what will it take in complicit cooperation with United States and iran . I do believe that we will not solve the problems of syria unless there is buyin from russia iranians, the turks our gulf partners. Its too chaotic. There are too many factions. There is too much money and too many arms flooding into the zone. Its gotten caught up in both sectarian conflict and gee and geopolitical jockeying. In order for us to resolve it there has to be agreement among the major powers that are interested in syria that this is not going to be won on the battlefield. Iran is one of those players. I think its important for them to be part of that conversation. I want to repeat what i said earlier. We have not and i dont anticipate any time in the near future restored normal diplomatic relations with iran. And so i do not foresee a formal set of agreements with iran in terms of how were conducting our counterisil campaign. But clearly iran has influence in iraq. Iraq has a majority shia population. Some are we expect president al abadi to meet with, negogogotiate and work withh iran as its neighbor. We see iran financing shia militias that in the past have killed american soldiers, when we move in to sunni areas. And so were working with our diplomats on the ground as well as our military teams on the ground to assess where can we appropriately at least deacon de deconflict and where we can work with Prime Minister abady over an over all strategy in which iraq retains its sovereignty. We can decide what iran is doing there is a problem and we can cooperate unless you get those folks out there have because were not going to have our troops even in advising and training situation looking over their shoulders because of what might happen to them. Those conversations are going on going, and theyll continue. Any work that the u. S. Government or u. S. Military does in iraq with other partners on the ground is premised on the idea that they are reporting to under the chain of command of the iraqi government, and Iraqi Security forces. If we dont have confidence that ultimately abady is directing those soldiers, then its tough for us to have any kind of direct relationship. Thank you mr. President. As you well know there are four americans in iran. Three on charges and one unknown. Where do you lead the strength of this nation unaccounted for in relation to these four americans, and last week the chairman of the joint chief of staff said under no circumstances should there any relief for iran in terms of Ballistic Missiles or convention weapons. It was conceived that that was a lastminute capitulation in these negotiations. Many in the pentagon feel that youve left the chief of staff high and dry. I have to give you credit how you craft those questions. The notion that im content while americans languish in iranian jails major thatthats nonsense. You should know better. Ive met with the families of some of those folks. Nobody is content. Our diplomats and our teams are working diligently to try to get them out. Now, if the question is why we did not tie the negotiations to their release think about the logic that that creates. Suddenly iran realizes, you know what make we can get additional concessions out of the americans by holding these individuals. Makes it much more difficult for us to walk away if iran some how thinks that a nuclear deal is dependent in some fashion on the nuclear deal. If we had walked away from the nuclear deal we would still be pushing them just as hard to get these folks out. Thats why those issues are not connected, but were working every single day to try to get them out. We wont stop until theyre out and rejoined with their families. With respect to the chairmans testimony to some degree i already answered this with carol. We are not taking the pressure off iran with respect to arms and with respect to Ballistic Missiles, as i just explained not only did we keep in place for five years the arms embargo under this particular new u. N. Resolution not only do we maintain the eight years on the Ballistic Missiles under this particular u. N. Resolution, but we have a host of other Multi Lateral and unilateral authorities that allow us to take action where we see iran engaged in those activities whether its six years from now or ten years from now. So we have not lost those legal authorities, and, in fact, part of my pitch to the gcc countries as well as to Prime Minister netanyahu, we should do a better job making sure that iran is not engaged in sending arms to organizations like hezbollah. As i just indicated that means improving our Intelligence Capacity and our inter diction capacity with our partners. Okay. April ryan. Thank you mr. President. I want to change the subject a bit. Earlier this year on the flighthow does criminal Justice Reform fit into that equation, and what gaps remain, and also what does it mean to travel to kenya your fathers homeland in the next couple of weeks as president of the United States, and lastly, would you revoke the medal of freedom for bill cosby . You stepped right in there april. I learned from who did you learn from, jonathan cause . Is that who you learned from . Our criminal Justice Reform, i gave a lengthy speech yesterday but ive been thinking about it a lot ive been working first with eric holder and now Loretta Lynch weve been working on along with other prosecutors in the u. S. Attorneys office, its an outgrowth of the task force that we put together post ferguson and the garner case in new york. I dont think that the criminal Justice System is is obviously the sole source of racial tension in this country or the Key Institution to resolveing the opportunity gap, but i think it is a part of the broader set of challenges that we face in creating a more perfect union. The good news is that this is one of those rare issues where weve got some republican and democratic interest as well as federal, state and local interest in solving the problem. I think people recognize that there are violent criminals out there, and theyve got to be locked up. Weve got to have tough prosecutors. We have to support our Law Enforcement officials, police are in a tough job and they are helping to keep us safe. Were grateful and thankful to them. But what we also know is this huge spike in incarcerations is also driven by nonviolent drug offenses where the sentencing is completely out of proportion with the crime. That cost tax payers enormous amounts of money. It is debilitating communities who are seeing huge proportions of the young men in their communities finding themselves with a criminal record, render rendering them oftentimes unemployable. It compounds problems that thats communities already have. And so i am very appreciative of folks like dick durbin and cory booker along side mike lee and rand paul other folks in the house who are working together to see if we can both reduce some of these mandatory minimums around nonviolent drug offenses. Again, i tend not to have a lot of sympathy when it comes to Violent Crimes, but when it comes to nonviolent drug offenses, is there work we can do to reduce mandatory minimums, create more diversion programs like drug courts, then can we do a better job on the rehabilitation side inside of prisons so that were preparing these folks who are eventually going to be released to reenter the workforce. On the back end are we diagnose doing more to help them be more effective. This is an area where we could have significant bipartisan legislation. The most important goal is to keep people from being involved in the criminal justice in its first place which means Early Childhood education good jobs, making sure that were not segregateing folks in impoverish impoverished communities that have no contact with opportunity. What was remarkable was how they turned this hes life around. These are folks who have been pretty tough criminals. One had served ten years. Another was a repeat offender who served a lot of time. And in each instance somebody enter interveneed at some tonight in theirs lives and said, i think you can live a different way and im willing to help you. That one person, an art teacher or ged teacher or somebody who was willing to offer a guy a job. I want to give a shout out to five guys because one of the guys was an exfelon, and five guys gave him a job. He ended up becoming a manager at the store and was able to completely turn his life around. But the point was somebody reached out to that person and gave him a chance. So part of our question should be how about somebody reaching out to these guys when theyre ten or 11 or 12 or 8 as opposed to waiting until theyve gone through a criminal justice program. Thats part of why were diagnosedoing my brothers keeper. This is an area where i feel modestly optimistic. In the meantime we have to keep the crime rate down. Violent crime has significantly dropped. Last year we saw incarcerations and the crime rate drop. This can always turn if we start seeing renewed problems in terms of Violent Crime. And there are parts of the country where Violent Crime is still a problem, including my hometown of chicago and in baltimore, and part of what ive asked attorney general lynch to do is to figure out how can we refocus attention if were going to do a passage of criminal Justice Reforms. Part of it will be having a Greater Police presence and more Law Enforcement in the communities that are really getting hit hard, and havent seen some of the drops in Violent Crime that weve seen in places like manhattan, for example. With respect to visits to kenya its obviously something im looking forward to. Ill be honest with you visiting kenya as a private citizen is probably more meaningful to me than visiting as president because i can actually get outside of the hotel room or conference center. And just the logistics of visiting a place is tough as president , but its obviously symbolically important. My hope is that we can deliver a message that the u. S. Is a Strong Partner not just for kenya but Subsahara Africa generally, build issues of Health Education focus on Counter Terrorism issues that are important in east africa because of alshabab and some of the issues that are continuing and the continuing democracy and reduce corruption in that country that has sometimes held back this incredibly gifted and blessed country. And with respect to the medal of freedom. There is no precedent for revoking a medal. We dont have that mechanism. And as you know i tend to make it a policy not to comment on the specifics of case where is there might still be if not criminal then civil issues involved. Ill say this if you give a woman or a man for that matter, without his or her knowledge a drug, and then have sex with that person without consent thats rape. And i think this country any civilized country should have no tolerance for rape. All right. Have we exhausted our iran questions here . I think there is a helicopter coming but i really am enjoying this iran debate. Topics that may not have been touched upon, criticisms that you heard that i did not answer . I justgo ahead, go ahead. I know josh is getting a little stressed here i just want to make sure that were not leaving any stones unturned. Ill be brief. The argument today that iran now has a cash windfall, billions to spend. Your people seem confident theyre going to spend it at home. Why are you confident that theyre not going to spend it on arming hezbollah, Bashar Alassad etc. . I think thats a great question, and im glad you brought it up. I think it is a mistake to characterize our belief that they will just spend it on Daycare Centers and roads and paying down debt. We think that they have to do some of that because rouhani was elected specifically on the premise of improving the Economic Situation inside of iran. That economy has tanked since we imposed sanctions. So the notion that theyre just immediately going to turn over 100 billion to the irgc or forces i think runs contrary to all the intelligence that weve seen and the commitments that the iranian government has made. Do we think that with the sanctions coming down that iran will have some Additional Resources for its military and for some of the activities in the region that are a threat to us and a threat to our allies . I think that is a likelihood, that theyve got Additional Resources. Do i think that its a game changer for them . No. They are currently supporting hezbollah. There is a ceiling of of a pace of which they could support hezbollah even more, particularly of the chaos occurring in syria. Could they potentially try to get more assistance there . Yes. Should we put more resources into blocking them from getting that assistance to hezbollah . Yes. Is the incremental additional money that theyve got to try to destabilize a region or send to their proxies is that more important than preventing iran from getting Nuclear Weapon . No. So i think again this is a matter of us making a determination of what is our priority. The other problem with the argument that folks have been making that this is a windfall, and suddenly iran is flush with cash and theyre going to take over the world i say that not tongueincheek because if you look at some of the statements by some of our critics, you would think that iran, in fact is going to take over the world as a consequence of this deal, which i think would be news to the iranians. That argument is premised on the notion that if there is no deal, if Congress Votes down this deal then were able to keep sanctions in place with the same vigor and effectiveness that we have right now. That, i can promise you is not true. That is absolutely not true. I want to repeat. Were not writing iran a check. This is irans money that were able to block from them having access to. That required the cooperation of countries all around the world many of whom really want to purchase oil from iran the imposition of sanctions their cooperation with us has cost them billions of dollars made it harder for them. Theyve been willing to do that because they believe we were sincere about trying to resolve the Nuclear Issue peacefully, and they consider that a priority. A high enough priority that they would cooperate with us on sanctions. If they saw us walking away or more specifically if they saw the u. S. Congress effectively vetoing the judgment of 99 of the World Community that this is a deal that resolves the iranian Weapons Program Nuclear Weapons program in an equitable way the sanction system unravels. We could still maintain some of our unilateral sanctions but it would be far less effective as it was before we put together these Multi Lateral sanctions. Maybe they dont get 100 billion. Maybe they get 60 or 70 instead. The price for that that weve paid is now iran is pursuing a Nuclear Weapon. We have no inspectors on the ground. We dont know whats going on. Theyre still getting some cash windfall. Weve lost credibility in the eyes of the world. Well effectively united iran and divided ourselves from our allies. A terrible position to be in. Im just going to looki made some notes about the arguments that ive heard here. Okay thats a good one the notionright, so lets address this issue ofbecause thats the other big argument thats been made. Lets assume that the deal holds for ten years. Iran does not cheat. Now at the end of ten years some of the restrictions have been lifted although remember others have stayed in place for 15 years. For example, they still have to keep their stock piles at a minimum level for 15 years. The inspections dont go away. Those are still in place. 15, 20 years from now their commitment under the nonproliferation treaty does not go away. Thats still in place. The Additional Protocol that they have to sign up for under this deal, which requires a more extensive inspection and Verification Mechanism that stays in place. So there is no scenario in which an u. S. President is not in a stronger position 12, 13, 15 years from now. If, in fact, iran decided at that point they still wanted to get a Nuclear Weapon. Keep in mind well have maintained a oneyear break out of time. Well have rolled back their program, frozen their facilities kept them under severe restrictions, had observers. Theyll have made International Commitments supported by countries around the world and hold on a second, and if at that point they decided you know what were going to cheat. Or not even cheat. At that point they decide openly were now pursuing a Nuclear Weapon. They are still in violation of this deal and the commitments theyve made internationally. So we are still in a position to mobileize the worlds community to say no, you cant have a Nuclear Weapon. Theyre not in a stronger position to get a Nuclear Weapon. Theyre in a weaker position than they are today. And, by the way we havent given away any of our military capabilityies. Were not in a weaker position to respond. So even if everything the critics were saying was true that at the end of ten years or 12 years or 15 years, iran now is in position to decide it wants a Nuclear Weapon that theyre at a breakout point they wont be at a break out point that is more dangerous than the break out point that theyre in right now. They wont be at a break out point that is shorter than the one that exists today. So why wouldnt he at least make sure that for the next 10, 15 years they are not getting a Nuclear Weapon and we can verify it and afterwards if they decideif theyve changed their mind were then much more knowledgeable about what their capabilities are much more knowledgeable about what their program is, and still in a position to take whatever actions we would take today. [ inaudible question ] im always hopeful that the behavior will change for the sake of the iranian people as well as people in the region. There are young people there who are not getting the opportunities they deserve because of conflict, because of secretary tyrianism, because of poor governance, oppression terrorism, and i remain eternally hopeful that we can do something about that and it should be part of u. S. Policy to do something about that. But im not bank on that to say that this deal is the right thing to do. Its incumbent on the critics of this deal to explain how the world is in a worse position 12, 13 14, 15 years from now if at that point iran says were going to pull out of the mpt kick out inspectors, and go for a nuclear bomb. If that happens that president will be in a better position than if iran as a consequence of congress rejecting this deal decides that thats it, were done negotiating were going after a bomb right now. The choices would be tougher today than they would be for that president 15 years from now. And i have not yet heard logic that refutes that. All right, i really have to go, and i think weve hit the big themes, but i promise you i will address this again. I suspect this is not the last weve heard of this debate. President obama in a 70 70minute News Conference in the east room of the white house encouraging reporters to bring up criticism of the iran deal. The president said that this is a deal that meets the National Security obligations of the United States and our allies and this is the best means of insuring that iran does not get a Nuclear Weapon. The president said that he welcomes the robust congressional hear thats are coming and hopes that everyone evaluatings this on facts not at politics posturing or based on lobbying but based on the interest of the United States. A lot to chew over with what the president said, but we want to bring you uptodate on some news in a has happened while the president has been speaking. First of all in greece the Greece Parliament is taking up the us feherty bail out measure and there have been some violent protests outside of parliament. Youre looking at a live picture right now in athens where you see some people throwing debris at riot police. A few moments ago there were people throwing molotov cocktails and fires have started. It seems to be getting confrontation hall outside of the Greek Parliament. This comes at a time when the vote in the Greek Parliament over the e. U. Agreement reached over a few days ago that seems perhaps to be in doubt. Furthermore there was some news involving u. S. Politics, we heard president obama in his News Conference talk about criminal Justice Reform, sensing reform former president bill clinton told the audience at naacp that the crime bill that he signed, that it was a mistake for president clinton to sign that bill and to life prison tenses contained in there. Lets go back to the News Conference that focused mostly on iran. Michael shure joins us from the white house. What due make of the president and his encouraging of the criticism of this deal . It seems that is all he wanted to talk about. I would qualify this as an unusual press conference. First he didnt have the questioners, then he opened it up to the floor but basically asked the press to talk to him about iran. He was there to talk about iran. He came in right away saying, hey, listen, israel can complain about this, congress can complain about this, but show me Something Better than this. Its a tactic that worked for him on the Affordable Care act. Something that hes familiar talking about. In the end he said i defy to say anyone from an u. S. President 10 to 15 years down the road that this puts them in a worse position. This is a chance at getting something that he thinks is something good. Hes demeanor was different than most people expected today. Michael shure at the white house. Lets go to lisa stark at capitol hill to get your reaction. He said that he wants this debatehe wants the debate over the deal to be evaluated on the facts, and the president said that hes not getting on g. O. P. Support. Live to this, and i want your reaction on the other side. This nuclear deal meets the National Security interests of the United States and our allies. It prevents the most serious threat iran obtaining a Nuclear Weapon, which would make the other problems that iran may cause even worse. Thats why this deal makes our country and the world safer and more secure. Again, heres what the president said specifically about republicans. Im not betting on the Republican Party rallying behind this agreement. I do expect the debate to be based on facts and not speculation or misinformation. And that i welcome. He said reasonable expectation on capitol hill . Well, he said he welcomed a robust debate. You can see as he went through all the objections, many of them raised here on capitol hill, he was in a sense answering the criticism we have heard from lawmakers over the past 24 hours or so. The president in a sense threw down the gauntlet to congress. He said come up with an alternative. Is the alternative war . Is that what we want to do . If so, say it and debate that. Hes saying to congress, you have these objections, im going to answer them, but you need to be telling me what else we should be doing. A lot of members of Congress Want to impose tougher sanctions on iran. You may remember they were debating that while these negotiations were going on. And the white house pressed very hard for them to wait, hold off lets wait until negotiations finish. There are still some support here for putting tough sanctions, even tougher sanctions on iran. But the president said that is not going to hold water. Even if we do that, he said, our allies, those who negotiated this deal with us, theyre not going to go down that road again. Were going to be isolated from our ahigh schoolsallies and its not going to be effective. Hes essentially telling congress that the way youre looking at this is not going to work. If you dont have an alternative, you better look at mine very carefully and find a reason to reject it because according to the president there isnt one. The president seemed to go out of his way to try to concern all the concerns and criticisms out there, is there anything out there that jumps out at you that we might have missed that you heard that the president did not address today . Well, i think he addressed most of what weve heard up here. He talked about the money the windfall that iran is going to get. Speaker boehner talked about that. He said yes some of this money is going to go to terrorist groups, to areas we dont support, but we have ways to counter that. Even if the u. S. Backed out of the deal or allies are still going to go forward and iran will still get a lot of money. The other big concern up here is this arms deal. The fact that in five years the ban on arms sales in iran gets lifted and in eight years the ban on about a his if i can missiles. Thats a big concern on capitol hill. The president said we have other ways to reign that in, and he seemed to indicate that he thought he got a better deal than he might have otherwise on that, that he pushed really hard on that because he said, look, normally when you make a deal like this, you have to give up those embargoes right away. We refused to do that, and we got themwe got those embargoes to stay in place for a number of years. Those are two of the big criticisms on capitol hill, and he tried to address that. Michael shure, one of the most interesting moments in are a president ial conference where Major Garrett suggested that the president was content to celebrate while some americans are still languishing. The president called that absolute nonsense. What did you think of that exchange . It was an Awkward Exchange. Did he not like the question asked by Major Garrett. When you peel away the tone of the question it is an issue that you were asking lisa about its an issue that the president may not have spoken about as much but something that the americans want to know about those four americans in prison in iran right now. There are people weve spoken to who said that this is an opportunity for iran to show the World Community that theyre serious about this, and perhaps releasing some of those prisoners would be a good start. So in fact, it was a really important subject, but it was clouded a little bit by that Awkward Exchange between the president and Major Garrett. One of the topics brought out are the concerns that israel has, is its existential security threatened by iran. Heres how the president addressed that. I think there are very good reasons why the israelis are nervous about irans position in the world generally. Ive said this to Prime Minister netanyahu, and ive said it directly to the israeli people. But what ive also said is that all those threats are compounded if iran gets a Nuclear Weapon. The executive director of the american iran council here on set. What did you think of how the president handled concerns not only by israel but saudi arabia and others in the region . I think he has shown the Obama Administration throughout the years of presidency has given unprecedented support to israel and to their allies. Weve seen in camp david the security agreements that the u. S. Gave and provided to gcc. But we have to make one thing very clear. I think president obama is on point. Iran without a Nuclear Weapon is a less threat to everybody including israel. But what has been agreed upon is the nonstringent nonproliferation advancement that we have. If done well, it could be served as a model not just for the iranian case but regional pursuit of eradication of all weapons of mass production. Including those that are in the arsenal of israelis. We need to address these issues, that once iran has done its implement emptytation how do we stop the pro proliferation of other wmds. There is a clearcut choice that the United States could resolve this diplomatically or without a war. The critics say that thats not fair, and that some how sanctions regimes would have collapsed, a lot of people said no, maybe they wouldnt have, and maybe the sanctions regime could have been strengthened against iran if it was clear that iran was blocking a deal or blocking u. S. Demands. This deal is a winwin. If the iranian president and Supreme Leader and other administrations are selling as quickly good, and weve seen what has been done by president obama trying to give the perspective that this deal is good for u. S. Interests and also allies because the sanctions would not last. The sustainability of the sanctions are based on one important underpinning reason iran does not seek Nuclear Weapons. Not as president obama mentioned a Peaceful Nuclear program. Iran has lied about that in the past. Thats why these negotiations have feign so long. More than 12 years. Iran has been engaging with not just the p 5 plus 1 but also the iaea to address what youre touching upon, the possible military issues that predated these negotiations. But the good news is within this deal were going to address those. Were going to come down and make sure that from a to z from procurement, lining, and iran is under a watchful eye. The president went out of the way to say that its only about the nearly program. Its not about terrorism or the expectation that iran is going to stop floating hezbollah. That its going to lead to better diplomatic relations or coordination of in terms of going after isil. Is it your expectation though, that how the president phrased things today does it leave open the opportunity for some sort of dialogue between the United States and iran . Or the folks in the administration are saying, this is it. Its only about the nukes. There is nothing else that is going to come out of this. President obama had a very interesting word in his statement. He said while this is very focused on the Nuclear Fronts and the nuclear file moving forward there are many topics and areas of common interests and concern that the u. S. And iran have. As mentioned its not going to be resolved overnight, but he said that iran has to be participant in these regional challenges. And by saying that i have a sense that president obama is indicating that this conversation that has been focused on a Nuclear Front will expand and include these other issues. I assure you this is a step forward to then address issues of u. S. Personnel held in iran, the issue of irans support for nonstate actors, the regional security, iraq afghanistan all of these things that obviously we need the iranians to be engaged in. And this deal strengthens the people in iran for diplomacy pragmatism and peace. The executive director well take a quick break. We want to remind everyone that there are developments in greece. Were looking at the Greek Parliament and theyre meeting about the proposal that the break Prime Minister agreed to a few days ago. The pressure on lawmakers has been enormous as evidenced when demonstrators were throwing molotov cocktails at police. It has started fires. Well get to some of the news that has come out on criminal Justice Reform from president clinton, and how that effects things politically. All that ahead right here on Al Jazeera America. The fda isnt testing enough. Now science is pursuing an organic alternative. These companies are trying out new technologies. No hormones are ever added into our tanks. Mmm techknows team of experts show you how the miracles of science. Im standing in a tropical windstorm. Can affect and surprise us. Wow, some of these are amazing. Techknow where Technology Meets humanity. Ali veslshi brings you a rare firsthand glimpse inside iran. Im trying to get a sense of what iranians are feeling. The effects of international sanctions. Rampant inflation. This is workth 100. Three years ago this was worth 250. What the nuclear deal means for the country, the region and the world. Iran doesnt want the agreement to be blown apart by the next u. S. President. A real look at life in iran. The galleries and the art and the parties. Everything, its getting better. Welcome back to Al Jazeera America. The demonstrateors were violent just a few minutes ago with some monthlitive cocktails and police trying to break it up. Patricia s abga has had the ability to see it from a different camera angle. The police have dispersed many of the protesters. A few thousand around the parliament to register their protests against austerity measures which are much harsher than the proposals from a week ago in the referendum. Tensions have started to rise. Weve seen some of the protesters were throwing molotov cocktails and there is a core group of protesters outside of the Greek Parliament inside lawmakers are debating these austerity measures. It is unsure that it should pass. The deadline is midnight tonight to agree to these measures as a prerequisite to start negotiations with that bail out package that is worth 90 billion. The police were chasing protesters. How long did these squirm michigansskirmishes go on . It went on for about a half hour. Many of the protesters were peaceful and they dispersed in an orderly manner, but there were those who were angry and those throwing monthlitive cocktails, obviously. These are punishing measures that will put people who are already living on the economic edge. People who simply have no morecant take any more pain. Now were starting to see that boil over into anger. Patty what happens if that Greek Parliament rejects this agreement today . If it rejects them then were back where we were before. This is the problem. This is what Prime Minister tsipras is facing. He was promising to end austerity measures, but there is sympathy for tsipras in greece. Many feel that he had no choice. When the choice is banks going under or more austerity many feel that he had absolutely no choice. They feel that the european creditors blackmailed their Prime Minister into accepting this deal. This is a story for us were following all afternoon. Well take one more break. And on the other side well get you back to the white house. The thousand from the white house, and the major news made by former president bill clinton that will help a number of people in the effort to reform prison sentences for nonviolent offenders. Well get to that on the other side of this break. There has been a Major Development in the debate of Justice Reform in the 1990s former president bill clinton signed a bill on offenders of all kind violent and nonviolent. The former president admitted he was wrong in being in favor of longer prison terms when he was in office. Because i signed a bill that made the problem worse. You shouldnt lose your life for selling three illegal cigarettes on the streets. Bill clinton admitting that he made the situation worse. Michael, how significant is this admission from former president bill clinton . Well, he was in front of an audience who wanted to hear the same thing from president obama yet about changing the way sentences are handed down. Its a big big admission for a president to look back and, what hes talking about is the 1994 Violent Crime control and Law Enforcement act. What that did and what president obama president clinton is saying, he defended parts of that bill. He said it was great for gun control. It brought crime rates down but it left too many people in jail too long for crimes sentenced disproportionately. One part of that bill is the federal government would give money to states as long as they would have sort of truth in sentencing there. Which would mean that they would have uniform sentences, bring down the eligibility for parole and keeping people in jail for longer. President clinton looks back now and said that was a bad part of that piece of legislation. To parallel in terms of political battles to come, there is the criminal Justice Reform effort that the president may get support on and of course the big story today the reason why the president had his press conference, that is iran where the president is asking people to judge the facts and not the politics. You covered politics for a long time is that a reasonable expectation to ask give the tensions between republicans on can capitol hill and this democratic president . Well, its hard to ask the American Public and the American Media to say only over the law and not the politics especially going into the Election Year where its all about politics. But part of that politics is seeing republicans and democrats sort of getting behind this crime bill even at the same time that theyre fighting the iran bill. The president does have to play politics. He is out there in front of a press today in the east room, thats politics. Hes not ignoring that, but hes saying he wants to get the facts as well. Thanks to lisa stark who is on capitol hill. And the others who have joined us. Again the headline today president obama defend the iran deal the United States and western powers reached with iran over its nuclear program. The president said that it meets the National Security obligation of our allies and the United States. Well have more coverage on this throughout the day on Al Jazeera America and tonight. Im david skies. Thank you for watching. You can always get the latest news on our website www. Aljazeera. Com. Here in athens as Greeces Parliament plans to vote on greeces Austerity Program to save it im lauren taylor. This is al jazeera live from london. Also coming up. This deal is our best means of assuring that iran does not get a Nuclear Weapon. President obamas warning to congress to back him on the iran nuclear deal. Saudibacked forces in yemen in the battle for the control of aden