Core complexities at the heart of the regions problems. Complexities that america cannot afford to ignore if the United States is going to play a constructive role in fixing those problems. Now in case you missed huckabees remarks the former arkansas governor said that by trusting iran in a nuclear deal president obama is, quote, marching the israelis to the door of the oven. Marching the israelis to the door of the urch. Of the oven. President obama responded from ethiopia by saying it fit a pattern that would be ridiculous if it wasnt so sad, unquote, but tonight, much of the negative response to the Nuclear Agreement is based on a narrative about the middle east that boils down to us versus them. Us being the United States and israel and the west in general. Them being a vaguely defined brand of islamic extremism defined to destroy western freedom. Raging in this region involves an internal battle, involving shia and sunni, rather than us versus them but them versus them. In a New York Times article headlined, wikileaks, saudi arabia versus iran. The story says quote clear in many of the cables are saudi fears of iranian influence and the shed of shia islam. Saudi arabia is a nation dominated by sunni muslims. The great divide between shia and sunni muslims is not easy but getting a grip is critical for anyone who cares about americas role in a region that has strategic and diplomatic importance, if your view on the region is based on a flawed narrative. I learned that firsthand during my recent reporting trip to iran. I gained a better perspective on the raging issue in the middle east. Iran considers itself a influence in the middle east, and irans regional influence is be bound to grow as sanction he arsare lifted. Its time for leaders to realize that iran is a major player, live with it the same way they live with russia, with china, why not live with iran . If they decide to do that then they will encourage forces within iran that are willing and able to accommodate western interests. One thing that iran is eager to help the west with is confronting i. S. I. L. Both iran and the u. S. Back the Iraqi Government in the war against i. S. I. L. Fighters, but in neighboring syria where i. S. I. L. Also controls territory, iran and the u. S. Work at cross purposes. Thats because they back opposing sides in syrias civil war. In fact, in almost every contentious area and issue facing the middle east today syria, israel, yemen, and the flow of oil to the world, iran and the u. S. Are on opposite sides. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the straight of hormuz, a narrow waterway that be connects the gulf and the indian ocean. 21 miles separates iran from the countries of the Arabian Peninsula on the other side. Let me give you a sense of how close a choke point this is, american installations in be arab countries, iran considers that a threat, it has mind this area before. America is eescortin escorting s through the strait. It has before and it will continue to. Hearts and minds of People Living in the region. Iran has a natural soft power in the hearts and minds of the shia populations. In this part of the world and internationally. Its like the vatican for catholics. Iran uses both military and soft power to give backing to shia parties in conflict zones throughout the middle east. In lebanon iran has long backed hezbollah in its fight against israel. The iranians have become a life line for syrias embattled president bashar alassad. And iraqs shiadominated government. Iran has weighed in on the side of Houthi Rebels in yemen triggering a sectarian proxy war with sunni dominated saudi arabia. Voices inside iran say its now willing to use its influence in cooperation in the areas consuming the middle east today. Today iran has emerged as a major player. The islamic refltion has a lot of influence in revolution has a lot of influence in many parts of the islamic world. There are a lot of areas where iran can play a very prominent role in sorting out conflicts, resolving outstanding issues, particularly in dealing with peace and security in the region. Well up next, centuries of mistrust between sunnis and shias is threatening any hope of peace in the middle east, but the divide goes beyond religion. Ill explain when we come back. Ack. My name is imran garda. The show is called third rail. When you watch the show, youre gonna find us being unafraid. The topics will fascinate you. Intrigue you. They take this seriously. Let me quote you. Theres a double standard. You cant be a hypocrite. Youre gonna also get a show thats really fair, bold, never predictable. They should be worried about Heart Disease not terrorism. No, i wouldnt say that at all. Youll see a show that has an impact on the conventional wisdom, that goes where nobody else goes. My name is imran garda, im the host of third rail and you can find it on al jazeera america. Being a musician, theres no demand. World renowned artist lang lang the moment youre on stage, its timeless be americamakes flawed us , pits sunni versus shia muslims. Its a fight you have to understand, to get a handle on proxy wars in the region. Dean of Johns Hopkins school of International Studies and written extensively. Imr. Nasser is the author of america in retreat. Envoy to pakistan and afghanistan, the late richard holbrook. Ali thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. Let me ask you about this theory that im pos chu postulag here. Bigger concern about the west. Well, its inter2009e interth one another between saudi arabia and iran about regional controls but even within regional countries theres a robust competition between who gets what in different communities. In some places like in iraq, the u. S. Is supporting a shia government, in places like in syria we are opposed to a minority shia governments domination over the sunni nation. A live and kicking conflict between two major sectarian denominations in that region for control and influence. Would american policy in the region be better if it understood that dynamic more specifically . It is a little bit inconsistent. I mean thats one of the things that the iranians sort of complain about that americans tolerate one thing in one place sort of a shiaoriented minority government in syria but not in iraq. Well, if we are to achieve our goals we have to understand why our conflicts are heapg, and what direction they might take. They might not be about us but because we have a dog in that fight and the outcome we ought to know why its happening, why it is these countries are in civil war. For instance you cant understand i. S. I. S. In the middle east without understanding i. S. I. S. Is a very stronglstrongly antishia antibei force. If you dont understand that then you wont understand how you can defeat i. S. I. S. In the iranians in the story i just ran i spoke to one of the Vice President s of iran who pointed out that america and iran can Work Together in defeating i. S. I. S, they would actually like americans to see that as the greatest threat to the middle east. That is not been something thats played out until now. In fact weve seen americans actively avoiding collaboration with iranian backed shia forcs in iraq. Thats exactly the case. You can look at the issue from two different angles, stability versus terrorism issue and then we can think of many sunni countries being our main ally in fighting i. S. I. S, or you can look much more closely and see whether its in syria or whether its in iraq that i. S. I. S. Really speaks for the sunni objection to shia rule and to iranian influence and then it became the question of shiasunni, because i. S. I. S. Is a sunni force, then our allies would become iran and those who work with iran. And therefore when you look at it very upclose the sectarian factor matters a lot. When you look at it from a far you see it in a very different term. You have seen that the shiasunni problem in the arab world doesnt include vaughn a dysfunction of arab political systems in that theres no uranium definition of identities. Explain that. Well, if you were from afar when you look at that region you say they you are all arab, all oift as arab. There is no sense of citizenship in the sense that every individual irrespective of their religious background has the same rights or opportunities. If you are sunni or shia it decides what Community Within that country you belong to, what you get from the state are you at the top or the bottom. That basically means you really dont have a secular definition of citizenship but rather that people identify with sectarian communities. And power is distributed according to sectarian communities. So when you have countries like iraq or syria are broken up by civil war, the fight over power happens along sectarian and communal lines. Is there something about that, that should inform American Foreign policy in the region then . If we know that is there something we should be change going the way we try and help stability along in some of these inflations . Inflations nations . The very first place where this trapped us was in the case of iraq. When the United States invaded iraq it thought that the primary issue for iraqis would end up being democracy and iraqis are united in their desire for democracy. But democracy in iraq was not to the advantage of the sunnies who were going to lose power and it was to the benefit of the shias which had the numbers in their side. In the end we had a sectarian war. Unless there is a way for shias and sunnis to get together and arrive at some kind of a powersharing deal in syria in iraq in lebanon in other places where they think they have a situation where they can live with. Right now, it is a basically fight to the knife who is going to take the spoils. No matter what we cant see stability in these countries, but help arrive at a peace settlement. With all due respect, im speaking to someone whos written more about this than anyone else in the world. Do you think this is going to after 1400 years being decided . The ideologic issue goes back 14 years, but they are fighting over who has control of the capital, who gets the presidency, who gets the oil revenue, whos the top dog. It is a very political fight, this is really an ethnic conflict if you would except ethnicity is along religious lines. Unless there is a way they can agree to a sharing of power they will continue to fight. And being shia or sunni in the middle east is not a matter of whether you actually go to mosque or you practice. Its a matter of who you are. Just like being you know, catholic or protestant in a christian country. Its part of your identity. That is part of the issues you are dealing with. Vali nasser. Thank you for being with us. Tomorrow, we take a look at the changing chess game of the democracies, knocking i. S. I. L. Out of northern syria, it is a complicated picture that also involves turkey launching air strikes on the kurdish pkk group in northern iraq. Ill explain how these pieces fit together or dont fit together. Steven cook on the council of Foreign Relations thats all up next, tomorrow on on target. Chinese stocks fell 8 on monday. Ill look at what effect that may have on you. Ou. Be able to see change. Gripping. Inspiring. Entertaining. Talk to al jazeera. Only on al jazeera america. Growing up fast. My quest is to find me and me is not here. Fighting for a better future. If you dont go to college youre gonna end up dead on the Chinese Government likes to control most everything in china but lately it seems to be having trouble controlling the stock market. The hang seng lost 8 on monday. Imagine if the stock market here lost that much. But china is different. Take a look at this chart. You can see a steady rise in prices with turbulence starting to hit around june. Today the stock market closed at 3725 points. Even after all the turmoil its still up 71 from the end of july 2014, up 50 this year alone. Pretty good return. Since early july the Chinese Government last taken bold steps to maintain stability in the stock market, worked for a while but todays drop shows the limitations of the governments efforts to support the market. Many of you might be invested in chinas market mainly through exchangetraded funds. Some of you may have active mutual funds as well. If you have to maintain some risk can they maintain their market run by a communist market. Symon thank you so much for being here. Good to be here. Are you worried about this turn in the Chinese Market . You have to be worried to a certain extent but its important to put it in context. We have seen a nice return in the Chinese Market and many of the investors are sitting on gains. The reason we would be concerned is that the last part of the rally that big spike until the middle of june was driven by a lot of margin finance. A lot of people went into debt to finance their investment in this market and as that market is turning down they are starting to unwind that and there would be repercussions absolutely. Whenever we see markets, economies having problems, we worry about contagion. Bad things in greece affect us, bad things all over the place. China is going to be the biggest economy in the world. Is this a sign theres a problem in china or is this stock market specific. This is very much stock market specific in china. The economy is not the market and the market is not the economy. In america were used to the market being a discounting of the future. In china this last been very, very retail speculation driven. To a certain extent it was encouraged by the government. This run up in the market was encouraged by the government because it gave them a very nice way of hoping that indebted corporates were going to be able to use a higher market to be able to raise funds, pay down debt, repair balance sheets. In terms of the crash on the economy again we need to put it into context. If you look at Household Wealth in china 75 of that Household Wealth is in property. If you look at the last 25 , only 10 of that remaining 25 so only 2. 5 of total assets are are invested in the h seng directly. Broad based impact i think consumption as a whole is going to continue to grow, the economy is growing at 7 , dont forget that. Yes expectations are being revised down but this is not a doomsday economy for the chinese as a whole. Many invested in chinese equities, some may be doing it with a mutual fund or Exchange Traded fund. You havent as a stock investor in china over the last ten or 15 years your performance hasnt matched the growth generally speaking. The market in the last ten years until two or three years ago was performing very poorly which was a distinct disconnect, with the economy growing ten, 11, 12 . Dont forget the a share market, not a deep securities, no 401 k , no equities based retirement, this is not a market in which historically the investors have had a lot of experience in analyzing companies, discounting sphooufn casdiscounting cashflows. You buy a stock and like it. Recently the government has been saying buy that stock. Lets talk a little bit about how one should invest in china. One might say this is a buying opportunity. If you are invested in the stock market you probably own a good deal of china with the without even knowing it. You already hold a lot of china if you are invested in china the growth story of apple is the smartphone and the iphone in china. If you are invested in any of the global Car Companies same thing, fast food you have a lot ever chinese be market. Now there is value in the china market starting to appear. One of the things a lot of people dont understand about the china market is if you look at some of the big state owned enterprises, some of the cyclicals, those are trading at overy good value now. The internet the health care those are the stocks that are trading at 40, 50, 60 times earnings and are still there on stratospheric earnings. Some people tell you buy Exchange Traded funds or index funds where youre not paying a Management Fee. This could be an instance where you can pay a Management Fee because they can determine the difference between a well valued Growth Company or a Company Versus something with this high priced earnings ratio that might be too expensive. Absolutely. They will be able to find for you stocks that are not only reasonably valued but do have that growth story. Dont forget a lot of the state oanoanldowned enterprises, thats affected them. If you believe that the reduction in Interest Rates that were seeing is going to revive those cyclicals, there are some quite interesting stories there. You want to be avoiding these highly Speculative Companies where we dont know what the earnings are. Fortunately for Foreign Investors a lot of those are listed in the shanghai a share marked and the shenzen market, both listed in shanghai shenzen and hong kong, those arent trading in as high valuations because there hasnt been the mainland speculation influence on those companies. Symon males at aerbach grayson. That is our show for tonight. Im ali velshi. Thank you for joining us. S. Fighting i. S. I. L. Turkey calls for help from n. A. T. O. Allies to counter the growing threat opening a door. I support a policy that accepts and respects a different perspective and belief the buoy scouts reverse a ban an gay leaders, but leave room for local discrimination. Defending the deal. Its not the kind of leadership that is needed for