A highly volatile quantity of Ammonium Nitrate but inside 3 years in a warehouse of port officials warned of the dangers posed warnings that were systematically ignored but would anything change in the aftermath would anyone ever be held to account for and sympathy arrived in the shape of frances emmanuelle macro only he brought an uncompromising message theres no blank check he told people if your Political Class fails we wont come to lebanons aid and fail it did days later the government resigned not only did the politicians have no answers they had like so many before them simply given up who would now fill the vacuum. Hello and welcome to this special edition of conflict zone over the last 4 years weve interviewed several senior lebanese politicians about the inexorable breakdown of vera qana me and their state institutions what they told us provides an unusually clear insight into the reasons for lebanons intractable crisis we sort of answers to some key questions what has gone wrong who was to blame for the sinking economy and how could the country move forward but instead of answers we got promises of progress of clarity and commitment even transparency that in most cases came to nothing in february 26th seen i caught up with Gibran Bassil then the countrys foreign minister who acknowledged the central feature of lebanese politics in demick corruption as well as all the other contradictions that have made it impossible for the state to function. Yes we have corruption at our country but this is why we need to have strong leaders to fight corruption there. Different factions playing politics yes with a nation that can ill afford it i mean even the patriarch spoke of erosion of your state institutions at the moment and of course their laps in the states collapsing. It depends how you how you define the color we still have at least a family and about them we still have values values of how we live how we think towards the other were well aware that this is fading completely in other parts even and strong and prosperous country is you dont see this kind of cohesion that we still have 11 or coalition you failed you look at a president in all 20 years about cohesion is that almost 35 attempts to get a quorum in parliament you have managed to do it you havent passed the budget since 2005 you have a parliament is mandated to 2013 and i had to extend it twice without recourse to the public you have to have legislative elections since 2000. Against is complete paralysis of the political body isnt against on this but when im here im very much about themselves rather the family be against it im not defending the politics and the ban on the politicians not of you know one of the silly ministers you know one of them im defending something that belongs to all of us and humanity and defending the idea and the more that we stand the prism of diversity of living together accepting each other where we are different this is what im defending and this is where im saying the importance of lebannon if we have this model versus the model of what do you choose you choose the model was dash or you still have live on on where people can still live together because what else can you get so you can get the dash model to how much of this living together was apparent when you see the people protest on the streets of level of this they have done over the last year and they get. Subjected to unacceptable violence. The Security Services. Can and tear gas but you know in a lot of bullets you know i was among the protesters so i well know whos of violence i let myself to the street because i refuse the situation to whos in charge and what is the government at this inshallah we are we are in jail theyre in jail of power because we cannot leave again youre a government that doesnt control your Security Services is that what youre telling me you know even with the security level we still find their feet compare us to other regions other countries around us and that each so again it is a situation that we have to fix how by not imposing. Lucian that is ready to share that idea recipe by allowing the libyan is lets let them go to elections and allow them to truly elections we pointed out since 2000. 00 and we were against this we can continue on because it is your Prime Minister said the levels of force used against demonstrators was unacceptable hes the Prime Minister condy do anything about this yes he stopped it but what is the person who was prosecuted doesnt mean im telling you i was the prosecutor i was myself on the street nobody who was a prosecutor any time soon for the service because i would if you were the situation minister you refused the situation but people got beaten up people got hospitalized dozens of people were taken to hospital people were injured all this larry lets not portray lebanon as a country where you have or you dont allow people to express the we have in excess of them are crazy and and liberal and people are allowed to speak out whatever your Security Organization is out to this culture all this hand this happened again lebanon the bacon of freedoms in the region and this happened once we dont take this incident and extrapolate it on our minister they laugh when you claim to be a beacon of freedom when the allegations of torture carried out by your Security Services are widespread in june last year. There was a leaked video showing members of your internal Security Forces torturing inmates in roomier prison north of beirut the interior minister confirmed that the video was authentic this is the kind of beacon of tolerance and coexistence that you say you have where torture is widespread not Human Rights Watch said this was just the tip of the ice a perception confirms the rule no we dont have the stomach this is an incident that happened there if you say the what happened in the guantanamo doesnt mean that in the us to live the torture this is an incident that happened once and confirmed that with this is not the case and the buner you know very well mr low with me this completely because we have so many things that we are not satisfied about in them but we dont turn it into being a place where people are tortured and yet the reports credible reports of torture have continued to surface in the 4 years since that interview was recorded no change there no change either in any of the sectarian carve ups and political patronage that have acted and still act as immovable roadblocks to reform ever since the civil war the complex power sharing system spawned many factions and warlords who were empowered to enrich themselves at the expense of the people they shared between them the spoils the top jobs the lucrative contracts and even as they watch the country disintegrate and default the last thing they wanted was to give back the money and relinquish their power in june this year the combative foreign minister at the time asked if he was still repeating the same vegas sure and says the same good intentions but inconsistent lead nowhere. I hear intentions your Public Sector has been looted for decades by the same sectarian powers that still dominate as were you trying. To finish the phrase im listening to you now you have to tell me what have you finished. I havent finished the question you think these warlords and power brokers what you have never letting me finish the answer youve been giving me a ok answer for a couple of minutes and you think do you think these warlords and power brokers who control so much in lebanon will just sit around while you shine a light on all their dirty dealings and then theyll just say sorry and hand back all the billions that theyve stolen you really think thats going to happen. We are not going to think so thanks for putting this question we know its an uphill struggle we know its an inch and you have to stand up to the challenge or fail i know the difficulties i fully agree with you about the seriousness of the challenges about how heavy they are weighing on us since he is but we have to come out with an answer otherwise you will not be taken the road that you promised to take thats a very important matter i fully agree about the challenges the nature of the challenges and the magnitude of the challenges but you have to come out with an answer to these challenges and create a sort of rapture with the past and get on a start on a new foot your your countrys record doesnt inspire confidence does it since the civil war lebanon has promised 4 times to reform in return for 4 teams to enjoy something about the power you about the future if you want to go into the past you can have a lesson in history now that you have why should anyone trying to tell you we know the stories we learned the lessons we are trying with telling the International Community look at look at us and lets see if we succeed we are. Planning to succeed we are committed to success because we have to save our country again i agree with you about your description of the situation which i already know we all know and i again am saying its a major challenge lets see for you if you can succeed in facing up to it and this is the challenge that you are taking on us to succeed this matter with the cooperation its our primary sponsor ability as theyve been his government its not an easy matter i fully agree which is a very difficult matter because of this established well entrenched system that you rightly described and with which i fully agree with you but this is the only road that we have to take to create a rupture with the past the challenges are very important very deep but we have to take this is the only i have a low road to get out of this messy situation but 2 months later mr hitty took his own road and resigned. Contradicting all the firm assurances hed given in the interview and declaring that the government hed so briefly served had shown a lack of will to reform of course it had to many lebanese the system had long since passed the point where it could be effectively reformed it now needed to be replaced from top to bottom but how to convince the power brokers of that even the slow motion collapse of the state signposted some often and in so many ways still wasnt enough to persuade them that the old game was finally ending your Prime Minister warned last year that lebanon risk becoming a failing state even the most basic services dont get provided to people how did you let it get so bad. I wouldnt call the level of the failed state when he was able to cope with 50 percent of his population as refugees 200. 00 syrian displaced to lebanon per square kilometer or more in the last october ive warned we are moving towards collapse if matters continue here but when when solid state and successful states like in europe are not able to receive more than 10000 refugees and levon on that was one a half 1000000 i wouldnt we have a very successful mordred. If it fades our model of diversity and coexistence then everything will fade and minister is not successful when you can live in cope with the rubbish on the streets succumbing to the rubbish you can blame the refugees from that can you know but this is this is our responsibility i cannot deny but this is a system that has become the activists say so inefficient and corrupt that it cant provide basic services depends how you how you measure the success of a society you can have a very democracy and prosperity but no cohesion and a society so everything gets the same greater i do society that can clear the rubbish and. Clearly air for its people puts their health in danger shouldnt be governing shit not defending this but i think you have also political garbage and you have the war garbage that you are witnessing everywhere and i think this is still less costly than having to dealing people thats garbage and killing them like when we have 200000 people in there and syria and the region we are enforcing a better government that cannot provide basic services isnt worthy of the name of a government is it why dont you reserving because i find somebody who can clear the rajar you are right on this but the problem is that you have vacancy and that your goal is are you stated we cannot resign we are obliged to stay because there will be no government there will be complete void and in lebanon if we have is our staying together with the health of your people no no we should elect a president who should be representative of his people a strong president was strong popularity and then well have another government state there are feuds infighting manipulation. And you say this is a model of cooperation the model of coexistence this is a model of political paralysis isnt doing this yes it is so one of the that youre really a little early to call paralysis are not talking of corporations im talking of course existence because in the ban on. Muslims. Christians are still living together in the power sharing model and parity where this does not exist anywhere else in the world and certainly is and she despite all the tension around us are still not fighting and theres no leadership and theres no decisions yes this is from another Central Bank Governor this is guy and also of the perlis is that we have in the whole region because in lebanon on this somehow reflected in politics this this will of eliminating the other where you are to blame your part of the system your brother who system that is most broken down a lot of politically another the denying there were aware of global and collective responsibility last october thousands of demonstrators angry and frightened called for an end to political corruption and for a new untainted set of politicians to run the country to topple to the fray shes in rapid succession. The protest movement cut across religious and political lines with demands for the recovery of stolen funs and for the corrupt to be held accountable and there was plenty to account for years of squalor in the streets as politicians bickered over garbage collection contracts and electricity failed for hours on end month after month among those being called out for criticism was that Hezbollah Movement selfstyled party of god financed by iran and they didnt like it. Lets talk about only long massive street protests that weve seen in lebanon in recent months one moment you seem to be listening to them then you claimed with no evidence that they were being exploited by the u. S. And israel and then last october you said you were thugs to beat up the demonstrators because they dared to criticize your leader absolutely not absolutely and im no im sorry im sort of them i didnt i dont know you like that im not i dont know that he was sure that we send our people do you have the proof it was widely reported that one of the time when we went against the you know value and deception widely you know the media assure you in the media im in the media this is a massive voter measure the air we dont make it out i can tell you i live mr moussawi nobody get up and i live here. I tell you do it we are not part of those who suppress the people we are with the masses we are with those who are the ones that i think we want to protect them we have the same issue actually we consider mr mousavi in december your supporters attacked an antigovernment protest camp in central beirut and the army had to be called in to disperse the groups around the same time you and your allies from amal targeted other antigovernment protest camps in different parts of lebanon so much for listening to the demonstrators and heeding their demands you beat them up. I can simply say this is not the truth as well or whether right or dislike it represents a large component of the very society its a Main Political Party political actor and that and on and everybody is welcome to join and help us and this whether directly being involved directly supportive or not supportive of the government lets see for the observers turner observers and external observers like you if you succeed you say this and i hear what you say why should the west lift a finger to help a government actively being constructed by hizbullah which is widely viewed around the. Terrorists or on set i think is a point of view its not absolute reality hezbollah is widely seen around the world as a terrorist cell and as a noise ation is not seen around the concert by some but it is not what this some i dont agree with this view you may disagree either logically politically strategically with a lebanese Political Party or libyas National Resistance movement thats your right to do so but its a major represent a major component of the of any Society Social component and political component what im saying take us to task as a government telling our western countries with which we are committed to develop the best out of relations culturally politically socially economically strategically with the western countries are very close to most of those countries we have very good relations are trying to develop to deepen strengthen and a lot of these western countries take us to test about what we are doing what we are planning to do that and about what is said here or there or about any ideological sloganeering or at the logical views according to the Drug Enforcement agency has been increasingly relies on criminal revenue from the wider array of sources that include the lebanese Diaspora Group members affiliates and such are the organization is even competed for Money Laundering contracts in the same. As colombian drug cartels and other criminal organizations so you belong with some shady new groups on the International Crime scene dont you. Your god continue to mention only if you want to continue this episode as long as you want you can continue to mention as much as you want of examples but this is not going to change the truth that these are things are put in the most of the western media against hezbollah against any. Religious stance move against any Resistance Group in order to distort the image in order to justify and he suggests i guess that you asked for examples i gave you so lets talk if we may about your support for the Assad GovernmentBashar Al Assad in syria despite its shocking disregard for human life especially civilians you could hardly claim of what theyve been doing or dont you the party of god have anything to say about policies of rape torture and extermination. On his forces have been carrying out youve got no principles no red lines as far as that sort of behavior is concerned. Let me ask you about the western media about your government of the western governments of the United States governments and what they did to the israelis who crush the people every day who are bipolar star and who by parts of lebanon who by parts of the Golan Heights and who continue to occupy also they want to annex part of jordan parts of of other places i mean if we ask those questions in other programs im talking to you or not as im talking to you about hezbollah because you represent hezbollah and im asked why you are silent why you support hezbollah regime in syria that the faeries out extermination policies towards it some people will think of our cause we are fighting we will we will we will fight think clearly groups who beheaded people who took the hearts of people who caused the the children who made an illusion this is we will fight things that are clearly groups it is a priority because they came and they got it digressions against our part of the country you know we had a wide open actions against the North Lebanon is lebanon mr those i will say critically important thing is that by lending mr assad you support you became complicit in everything he did and these are crimes against humanity the un high commissioner for human rights in syria got a torture chamber they are complicit they are complicit with the with mohammad been said about all of those there are 3 cities he is making in yemen. The United States and britain and all governments who are complicit so its the wests fault along with everyone else is lots of blame to be shared around so much in fact that it doesnt actually stick to any one partys take responsibility in name only and they stay in their posts whatever mistakes or crimes theyve committed its a system of accountability but with 0 consequences except of course for the people who have to live with all the criminality and incompetence poverty and now hunger small wonder that their patience is close to exhausted. How long do you expect people to wait for these rights that youre probably seeing these reforms that youre promising the end to corruption and has apparently. Our looted money give us back looted money this is what they say when one of the people of lebanon going to get back i know we are very much we are very much aware and committed to that its not the government that looted the money before its not just this government that created the situation that was before but however we are committed to do all what we can with our friends again saying and sat outside preaching to everybody in order to get out of this vicious destructive circle that lebanon found itself in i understand very legitimate frustration as well as the very legitimate demands of the iranis population of which im a member i mean any citizen before being everybodys official you understand these problems we have to get together and try to get out of this very difficult situation at least we have a commitment and the clarity that we need to get out of this difficult situation so i ask where are the reforms why arent you pushing for them you blame the system im asking looking about some ways of having you in government if you dont bring it out in this ailments. Im talking about the human side of this is the that has been going on going on for so many years i mean for decades now we have reached we should be held responsible for what happened about these are responsible those who are in the government we are part of the government we dont deny our responsibility we have to embrace our full responsibility in this we were there to take part in the small responsibility but the still when you talk about the kind of reforms that we want to do they should be structural we are one component of the mosaic of components of course the u. N. Says in the Lebanese Society we take our share of the responsibilities and they should be blamed for. They did if even just a few of those comforting words from our politicians have been turned into action then lebanon might look very different from the way it does today but no single political figure or faction appears to have the authority to bring about fundamental change and theres little chance of the different groups agreeing on a single course of action as for the people many say they believe if they could food prices have skyrocketed unemployment is life the banks are severely limited access to save. For now 2 important questions hang on so that over lebanon can the cash strapped west afford to give it the Emergency Support it needs and then i highly volatile region like this with conflict never far from the surface come it really afford not. To. Whats going on here. The house of your very own from a printer. Computer games that are healing. My dog needs electricity. Just explains delivers facts and shows what the future holds. That living in the Digital World shift. In 15 minutes on t w. What keeps us all safe what makes us see and how do we stay healthy. My name is dr constantly i talk to medical experts. Watch them at work. And i discuss what you can do to improve your health. Stay choose and lets all try to stay. In small w. Or. We can seem them. Sometimes sense them. But what connects people is stronger than what separates them. Know they are so strong that it cannot be torn down. We celebrated the 30th anniversary of germanys reunification. On 230 w. Conspiracy at the sony console. That will never be stopped. Oh plot connected to the highest levels of government why did journalist shonky have to die. Who was threatening times for. 2 years later the reasons are still unclear. The case of jimmy. Stewart september 30th on w. Plague. Place. This is the dumping years live from but then President Trump is set to unveil his pick for a key seat on the u. S. Supreme court media reports say hes chosen the conservative judge Amy Connie Barrett to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg will the nomination pull fuel on the file of a Divisive Campaign just weeks before the president ial election also coming up indonesia is facing its own steady increase of cope with 19 cases with no signs the government has managed to flatten the cuff. And knob a major clue