Ultimately suffer a great losses and the Afghan People more importantly as weve seen over these last 18 years. I could often welcome you watching r. T. International to believe in president evo morales is on his way to mexico granted him political asylum he resigned on monday apparently under pressure from the military and what he described as a kid. Sisters and brothers im leaving for mexico grateful for the openness of these brothers who offered us asylum to protect our life it hurts to leave the country for political reasons but i will stay in touch i will soon return with more strength and energy since his resignation bolivia has been rocked by more unrest there were scenes of looting in the capital with buses set on fire mass protests began over the disputed recent president ial election with opponents of morale is claiming fraud the final results gave him just enough of a lead to avoid a runoff however supporters of morale is have turned out in large numbers both in bolivia and across latin america yet some are hailing his ousting as a victory for democracy despite the power vacuum that its left behind and believe in armed forces said that they will take joint action with the police in controlling the protests his yukos done. You may have heard that bolivia has lately been celebrating a triumph of democracy the resignation yesterday of bolivian president evo morales is a significant moment for democracy in the western hemisphere these events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in venezuela nicaragua the democracy and the will of the people will always prevail i dont know if it was a breeze in south america or if it was oblivion hurricane of democracy be here today i feel a little breeze in venezuela freedom and justice well heres what a triumph of democracy has looked like in bolivia president morales resigned the Vice President resigned the president of the senate the 3rd person in line for the top job you guessed it resigned. The Bolivian Army and Security Forces are the only viable force left after the. Renounce their allegiance to the government and took the side of the protesters. We suggest to the president of the state to resign his president ial mandate to allow for peace and stability for the good of our believe here. But its not as black and white as the Anti Government side might want you to think plenty of people have been supporting evo morales in the streets and its them who have been getting the short end of the stake here. Or. If it did. In fact that was the key reason for morale us to throw in the towel he wanted the violence to cease. Is that why am i deciding to resign so the opposition does not keep pursuing my brothers and the unions we are resigning i am resigning precisely sort of my brothers and sisters leaders and authorities of the socialist movement dont continue to be held hostage chased and threatened because in bolivia morales has no one not a 100 not a 1000 supporters hes got millions this a tobar of 47 percent of bolivians voted for morality and while critics of the ballot are screaming bloody murder the suspected Election Fraud is within a 3 percent margin evil moralities a die hard leftist has been leading bolivia for 14 years under his rule the countrys economy has been growing faster than at any period over the past 3 and a half decades morales viewed as the voice. Of the poor managed to drastically reduce poverty and economic inequality he significantly increased the minimum wage too and boasted social spending millions had no problem with that and all of them are now represented and protected by nobody any day for a daily sort of a moment that the opposition is now enjoying its fleeting triumph i hope that this will not lead to even more violence because even more or less has huge support among the population when everything calms down most bolivians and i believe theyre good people and will realize that they have been manipulated they have something to compare the 1314 years bolivia has experienced the highest level of prosperity in its history there has been stability Economic Growth the elimination of illiteracy reduction extreme poverty it is almost a question of who won the election isnt worth it everyone knows that even more allies were the only question is the margin by which he won and the right to calling for violence in the most insulin way there are considerable resources and weapons behind them as if there are clashes in the streets and when there are no Law Enforcement agencies present when the police state party riot is when the military says it will not go against the people were not guard the embassies the palace of government what is left evo morales to do to avoid bloodshed to avoid more violence furthermore the Army Commander asked him to resign what could he do to avoid more bloodshed and violence just leave but this is what we call a coup the organization of american states not only allowed this but is also part of this coup the organization of american states has always been a tool in the hands of the us it is time for us Latin Americans to create something of our own because we cannot continue to resolve disputes in washington or even worse in the organization of american states. Meanwhile bolivias political turmoil has given rise to questions regarding the future of the countrys resources some are predicting that morale is the part you could now open opportunities for Multinational Mining Companies now its because bolivia is estimated to have 9000000 tonnes of lithium reserves the 2nd largest in the world this is significant to you as experts are now predicting that the Global Demand for the chemical elements will triple by 2027 that increase is being driven by the rapid expansion of certain markets for lithium can have a look at some of them over here today it is used in electric cars batteries for various portable Electronic Devices and also military hardware so kaufman from the alliance for global justice thinks that bolivia has been hit by the resource. There is no question that washington is the the. Regime change or for. Every country of the particularly that has resources. To. Morrow or the will of you is going to be. Industrial. There. Its just exported Raw Materials but heres supplier noise for bolivia to begin to produce and batteries refining the ability of and producing batteries. Which cuts. Transnational corporations for a profit stream. As on the parades and wreath laying ceremony as were held in the u. S. On monday as the country marked veterans day this years commemorations the protests here in new york where demonstrators voice their anger over americas continuing involvement in foreign wars it came as the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said that the conflict in afghanistan is far from over despite all of the promises of pulling troops. Their efforts are ongoing its been ongoing for 18 consecutive years and i suspect it will be ongoing into the future for for several more years that mission is not yet complete. But also made it clear that our commitment would not be open ended and that we would begin to draw down our forces this july why are we continuing to train these afghanis who then shoot our soldiers in the back afghanistan is a complete waste of time to come home recent polls do show that the majority of veterans do not believe the conflicts in either iraq or afghanistan were worth fighting the general public is similarly unsupportive of washingtons involvement in those wars where the us has maintained a continuous military presence in the middle east since 2003 its been in afghanistan since 2001 the peace talks there which would allow the us to pull out are ongoing on the front though has called off negotiations several times we spoke to a number of u. S. Army veterans about this they told us that americas power projection abroad has actually made it less safe. U. S. Military veterans from all wars are very very concerned about the propensity of the United States to continue to use warmongering as an instrument of Foreign Policy and i myself was in afghanistan in december of 2001 as a diplomat i helped reopen the u. S. Embassy there and thats 18 years ago and at that time we were telling washington you only have a small window of opportunity here the us going into afghanistan in 2001. Will ultimately suffer a great losses and the Afghan People more importantly as weve seen over these last 18 years and particularly in the last 6 or 7 years are suffering tremendously tremendous casualties and deaths were told that it was weapons of mass destruction that there were ties to 911 that were bringing democracy to the people and i felt like we were doing many of those things i think our military Industrial Complex property from war and i think that we actually made our nation less safe and less secure and we didnt defend our National Security we created a lot of enemies internationally where we didnt have is as deep of enemies and its going to create a lot of conflict and strike for the American People in our communities in the future. In other news today israel has killed a leading commander of the Palestinian Militant GroupIslamic Jihad in a series of a strikes on the besieged gaza strip the group responded by firing rockets into israel more details now from poor sleep. Between the army has confirmed that its most wanted man in gaza and in fact its the most wanted man internationally was assassinated just over a midnight in the gaza strip and now he is the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group abu atta and the strike occurred in the early hours of this morning we understand that an additional person was killed initial reports and. That it was his wife and the 2 other people have been injured after the strike on a house in the east of gaza now dozens of rockets have been fired into israel primarily southern and Central Israel in a response the israeli army saying that by 9 oclock this morning some 50 rockets had been fired at the country with its iron dome intercepting some 20 the 1st rockets were fired to tell everybody around 8 oclock this morning i was out on the streets and this is rush hour all the traffic came to a quick standstill the buses moved over to the side of the highways and people quickly disembarked and lay on the floor so that they would have a protection between the buses and the steel bars of the highway on the other side so the situation here in israel is extremely tense the reserve units have been called up people have been told to open their bomb shelters and People Living in the south and say into the country have been told to stay home and not go to work and unless they have jobs now the israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu has said that this leader was a commander who was poised to launch imminent attacks against israel take a listen senior Islamic Jihad commander who was targeted overnight in gaza he was responsible for many terrorist attacks and the firing of rockets at the state of israel in recent months and had intended to carry out imminent attacks the idea of action was recommended by the i. D. F. Chief of staff and i say director and was approved by the Prime Minister and defense minister now the Islamic Jihad has vowed to take a vengeance on his death theyve issued a statement with us and this is despite israels warning from us not to get involved a situation there is extremely tense the funeral of the Islamic Jihad leader is currently underway in gaza city now all of this comes as a separate attack on the damascus home of a nother Islamic Jihad a political leader took place also in the early hours of the small and according to Islamic Jihad the east. Of the commander was killed in a blaming the israeli army as of yet theres been no comment no response from the Israel Defense forces syrian media is reporting the attack they say that 2 people were killed and 6 people were wounded but at this stage they are not saying who was killed and who is responsible for this assassination just to mention that the last time israel carried out targeted assassinations was back in 2014 so this certainly indicates a resumption in the israeli policy of targeted assassinations for asli report and there you watching r. T. Going to take a quick break now more news must go into this. One almost sure seems wrong why dont we just dont call. Me. Yet to shape our disdain become educated and in the game equals betrayal. When so many find themselves worlds apart wait shes to look for common ground. The world is driven by dreamers shaped by one person with those words. The day or thinks. We dare to ask. Not with the u. K. General election just around the corner the leader of the opposition Jeremy Colbert has been branded a stalinist you type comes though not from a rival party but from an Interfaith Charity one that is receiving funds from the home office to combat extremism he serai as the story. The u. K. Government is generous in granting money to various charities and organizations and thats undoubtedly good when those organizations are against islamophobia 97. 00 says of building a more Friendly Society take for example Faith Matters a Charity Organization norge to help faith communities working on integration dealing with hate crime and countering extremism theyve also been recipients of u. K. Government funding through the home offices county Extremism Program but with elections looming and campaigns kicking off Faith Matters it seems also has another agenda as theyve been accused of launching a major attack on the countrys main Opposition Labor Party and its leader Jeremy Corbyn describing the party as being a stalinist cult of korban this country needs an effective opposition for a healthy democracy labor is now regressing into a stalinist cult of call bit. As a left wing muslim i cannot vote for carbons labor the truth of course is that he has backed Armed Conflict dozens of times he just hasnt backed by u. K. Forces Faith Matters has been accused of tweeting about labor and mr corbin more than 200 times since it was listed by the home office as a recipient of it support thats 5 times more than about the conservatives Boris Johnson or to reason may its hard not to notice that the organization is targeting corba not only for alleged anti semitism but also a ray of issues including sympathy to the syrian president Bashar Al Assad for example Faith Matters denies the allegations of focusing their attacks on the labor party so they also criticized including conservatives who have been plagued by repeated accusations of racism and islamophobia Faith Matters has been and will continue to be critical of the poor way in which antisemitism has been tackled within the labor party correspondingly we have consistently been critical of the conservative party and their lack of transparency in action around stamping out anti muslim bigotry within parts of their Membership Base now its not the 1st time organizations financed by the u. K. Government have been Court Funding corben campaigns the Integrity Initiative a subsidiary of the institute for statecraft which has received more than 2000000 pounds of Foreign Office money spread defamatory content about Jeremy Corbyn on their twitter account later the Integrity Initiative was forced to apologize that was a mistake and we wrote letters of apology to Jeremy Corbyn where as apple a tickle as we could be and the Foreign Office ordered an investigation into the matter if there is any kind of organization for which we are paying which is involved in domestic politics in that way i would totally condemn it but it seems the questions will continue to rise to the extent of the u. K. Governments funding for groups engaged. Such political attacks especially just before an election that could decide the u. K. s future for many decades to come. As a body of people particularly who take an interest in his National RelationsSecurity Policy and so on who are overwhelmingly critical and skeptical about the scorpions policies and his past involvement and seems to me far enough whole somebody to criticize those without hiding behind. The Russian Foreign minister is in france and im in a working visits again after office attending the paris pace for and that is an annual International Event aimed at promoting better Global Governance and lets have a listen thats what some slapper office. 3 a few years later i says it was established and i will back it up but it was let out of the american prison and he became you know number one in this in this terrible fight and the invasion of libya aggression against libya and later against syria gave birth to another manifestation of the name that just got the news that i feel that that could have a sham whatever whatever they call themselves and the libyan aggressive aggression against libya drifted several waves of terrorism into Subsaharan Africa and of illegal migration into europe those were the results of adventures against iraq libya and syria and israel and when the Syrian Government was about to be toppled by isis when the terrorist war on the outs at the outskirts of the muskets and then the president of syria requests that us to help yes because and i believe we did the right thing because apart from italy and some areas on the east and bank of the infrared to see what the terrorists are not are not in control of this country in the lead. Victim of the government is back on the drivers seat so let me ask you this minister to press you a bit further there are people who say that supporting assad really pushes the syrian sunnis yet even more into the imes of radical forces on the extremist side nusra and others whats your thinking about that while we have to. We have to deal with his what to be inherited in syria after the french left the country and that was the french. Design of power sharing in syria those french. Well this is this is the this is the effect of never we never had the colonists you know. And we have to to to deal with the results of colonial. Period you take a look at the borders in africa and in clued in the in the north of africa just 3 Straight Lines cutting across ethnic and religious groups and next year by the way we will be commemorating going to just syria of the declaration of the General Assembly of the United Nations on independence the colonial countries and peoples and i believe we wish we shall remember how this how this declaration was adopted and what is still not resolved because some countries did not receive independence as as was required by the General Assembly and if people know some say. We shall not remember colonial times we must you know leave by the bye bye today but people many people including in europe they want to reopen the issues related to the end of world war 2 which was 20 years before the colonization decolonization as a much younger phenomenon and to ignore it and to ignore they need to analyze how exactly dick. And is ation take place and whether this was this was this is the end of it whether the remaining colonial people should remain on the metropolis its an open issue so back back to syria you know many as soon as many as soon as became part of the system they are active in business and in administered if life of their country and i dont believe that theyll soon is just would like to topple the digital of government and to be embraced by the terrorists i dont think so and no concern that russia may be seen as a neo colonial power in the middle east. We have been invited unlike the United States unlike from unlike germany unlike other members of the socalled and that there is a coalition who are present in syria illegitimately we have been invited by legitimate government i dont believe that this this fits into the description of. Well there are different opinions on the legitimacy of the Syrian Government but that aside ladies and gentlemen let me open this for your questions your comments there are in the name of the rules based order a couple of rules that i wanted to ask you to heat one is police say who you are saying that the police p s chris and as concise as you can and thirdly. You should always remember that a question should end with a question mark so minister if i understand right we have like 10 more minutes or so for questions if thats ok so please shoot 1st. I think you should let me. Let me give you my mike. L. T. Thank you very much good good morning. Im. Founder and executive chairman of Beirut Institute and i was wondering was the minister nice to see you again i was wondering if how do you view whats happening in iraq in terms of the revolution or the uprising however you whatever term you use as well as whats happening in lebanon does russia support or oppose any of these movements what is your view of them are they healthy for the come through the evolution of the country or are they not thank you. Thanks very much are you do you would you. Believe me. Only yesterday i was drilling up on bill little bill this issues because we have. We got used to being interest that i never sing which is going on the nurse the souls very poisoning briggss that cut the lawn in recently when we were mentioned as they once who meddled is a situation in chile thats why apec was a summit was cancelled. And i was wondering why we are not mentioned. Earlier in relation to the developments in the rock in lebanon and now in bolivia somehow we have not been accused of the coup in bolivia and this is strange so something is happening in the minds of those who normally create job political agendas i believe that it is very unfortunate what we see in the in the in the wreck it is very unfortunate to see lebanon in the same stage of you know distress but dont forget that in iraq the people steal the right to overcome the effect of the american the American Invasion and of the ruthless political engine earing which bold brimley introduced in the rock throwing away all bossed by the members from anywhere by the way the best fighters and nice is a former Saddam Hussein officers. Who was thrown out of the of their jobs by paul bremer. And and you say that no mistakes in as Winston Churchill said the american soldiers do the right thing after theyve tried every single cent. And in lebanon in lebanon we support the efforts of really to restabilize should government a caretaker government but i and as far as i understand his idea and a deal of some of his friends is to make this government entirely technocrat without any political affiliations i dont believe that this is realistic and the religious of. Thanks very much minister so this is also about bringing the young generation into the conversation i saw raced hand by the lady over here exactly the mike is coming to you. Thank you im sure he knew that from b. B. C. Arabic in london. So mike was so amazing i will. Kind of course in the 1st one but theyre not in another way so russia play a big role in the middle east especially in the conflicts and supporting who ever seek a law i against us which in no way can be seen that russia is actually giving help to ever serve its interests against usa. If it is this how you see what russia do in middle east or you disagree and if so why we didnt see russia instead of actually hill being creating saves soon in syria and supporting regime that some are there is a browsing against it and the qualities of them it in a state of rebuilding the cities that actually destroyed by airstrikes russian air strikes and a lot of intervene in syria should the question mark. There is a consumer is there one ok. Well 1st of all the regime as you call it is the government of a state. We choose a full member of the United Nations without any restrictions on its on its roads so when people say regime. I live with i live in your own conscious 2nd never ever we have been designing go Foreign Policy just to be nice to the United States not at all if you take the middle east right