Donald trump refusing to let go of the president. Yet we analyze some of the old gods, being primed for the top positions on that for foreign policies. On israel is in talks with russia over the putt to solve the sputnik feed her rotavirus vaccine, we speak to the c. E. O. Of israels top hospital, was the Medical Center in jerusalem, or does over a 1000000 doses of wash job, which is already in its final phase of testing, we are pretty sure that the version because he is safe. You will do the work you do or she will make sure you never miss a story. This is our chance national from the whole team here must go about. Well, welcome to the program. Good to have you. Well, lets start off in the all meaning capital of yarra found when angry crowds have again been rallying against the countrys Prime Minister, calling for his resignation and marks a week since amin aside the cease fire agreement with azerbaijan over the disputed nagornokarabakh enclave. A deal, the armenian public have deemed humiliating, and i call john your sons and the assassin there because it was in yerevan for us. For this month, 7th day of protests really in the cup or so. And today we started off at Freedom Square once again. Mr. Minister has purchased from, from last week about for about 4003000 people for about 2 hours there is speeches and the slogan of this protest has been. Nicole is a traitor. A question on the Prime Minister. Thats him referring to. And then they marched through the city center through the level of the main streets to the 1st time, actually since approaches were going to the prosecutor generals office, usually a march to the Parliament Building or a government building in people who very much short last week and probably still are in i think some people without by coming out to purchase. I think the emotions are really high and people are seeing the footage from, from the, youre going to kind of back and then the regions and seeing people burning their houses and, and the emotions are really high still on. In the meantime, russia has started to send peacekeepers to monitor the cease fire between armenia and azerbaijan. Must confront, brokered a deal a week ago to stop the bloodshed in the corner car park. Well, these are just some of the latest pictures of russian equipment. Hundreds of it was in personnel landing in armenia. The patrol is currently monitoring cease fire and assisting with the exchange of foreign soldiers from the conflict. The mining and clearing the territory is also part of thought. Mission in total, it will last 5 years, but that will be an automatic extension. If for quiet, the truce is already allowing some refugees to return home overnight. Almost 500. 00. Armenians came back from the capital yerevan to the disputed regions, largest city, depart, a cut on russian peacekeepers. Oversaw a convoy of 19 buses, just full of people. My dads davis, on the way to the peacekeeping mission in the region. And some tell us this report of the peacekeeping force that is supposed to be stationed in the golden, has almost been brought up to full strength. We witnessed this morning get another very large cold with russian peacekeepers making their way into the cold knickerbocker. Aside from their 2000 about 2000 peacekeepers, the russian side has also published a detailed map of what the area theyre going to look like. The operations of the Russian Peacekeeping mission. Theyll be in the observation post. Shes far monitoring stations in the northern area. Married in the Southern Area and 7 in the corridor, a thin strip of land connecting me near to the pru armenian. You know, theres a lot of anger with the way the doubt. There is a lot of sadness with how many people have died and the ultimately people are just thankful that it is concluded already. Hopeless with russians, they are all saviors need. The Us New Europe helped us, the International Community was signed. And throughout these times, when our Prime Minister sold this land, it was only the russians who came to save us, but our nation has lost everything. Nothing is left. I beg lushington, help us to let the rest leave well on our lands. Its painful, of course, but we see Russian Troops are coming. Hopefully they will keep the peace. The Russian Peacekeeping mission, instead by the carrot, is acting as a sort of mediation headquarters that is organize a communication between the 2 sides. If it directly between the media and i said about john, they have already organized, for example, an exchange of the remains of soldiers whod been killed and whose bodies both sides were unable to collect. Things are being very differently on the, by johnny side, out of the there isnt quite the sadness that the reason the armenian side, they made tremendous gains areas that they believe are historically. Theres the recognized internationally, as i said by john in people who had been forced to evacuate 30 years ago. And now overjoyed that theyre heading back to homes, that the been unable to return to for 30 years is in peace. Im so grateful to our soldiers and our president , he will return there with great pleasure, as this is our lead and then use about the liberation and prospect of return has put behind all the hardship weve had for all this years. And want to help to me. Now, im so happy that our lands are liberated and grateful to all who made this country. Im so joyful to return to my land well waiting for a signal from the government to return. Were already packing up our stuff over the course of this 6 week conflict that had been many attempts to establish a cease fire and to dash attempts by russia by the United States, but also pressure from all over the world. And nothing seemed to hold until the 10th of november when russian president Vladimir Putin help mediate this latest ceasefire, which was signed by the president of us here by john the Prime Minister of armenia and which is held there is however, an enormous amount of work to be done, theres an enormous amount of uncertainty about the, the 10s of thousands of refugees that have been displaced from their homes, from their villages over the course of this conflict. Uncertainty about their future, where theyll return to if, if theyll return to their homes. A tool with this also huge amount of problems with the humanitarian situation in the going they could a bottom, there is a lack of the basic medicine. There is lack of services. Heating, very cold temperatures. Will boost of this is now the priority. Stablish in livable conditions of baking. Sure. Sure people have somewhere to return to well, just to remind you, last week, armenia and azerbaijan signed a peace deal ending 6 weeks of fighting over the new one. I care about enclave. Both sides will hold on to that current military position, so that gives armenia control of the disputed regions. Capitals to prada cut as a by john on its part, gets this 2nd largest city shashi, which it took just before the fighting and armenia wolf. So have to handover 3 other districts in the region back to has extended the deadline for armenia to pull out its troops and civilians from those districts. Thousands of refugees that are fleeing their homes now and even firing them down so as not to need them to who they see as the enemy. While they explain to last stop painful decision. We had a good life and now we have what we have. Now we are tearing down the houses, we built ourselves. I dont know what will happen next. And i dont know what to say. What can i see . Its hard to speak about it. I know one thing for sure. I wouldnt even want my enemy to find himself in a situation like this. Ive lived here for 20 years, and now in the refugee, we are taking down our houses. I dont know where we are going. I have little build in my house for 12 years. Now im taken and dont, it is very hard, very hard, but we do not have any other choice. In washington has threatened further sanctions on tehran to mark the anniversary of irans 2900. 00 antigovernment protests. The u. S. State Department Says it will take action against the countrys quote, agents of repression. The ring regime tried to hide the evidence of his brutal crackdown through censorship, intimidation, and still refuses to allow independent investigations into the killings that perpetrated. The United States will continue to promote accountability by announcing further actions against the agents of repression. Later this week to bring a measure of justice to the iranian people, the longest suffering victims of the Islamic Republic of iran. Well meanwhile, the outcome of the us president ial election remains contested many 2 weeks on from the vote. Donald trump has repeatedly claimed that he was the winner, while joe biden has declared himself president elect saying he is ready to take over the white house in late january. But until then, something had to trump will use his final months to toughen his Foreign Policy. While you get to trying to delve into the americas in for a chilling thriller called lame duck president , ready to bite and its getting worse and worse every day. Were hearing stories that are horror stories, but itll probably go through a process, a legal process, a weight conducts bite. Certainly if the ducks last name is trump, what if the man whos been slagged off as the worst president is america now has something in mind that would make the same folks call him the most disastrous, lame duck president. And us history. Those easy, good old times when the incoming george w. Bush administration only had to deal with a few pranks after the clinton people left be yanked off the w. s of the white house keyboards. It cost a few 1000. 00 to repair that. If only in 2020, the dems could get away with such harmless banter. Donald trumps opponents are in fear. The media are showing the story over and over. Theyre loving it. Maybe its their last chance to get a piece of the trump hating pie. But hey, seriously, people as important as the former head of the cia are super worried. Hes like a cornered cat tiger. And he is going to lash out mr. Brennan, even once mike pence to suddenly turn his back on pows and save america from the wild, lame duck. I think they would seriously consider 25th amendment pushing donald trump out. All right, well, after the obama administration, heres some of them in november 4 years ago. Ahead of trumps move to d. C. Began doing everything to turn his white house, stay into misery after they planted the russia gate bomb under the oval office chair, to play on his nerves throughout the whole term. What should you expect if not revenge, contacts between president elect Donald Trumps advisors and russian officials. Hes alone in being unwilling to accept the view that this was done by the russians. Trump is already act like a russian with one phrase on their mind. That is, hes got nothing to lose. Pundits are trying to calculate the likelihood of spoiler moves. After all, the lame ducks already caused a stir at the pentagon. President , trump is purging the top ranks of the pentagon. 48 hours after the election was called for joe biden. President trump is just fired his defense secretary sell his big news when the secretary of defense is fired and that is what the president says he has just done to the now outgoing secretary of defense. So what now to try to pull out of ghana stand all of a sudden or start operations against a rare and even without triggering world war 3. What if the angry doc, the final hopes for the revival of the nuclear deal with a win by throwing new sanctions at them . Could he stunned the dems by pardoning julia . So it was him who helped shine the light on the d. N. C. Emails 4 years ago. Right. What if another Trump Twitter rant causes a new wave of street unrest . What if you reveal something classified and dodgy that would hurt america . Although some would say hes the kind of president who has more to hide than to reveal. Anyway, lame duck thriller, bring it on. Well with the fallout from november fogs vote still on rabbiting as we can see, joe biden isnt wasting much time. His new administration is already taking shape as the democrats look to fill the top ranks of the white house. But as daniel holkins now explains some of the names, well, they might bring about the votes over, but not yet official. And so biden is gearing up for his move into the white house and his message to the world leaders. Big changes are afoot in washington. Im letting them know that america is back. Were going to be back again. So what does the return of the old america mean for the rest of the world . Heres how the boy administration could look. While its an inclusive lineup with several new faces. The candidates are heavyweights of american politics. Lets take a closer look at c. V. S. The hands down favorite for secretary of state is susan rice, who served both as National Security advisor and u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Under barack obama. A strong advocate for the intervention in libya and u. S. Involvement in other states. Rice was in the planning to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. She withdrew because ations that she misled the public over the 2012 benghazi terror attack. Explanation about how 4 americans died in benghazi, libya by ambassador rice, i think does not do justice to the reality. At that time, i relied solely and squarely on the information provided to me by the intelligence community. And rice was one of those who never let go of trump kremlin collusion. Even just a few months ago, she was adamant that russia had its hands all over the election. I almost never say this can but 100 percent that russia is doing much of what in 2016, and certainly a lot of confidence seems to be gone now that joe biden is projected as the winner the likely nominee for pentagon chief is michelle flower, annoy obamas former secretary of defense who helped persuade the president at the time towards a military intervention in libya on humanitarian grounds. You know, i supported the intervention in libya on humanitarian grounds. I think we were right to do a supporter of the u. S. Troop surge in afghanistan. Of u. S. Involvement in syria. Shes also a hard liner on both russia and china. Flour oil once said that future warfare may come in many flavors and with advocates of big bets on new weapons. At the head of the pentagon, america can expect a full menu of delicacies. Its no secret. The cia has historically been a pillar of u. S. Foreign policy. And one of the picks for cia boss is michael morrell, rose to prominence during the obama years. Hes already familiar with the job serving twice as acting director, a man steeped in the cias long withstanding, traditions, moral would no doubt be successful, bringing his plans to fruition in the new biden administration. We need to make the iranians pay a price in syria. We need to make the russians pay a price. The only thing i mean, you make them pay the price by killing killing russians. Yes, nothing highlights the agencys prestige. Better than a pandemic. Those will probably only go one way. Ive met with a number of my devises and some have suggested in certain areas the military budget is going to have to be increased the advice from but his advisors is suddenly clear. And with many on his pentagon Transition Team working for a think tank, sponsored by nato government, such as the u. A. E. And qatar and laws, all his wife actress. Why wouldnt it be fun . Is voting might come on . This was also a critic of americas withdrawal from syria, should have by an administration might good on her ambiguous postelection promise to make a return to standing with partners in syria. These firms could be in to make a killing. On the one hand, were looking at competence. d people who are clearly competent in the job that theyre doing. Now, on the other hand, you can be competently implementing bad policy. And i think thats what were going to be looking at in the future by did ministration. If it comes to pass, it would be bad policy interventionist policy. It will lead to more wars. Joe biden himself is an interventionist. I mean, this is a man who promoted intervention in libya, promoted in redemption in syria. Hes a man who voted for the war in iraq and then defended the boat afterwards. And so hes going to surround himself with people who are similarly inclined. You know, the world today doesnt necessarily want the United States to be the dominant power. The world, once United States to be as a friend, a big brother, somebody who i hope them will not dominate them. Abidin is more of the dominating school, and i dont think this bodes well for americas relationship with the rest of the world or for the United States. We simply cant afford to keep doing this kind of aggressive intervention trumps 4 years of america. Coming to an end, while badens intent to rejoin some International Agreements and institutions will leave many optimistic, this will be tempered with strong caution, as the hawks in his administration arrive back in town. Well, new revelations concerning the trumpet, ministrations, Foreign Policy have come to light after a high ranking diplomat admitted to keeping the president in the dark regarding troops on the ground in syria. The senior official who is now retiring house that the actual number is much higher than officially stated. We were always playing show games to not make clear to our leadership. How many troops we have or u. S. Military operations have been ongoing in syria since 2014, without the approval of damascus. The current number of american troops into the public at least stands at roughly 600. The pentagon says their role is to fight the rightness of terror groups in the region. Donald trump has ordered a full military pullout from syria several times except for a few 100 that remained to guard or oil wells in the countrys east. But according to the whistleblower diplomat, the us army remains at full strength. When the situation in northeast syria had been fairly stable after we defeated isis, trump was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with 5 better arguments for why we needed to stay, and we succeeded both times. Thats the story. For us to some insight now from professor Joshua Landis the head of the center for middle east studies. Thank you. So much for joining us on the program. I want to apologise to what seems probably the most obvious question. How was it possible to miss need to the president on such a key Foreign Policy issue . I mean, wouldnt this require a whole chain of command to keep the white house in the dark . Well, im sure the white house wasnt really in the dark. You know, most of us who watch syria pretty carefully understood that there were a lot more than a few hundreds of soldiers there. On the other hand, it is quite clear that the president made his wishes clear about withdrawing from syria on 2 different occasions. And he ran into a ton of opposition from the state Department Defense department, and his entire National Security establishment. They are trying to rollback russia. Iran maximum pressure on iran, and they didnt want the president to muck up their policy. And so they fought back vigorously. They came up with the oil excuse that they, they knew he might latch on to, but ah, my, my hunch is the president was aware of what was going on and it just wasnt worth his fight to clear out syria. Why do you think the official is being so candid about this . Now, do you think its in any way related to the fact that he knows that probably trump is going to need come january . Well, somebody like jeffrey probably thinks the president is a fool and that itll do his own reputation. Good. If he makes it clear that you know he suffers fools. He doesnt suffer fools lightly. I think this is a thats what hes doing. How do you think that this will affect washingtons inmates now saying that potentially a president has been misled that there are things going on that theyre not being honest about americas reputation has taken a terrible beating over the last 4 years. Theres no doubt that were in relative decline with countries like, like china with india coming up russia power. The world is changing rapidly. And the United States is no longer in this sort of uncontested superpower. And thats going to, thats going to hurt america. But the last 4 years have been very damaging because the president has, has not been in full control of is that ministration. And he hasnt, he hasnt been honest about a number of things. And one of them is his syria policy. Do you believe if in fact picking up on that the trunk would have acted differently if he didnt know who the accurate numbers of the operations out . You know, i dont think so. I dont think syria was on the top of his list and look at, he knew what was going on in afghanistan. He knew was going on in iraq. He promised that he would end these endless wars and he didnt. He didnt because it wasnt that important to him, and im sure he saw that there was this giant political machine that was coming up with 5 excuse or 5 reasons why we had to stay in all these places. And he decided it wasnt worth his time to fight that fight. He had other priorities like immigration, like the economy like rolling back the environmental restrictions on numbers of comfort companies. So at the end tax rewrites, so he, i think he prioritizes every president , does inus as, as President Biden will clearly do. And it is his turn and actually picking up that on biden. Exactly. What do you think of potential biden presidency will mean for the middle east . Because there are some concerns that that will be a return to what some call the sort of war mongering of the obama biden ministration. And you know, he has surround himself with liberal hawks as your show has pointed out. Blinken, who is one of his closest advisers on the middle east. Long time adviser, you know, came up with was statements like the iraq war was good. It was just executed badly, syria america should have done more and to overturn a assad. And you know that nato was right to try to in circle russia. These sorts of, of attitudes i think, run right across the Foreign Policy establishment that biden has surrounded himself with. So there isnt going to be a big change. But that being said, my hunch is the president and the people around him understand that america is not as powerful as it used to be. Thats very bold, the streets. Oh, americans have been chastened by the fact that we found we failed in libya. We failed in iraq. We failed in syria. And even those people who keep on thinking i can get it right. If im just in power, i think theyre going to be surrounded by an establishment that is no longer so selfassured. And that has other interests about fixing the United States and even President Biden has indicated that his 12. 00 and 3. 00 Foreign Policy concerns are not the middle east. Theyre china, or russia, or europe. I think the middle east is going to be low down on his totem pole. That doesnt mean that youre going to withdraw. But i dont think its going to get the kind of attention that it has over the last 20 years. But a subtle sense things looking back to 2016 that one of the things that come campaigned on and that people liked about him was that he said, no more regime or war. So be very interesting to see what the American Public is a fado bidens policy moving forward when he comes in, john your, if you does well, i was Joshua Landis, professor in the head of center for mickey studies at the university of oklahoma. Thank you so much for speaking to us today. Pleasure. Well, israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu has been in talks with russia over the pa chess of the sputnik. The coronavirus flank, seen on softer on his way to hospital ordered one and a half 1000000 doses of the chop, which is in the thought and final phase of trials. The tourism clinic has a broad in moscow hair on is involved in the testing, spoke with the hospital director. The russian books seem the hes safe and a city and a High Frequency rate to be difference. One in boxing over the ward is very tense between many countries and russian is 11. 00 of them. It looks that russian, i would say, among the 1st to come to the market, would be a move, much dependent on them in, on our ministry in order to preventative wave, which is on our way. We are following up on d. Development of just book scenes for a couple of months. Not only that, we learn a little bit about it, about it too, but to racine, it was invented to Government Institution in moscow. We like the idea. Last month is also a spike in cases, if not a significant increase in the number of people who taste covered positive. Is it possible that israel could stott the vaccinations before the trial concludes . Once he tweeted, be rick who lives in israel, has it all to isaac, see we already, i winched in and put in buying it from damned ok for the people refused but. d we decided to says right port to apply to our hes waiting ministry of up to submit to rationing or did he just fixing to be bop of the book, sing it or tourist buddies are going to sue him, its executive decision for me out today. What we can do, hes to extend to face truth, tried and true equal to and to use he and hes a and b. Are looking forward, maybe even to establish on line up with action producing here things we can cry when you see it going to be authorized in south america, and i did own a clip to get more and more countries, so the ended up to be destroyed. She percent of the war would be vaccinated, but i do action book. She would like to be smallpox. And finally, nations in the asia pacific have joined forces to form the wilds biggest trade bloc. The nearly forged group is already the 2nd in the region, which does not include the usa, called the regional comprehensive economic partnership. The trade deal was signed by 15 asia pacific economies, including china, south korea, and japan. It will cover a huge market of over 2000000000 people, which accounts for the thought of the wild p. Negotiations to form the new block dragged on for about 7 years. And donald trump pulled out of the deal while president , the new block sets out to reduce tariffs while over the last few years, the United States opposite has increased. The singapore based financial commentator jim rogers believes the new partnership is a logical steps, asia and a bit of a missed opportunity for washington. Its not, not a certain could its been, well, these nations have been working on this for a long time. And it really, really started with the nations attention and has been expanded to other nations, including china. Mr. Trump is making china great again. You know, he dropped out of the t. T. P. , he left asia and now china to other asian nations are putting themselves together. Its great for asian, its great for chinas not good for the United States. Its lost opportunity. I mean, were not cutting will take us is going to lose any money specifically because it is the linn, you see the chinese and the koreans and the japanese making free trade agreements with each other. That was a very, very, very big