The committee will come to order. Without objection, all members have five days to visit made statements and questions for the record subject to the limitation of the rules. Ambassador wells and ms. Friedman, welcome to the members of the public and the press as well. We are glad to have our friends from cspan here as well. We need this mornings of the committee conduct oversight of the administrations policy towards afghanistan and iran now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. For months weve been attempting to get some visibility into the ongoing peace negotiations without success. We all want peace and the fighting in afghanistan do and do. Congress needs to know what the potential deal looks like and members need the chance to ask questions and offer views and in the last few weeks, weve seen the reconciliation process go off the rails in a spectacular fashion area to be learned from a president ial message that the administration was planning to host the caliban at camp davi
And the people have still not started to return to their homes of course many of them dont have homes to return to they were destroyed but many others are still afraid to return and if it works will it work because the deescalation zone works because thats been such a difficulty its been such a Sticking Point when it comes to setting them up and making sure that they are policed and implemented properly. It libya is supposed to be a deescalation zone but what happened was last year in september turkey and russia reached the socalled sochi memorandum agreement in that agreement Demilitarized Zone was supposed to be created around the southern edges of provinces zone free of fighters and free of weapons and turkey was given the responsibility to create this zone but it faced a lot of difficulties because there is a group especially the share which many in the International Community believe is still linked to al qaida refused to withdraw its fighters have heavy weapons from the area and
Because groups like it a sham which many in the International Community believe is still linked to al qaida refused to leave the area now its not clear how long turkey has to implement this agreement the Russian Reconciliation Center in syria is mentioning a 24 hour deadline we havent been able to confirm whether are not there is the 24 hour deadline but definitely it will be difficult for turkey to achieve the creation of a zone in just a few hours especially since h. T. S. High up that even a sham and other opposition groups have not declared their willingness to leave this demilitarized zone. A day off to hong kong Civil Servants defied a call from the government to stay neutral in the protesters outraged 3rd consecutive day its just gone 5 pm local time live pictures now from the district among the protesters a marching off from mass running in the park demanding an inquiry into the Police Handling of weeks of demonstrations and the withdrawal of the controversial extradition bill
Us. Thats why we talked also today with the opposition that if they are interested and if they need some help also from the Russian Federation to fight a sham and other rebel cause and in a glib zone then they can count we can do it no one can measure the depth of distrust between the warring sides after more than 8 years of war hundreds of thousands dead moment 10000000 people displaced then theres the differences between the guarantors of these talks iran and russia on one side turkey on the other each with their differing interests. Nevertheless for so many traumatized civilians theres hope of some with spike from the bombing but no one needs reminding that deals done by leaders in high places have let the people of syria so many times hundreds simmons aljazeera. Kazakstan. But from aljazeera sent a harder reporting from the turkish syrian border. The ceasefire seems to be holding there are no reports of russian and syrian airstrikes targeting rebel controlled towns in southern adli
President ial candidates plans on education. We continue our series looking at the issues shaping these election. Ifill all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial futuren and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Prcoyo woodruff for the president today, a moment on the worldda stage at the United Nations, one last time. His message an urgent plea to make a better world. At this moment, we all face a choice. Woodruff it was his final address to the u. N. General assembly, and president obamaa used it to issue a challenge. We can choose to press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration, or we can retreat into a worldwe sharply divided and ultimatelyul in conflict along ageold lines of n