Frozen in time and i. Thought it was a basketball battle in los angeles with le bron is a lakers full of shorts against the clippers we have that and more christmas n. B. A. Action coming up. Iraqs president says he would rather quit the name a new Prime Minister rejected by protesters. Is refusing to designate the nominee of an iran backed parliamentary bloc in a letter to parliament barcella said out of my kin list to avoid bloodshed and protect civil peace i will not name assad danny as a candidate for the next Prime Minister or president saleh has been trying to find a replacement for. Who resigned as Prime Minister last month his decision to quit has done little to calm protests demanding a complete overhaul of the sectarian political system this wave of demonstrations started in october but there were similar scenes last year over the sign compliance many say theyve had enough of corruption unemployment Poor Public Services and a low standard of living hundreds of people have died in 3 months of on the wrist and more than 20000. 00 people have been injured those are standing by for us in baghdad to bring us the latest and also where does this leave the country now. Well its clear that the president is not willing to carry out what has been laid out as his duties in the constitution the constitution is very clear the largest ruling bloc in parliament has so nominate a name and that person becomes the caretaker Prime Minister until the country is ready to hold elections but since the ruling bloc is the group which is a group thats known to be allied with iran their candidates have all been rejected and this is the 3rd one that has been rejected by not only the president but various other Coalition Groups in parliament as well as the people on the streets they say that they dont want any candidate that is before us by a politician by a Political Group rather they want somebody who is in the pendant now the president has now chosen to submit this letter in which she stresses that if he is to carry out his constitutional duties he will be going against the wishes of the people on the streets and that is not something that hes willing to do so what hes essentially done is put the ball back in the court of parliament to force them to understand his position has been under tremendous amount of pressure but we know that he has been supporting the demonstrators on the street he also has the backing of the clerical establishment in iraq so we think this will be seen as a maneuver for him to try and dissolve parliament and possibly call for early elections which is something the highest sheerest already cleric in iraq has also called for ayatollah grand ayatollah ali sistani during friday sermons last week his representative in karbala said that there must be early elections held so this is all happening in an effort to make that a possibility the president has now left baghdad weve heard from various sources that hes back in his home town until the parliament decides what to do next but for now they have to decide whether or not to accept his position and that is that he will not accept this candidate who is the governor of because there is such opposition to him and his record because basra is one of the poorest. Provinces in iraq while it is actually home to 70 percent of iraqs oil reserves so theres a lot of allegations against this governor and that is why this candidate has not been accepted by anybody specifically the president himself so hes now put himself in a position where he says its really not up to me anymore it is up to parliament to decide what to do next to also thank you for that. Is an independent politician in that problem and he joins us live from baghdad is not if youd be with us we just heard from our reporter this it really is up to the problem of the also your in the parliament what will the parliament do. Just a quick correction im not in Parliament Im an independent or youre going to spend as you know im not in parliament right but i just want to make one clarification is that the d custom is debatable in article 76. 00 it clearly states that after 15 days of the selection of the president does he actually has have to name the Prime Minister while that 15 days elapsed last year last october 2018 is when president barham saleh was elected so it actually constitutionally he does have the right to select any other candidate he wants however the whoever he selects has to pass parliament and should get 50 percent plus one of the votes the problem what we have is that i know but im sol ive known him for 25 years hes a good friend of mine he doesnt want to ignite a civil war the reason is there are demonstrations sit ins in about 15 cities in iraq and these people have said we didnt demonstrate we we didnt lose 600 of our comrades in sniper attacks and. You know tear gas attacks for nothing the reason why they went out is they wanted a new independent Prime Minister and the new government and a new constitution so they will not give in to you know the selection of the governor of basra who was also implicated in. Sniper attacks against people in basra over 35 people were killed in basra because of that governor so so i understand why the mainly the people of basra refuse that their governor becomes the next Prime Minister of iraq so if youre talking about an independent i believe that your names even been mentioned here is that something that you would be considering. Well i yes i threw my hat in the ring in the ring so to speak i am one of the independent candidates and i do meet of the checked points that they you know the demonstrators have had their list of the qualifications of a Prime Minister of course i dont have anybody supports me in parliament or a Political Group or a militia you know im an independent person im an economist so im on t. V. Constantly giving true Real Solutions about building the iraqi economy so i do have a few following here and there im not the number one candidate obviously i would love to 3rd of the next you know 3 years term of our job to maddie to rebuild the iraqi economy and get it on the right track and then whoever the next government comes in can continue with the continued Economic Growth what this is highlighted though isnt it is that you have this fundamental problem in the country is that you have the biggest block here the block recommending rejected by the president rejected by the protesters but this goes to exactly the thing the protesters have been on the streets about not is the sectarian nature of the politics in iraq. Well this is not a secular sectarian think actually the bloc bloc in parliament does include sunni members of parliament and their opposition also includes sunni and shia members today the lines are not crossed between sin are not between sunnis and shia there are people who actually you know belong to the fatter who have closer ties with iran who are versus the other group who have less closer ties to iran. Its not on secular lines as i would say and sectarian lines i meant both parties both sides do have an essentially as the problem is that who supported the curbing of the protestors and its obviously the fattah bloc who supported the curbing of the you know we saw what happened in iran about 40 days ago and you know hundreds of people were killed there too so the. Block might want to have the same solution in iraq and probably just curb whatever left in the uprising from baghdad to basra. Thank you again for giving us a john thank you very much. Turkeys president says he plans to send troops to libya with the tripoli boast of ministration saying it will request military support if the conflict escalates turkey says it wants to support libyas internationally recognized government which has been under a months long offensive by forces loyal to warlord hoping for half the president richard typer to one says he will present a bill on the deployment to parliament in january. From the beginning we have objected to the coup perpetrated by the retired general against the lawful government we provided and are still providing assistance to libyas legitimate government against the coup plotter who is receiving support from certain european states libya is a neighboring country as we share maritime border lines in the Mediterranean Sea once the Parliament Comes into session we will present the proposal for dispatching turkish troops to libya based on the Security Cooperation agreement once indorsed by the parliament we will be able to effectively back the legitimate government some states who support the coup general with their jet fighters tanks and militia object to this move and criticize turkey because of it within a moment well hear from our made up there wired in tripoli about what the government is saying there 1st mohamed a dogs blaines developments in turkey once the new year begins president on cecile take a bill to parliament that is going to not only also rise the deployment of troops but also give a monday of what they can and cant do once that lloyd in libya so that is what is happening right now but again this is something that has got to regional implications with tension already rising between turkey and greece on one side as well as cyprus because of the Energy Reserves in the eastern Mediterranean Sea so it is going to have regional ramifications. They say they are in need of military commanders to run the battles on the ground especially during the past few days after half of those forces have advance of and taken control of throughout egypt locations in southern tripoli including get a military camps Strategic Military camps in southern tripoli helped by russian mercenaries from the Wagner Company in order for turkey to send troops to d. N. A. It needs a new mend day because the agreement signed with libya last month does not entail sending troops in fact it only entails military and Security Cooperation which that includes military equipment and navy vessels maybe also logistics but it does not entail. Troops there is why is a stressing on an official request from the d. N. A. Is a must for the turkish government to send to send it to his troops to fire it along with the government of National Accord to defend the capital tripoli against have those forces. Well lets look now at why this conflict has wider consequences for the region libya has become a major Transit Route for moderates and refugees heading to europe so european governments want a stable country to stop the flow of people crossing the mediterranean theres also a new maritime border deal between libyas internationally recognized government and turkey it carves out a corridor between the 2 countries potentially clearing the way for oil and Gas Exploration but greece aged and is roe oppose that agreement and speaking of oil libyas known reserves are among the largest in the world at nearly 50000000000 barrels something handy is editor in chief of the Current AffairsMagazine International interest and he joins us in london good to have you with us if indeed turkey commits Ground Troops what impact would that have on the fighting on the ground. I think it will make a significant difference we should note that turkey has already sent drones to help out the government in tripoli half that has been marching the last 3 months have seen russian reinforcements which have actually made the difference theyve actually allowed have to actually make gains inside tripoli after the war is increasingly looking like a stalemate turkey actually sending troops would actually alter those dynamics so perhaps where once half that would have been able to advance the war would go back to a stalemate i say that because i dont think turkey intends that the g. N. A. T. To empower the g. A. M. Power the government with the necessary resources to retake libya or even push back have to significantly turkey is interested in some sort of mediation that dilutes after this power so that there is some sort of agreement in libya all it cares is that the libya does not fall under u. A. E. All but it does not fall under that influence so that this maritime choke hold that is forming with greece outside of procedure it and do you include libya in that so that that chokehold doesnt actually get form this is what turkeys primary concern is but in answer to your question turkish will make definitely a different make a difference when you talk about mediation russia risk critical in this equation as well. Russia is significant in this equation actually whats very interesting is that russia appears to be gaining a lot of political clout a lot of respect among those libyan factions because its exerting itself has shown that i have the military capabilities to alter the fighting what is interesting is that contrary to what many people are saying russia doesnt actually want to have to take tripoli because when russia is calculating it when put in its calculating the dynamics on the ground if Health Care Takes tripoli hes backed by the u. A. E. And egypt both are u. S. Allies and huffed has already been a formality of the u. S. And perhaps still is in combating terrorism and i put that in quotation marks how often this 1st trip will likely be to washington not to moscow so russia is not prepared to invest in half that enough to allow him to be installed as libyas ruler because it believes how libya will go in the other direction what russia actually once is russia wants the libyan parties 1 to look to it as the new power broker instead of going to berlin to paris instead of going to pile m. R. Instead of going to washington its one of the libyan parties to go to moscow or to go to a stunna or to go to a location designated by the russians and this is why when we see turkeys visit to tunisia i dont believe that ever again asked tunisia to be part of this alliance against have to i believe that their dog and went to tunis here to prepare the groundwork for this potential mediation because moscow knows that the libyan parties of the g. N. A. T. Want to go to moscow or stunna and likewise have those parties want to go to istanbul so they need a neutral territory and thats tunisia if end again wanted an alliance he would have gone to algiers and not tunisia because algiers is the big brother and this is why i believe that the turks and the russians are now engaged in the heavy negotiations with regards to mediations and actually trying to convince their parties to meet in tunisia whether they succeed or not is a different issue just on but one of the things the president heard one was talking about jim use your words a cease fire a poor is to allow these negotiations to move forward whats the prospect of that. I think that given the dynamics that weve discussed i think it is very possible i think given now that russia has shown that if it decides to back a party it can actually make a difference given that the u. S. Is paralyzed given that france italy and germany cant agree on what the e. U. Policy on libya should be libyan parties are now beginning to accept that the new power brokers in the country will be turkey and russia and there will be channels that have been established to discuss with these 2 countries now russia can easily pull the carpet from half that and he will go back to the state that he was in before which will leave the war to go back to a stalemate it is russia can abandon have to at any time and have to know this this is why is keen on this whole idea of 0 hour this idea of take tripoli as quickly as possible i believe that turkey and russia are now talking about potential concessions with regards to it live theyre both trying to strongarm each other they both have mutual interests they both want to mediation they both see the trajectory going towards dialogue i think now its a case of russia wants to get the maximum out of turkey it wants concessions on it its very annoyed that turkey is continued support for factions in syria and the turks want russia to ensure that they can force her to stop and they want russia to make sure that they dont squeeze turkey for every tiny game it is this that is taking place and it is this of distorting the potential of a cease fire i think they will get to an agreement i think we will see a mediation likely in tunisia is just a matter of when and i think the last point that i will make is we should note that this building up to turkish troops is exactly what we saw in syria with you for to shield olive branch and operation peace during peace spring this idea that turkey is saying guys you have to take me seriously guys take my consent seriously i will go in i will go in if you ignore me i will go in and russia knows this i think turkey is conducting these steps send me official invitation ill put a bill to parliament this is all to create that time frame to extended period of negotiations while russia and turkey sit and hash it out before we see mediation so we have to thank you again for joining us. Theres much more still to come an independent report accuses police in india of using an authorized and Excessive Force against opponents of a new citizenship will. Hit by Corruption Cases and to repeat election israels Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu faces a primary challenger from his other party. And has the latest in sport is one of the Worlds Toughest races gets underway. Syrian activists india freezing temperatures are slowing the governments offensive on the last rebel held province of idlib the fighting force 130000 civilians from the homes this month many into makeshift camps the region has suffered weeks of artillery bombardment and strikes by the Syrian Government and its russian allies many syrians are on the move north towards the