Peacekeeping forces there in a state of emergency in parts of australia as bush fires burn out of control forcing a rethink for new years eve celebrations. On polar race with all that ice sports including Le Bron James celebrates his 35th birthday in style and reaches a milestone on the court as well. So an iranian backed group targeted by u. S. Air strikes in iraq and syria is now vowing a strong response but the u. S. Is also warning of further action to protect its personnel if necessary 3 belong to the group to type hezbollah. 3 of them in iraq i should say to them and syria was struck killing at least 27 fighters and injuring 51. Now you know that if we are warning the United States as we warned before that theyre illegal presence means they are standing against the iraqi people and the iraqi people have the right to confront them with all types of resistance. Plenty of reaction though a breach of sovereignty is how iraqs outgoing Prime Minister described it irans called it a terrorist act but the u. S. Says the strikes were what it describes as a decisive response by threats by iranian backed forces against american personnel were going to hear from a number of our correspondents on the story starting with Simona Fulton in baghdad she says there was pressure by iran backed factions in parliament to expel foreign troops from iraq. Just heard a statement being released from the office of a grand ayatollah ali sistani who is the highest religious authority Shia Religious Authority in iraq and he condemned these attacks on quote iraqi forces which is of course a very important statement because hes basically saying that the type hezbollah being part of the p. F. Should be considered a state force and he called on the u. S. To respect iraqs sovereignty and not to further add to the burden on the government which is of course already dealing with 3 months of antigovernment protests now weve also heard news coming from al fatah which is the iranian black back bloc in parliament now of course the p. M. S. Has not only arm course but it also has its political wings and fatah is the Biggest Party in parliament which also forms the biggest block and they basically called upon Political Parties to rally together and to basically support expelling foreign troops including the u. S. Troops from iraq now technically according to the constitution its only the executive who can propose such legislation sort of parliament cannot really do that so we have to closely watch what Prime Minister about his government will be doing whether they will indeed table such a bill to see the departure of foreign troops and weve had you know parliament calling on the departure of foreign troops in the past before but it never materialized because there was no support for such a move from the government but of course parliament being dominated by these iranian backed groups means that such a legislation if tabled would easily pass and from baghdad to teheran without heres the latest iranian government reaction. Well iran so far has just responded with words president rouhani was speaking earlier this morning he did address the airstrikes what happened was the Foreign Office spokesperson issued a statement they condemned the airstrike said it was a manifestation of terrorism they called in the United States to respect iraqs sovereignty independence and territorial integrity they also said that the United States wasnt interested in fighting isis because their positions targeted those groups targeted had caused damage to isis in the past but they also said these attacks showed negligence on behalf of the United States and they should accept the consequences of their actions also later on in the day the government spokesman issued a statement that he denied that iran is behind any of the attacks on United States bases and said that these kinds of allegations without evidence are not just of a cation for bombing people so the response out of iran has been a bit slow because iraqi groups responding 1st his belied lebannon responded and then we heard something from iran but what will be interesting is how his will respond because and what would United States will do next because the United States has said iran is behind this group they have close links and how how much will it take before the United States turns its attention to iran and the reaction from the u. S. With my camera in washington hi mike probably not a surprise in the end that the u. S. Actually did this i mean the defense secretary almost flagged up these sorts of strikes a while ago and there was an American Contractor killed recently as well however the idea of them being more responses i mean it could create all sorts of problems. Indeed yes come on the question is whether this is part of a new u. S. Offensive whether it is the beginning of something rather than a consequence of attacks by the various armed groups within iraq itself certainly the secretary of defense mark espers says that they have briefed President Trump about what options remain in terms of dealing with what they see as this ongoing conflict with iran its important to note that the whole context of these strikes being made very clearly in terms of u. S. Relations with iran although the strikes were carried out in syria and in iraq the senior Trump Officials are painting this very much of an ongoing conflict with iran so once again you put this together with the secretary of defense speaking about what options have been given to president tram and also for example you have a tweet just in the last hour from the former National Security advisor john bolton welcoming such strikes and saying that they are long overdue clearly this type of reaction may embolden President Trump in terms of what he does next and. Gives an answer to the question is this a consequence of an action or is it the beginning of the new u. S. Offensive ok thank you mike hanna in washington d. C. There so one thing we should do is take a closer look at the fighters who are actually targeted in this u. S. Airstrikes i mentioned there in the name already has a lot of it is part of a group that helped the Iraqi Government defeat i saw its been brought into a state sanctioned group of militias known as the Popular Mobilization forces many of them backed by iran for dave hezbollah leader. Mohammed these is one of iraqs most powerful men and in the past has fought u. S. Forces the u. S. State Department Says he also advises irans revolutionary guards so lets get more analysis from tehran with hum. Political analyst in the iranian capital do you agree with that for a start what the u. S. Department says that the leader of hezbollah not only linked to iran actually advises the revolutionary guard which is a very important part of iranian leadership. There is no secret service with law has been to some extent been trained by revolutionary guards and there are close relationship it went between them but the point is that it was aimed at defeating isis and fighting terrorism in iraq and syria so it is nothing to hide a says nothing illegal about that theres nothing to be ashamed about that but one point about what the americans have announced is that they are responding to the attacks being in united against them so in considering that this forces these forces who are we are being killed by the americans where deployed to fight against and says we can just do the math and concluding that actually americans are deciding themselves as isis yet in that terms that we equate them to each other yes these forces have been fighting against the United States by fighting against isis and and then the american statements would have some sense. Will maoists collates a lot further what sort of response would you expect from hezbollah. You know americans have clarified that it is against iran as much as i want to mention and we know that if we have some lets say measures from the iranian side that did not receive any response from the american side we had the downing of the american drone a few months ago we have based on what the americans claim we had an attack on armco which americans and saudis are blaming iran for that but you know they do not its this big not to do anything to respond to that and you need that some thats a performer to war to show that it is going to do something it is a well actually to do something so this attack is this seems to be a response to those movements but the 1st point is that it shows that the americans are not capable and able to attack against iran directly to react to iran directly and so. The other point is that iran is not going to react directly or by itself but if same purpose of all law and iraq is would react to that there are some possibilities of further attacks against the american bases in iraq and. Possibly actually increase the tensions between in this situation the region here this is what i want to ask because youre saying maybe the United States wouldnt attack iran directly but it was only a few months ago we were starting to talk about things being on a knife edge there were so many more American Forces coming to the gulf and it looked like there was some sort of collision course for some sort of conflict do you think that threat could still exist with all the troop buildup. No there is no possibility of direct for ike and the war against iran and between iran and iran to states because the situation on the ground here in new in the region is in a way that fight would being favor if you were on your own would be the absolute winner off any any tension in the region immediate attention on me so there is no possibility of any fighting because this the americans are the most one. Player in the region because of their bases and because of the facilities and the troops that they have in the region so they would have any direct conflict between iran and the United States how many columns are there joining us from tehran thank you for that well the russian and Iranian Foreign minister is a both condemning the u. S. Military action in iraq and syria so again lavrov hosted mohammad java zarif for talks in moscow theyre also looking at salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal that was high on their agenda to discuss conflicts across the middle east and said they were keen to increase the cooperation. Despite the fact that americans are now thousands of miles away from their borders under a pretext of defending their right they have drowned the people of iraq and syria in blood the recent actions by americans in iraq are an acceptable state run in russia put efforts to establish peace both in syria and in iraq the cooperation between our countries within the talks is proof of that. More with my own bashar a senior political analyst now and all of this the iranians and the russians there who are already as we said trying to talk about the nuclear deal now talking about this the us iraq all these groups the drawing of lines more when there is so much going on he has so many sides to take in. Yes absolutely it seems to be getting complicated as it were if it wasnt complicated before. But just listening to your guest earlier i mean. Really one knows why things are not going well i think everyone claims to know the math but certainly no one can add one plus one equals 2 because the United States and iran have been both delusional and reckless in this region for quite some time now and the question of the. Hezbollah is one of the best examples about just that the isis was created because of 2 main factors one the us invasion and occupation of iraq and 2 the iranian driven sectarianism in iraq by the likes of hezbollah and the various groups that made up the Popular Mobilisation so those who claim to and who have in fact fort dodge over the last 2 or 3 years are the same one that led to the creation of the dice in the 1st place so the iranian american axes the iranian american proxies the american iranian lines as you call them the shifting lines in iraq in syria in the gulf and in the middle east in general have been quite destructive to both peace and stability in the middle east and does that mean it actually takes us closer to a potential conflict this is sort of what i asked our guest as well because we did see that big increase of u. S. Forces in the region and there were a lot of concerns a few months ago about there being a conflict now i mean theres open talk about about strong responses from both sides just over this incident. Well look i think the respond by the u. S. Forces with could probably have taken place by the local command or a horse the Central Command for the middle east i dont think this is the kind of thing that you know happening sara lee happens on National Security level point being that the United States commander in chief has been quite busy with his impeachment process and his own war against you know the Democratic Party hes more busy with what he calls crazy nancy the Speaker Nancy Pelosi then he is with iran or iraq or syria for that matter or libya so the United States under President Trump has not been as involved certainly has not been as strategic meaning there are always American Forces and american bases in the middle east and beyond but is there a strategy is there a commander in chief that cannot sleep tonight because of the National Security threats or interests and so on so forth in the middle east absolutely not there is no such interest and thats the reason why russia and iran and apparently no an increasing interest by china to get involved because the United States is not preoccupied with the middle east is not being attention and in fact is in some form or another is pulling out of iran stepping in to fill the void is definitely not a good thing and its not me who says that although i do think so its the its the iraqis that are saying that what the iraqis have told us the last 4 months in their upheavals in the streets in their magnificent show of Peaceful Demonstrations is that they neither want iraq to be dictated to by the United States nor and thats the important thing by iran meaning those that very shiite street that grew in the last 16 years under the American Occupation and post American Occupation rejects whats the United States and iran and their role in iraq thank you mon bashar a senior political analyst. Lets have a look at what else is coming up for you on this news out responds after a living appeal to stop the fall of tripoli also a new twist in the campaign for catalonia independence as the Supreme Court is urged to make a landmark ruling on this train open champion arrives to defend his title paul well have more of Novak Djokovic and sports little bit later. Least 18 people have been killed in a rebel attack in eastern democratic republic of congo it happened just northwest of the capital benny in the Territory Police say its the latest attack by the a. D. F. Rebels they have been blamed for killing hundreds of people in recent months. The United Nations has sent a Rapid Response team to Central African republic after violence between shop owners and fighters demanding money at least 40 people were killed in the capital bangui on thursday the uns warning against an escalation of fighting following years of unrest between muslim and christian militias. That market in bang gave which was attacked and explains now what ultimatum traders have given to the armed groups. Reconstruction look at the particular 5 Neighborhood Market is ongoing dozens of stores were burned or destroyed by the militias when we came at tacking on the French Mission in this market attacking traders in the process right now traders are busy trying to organize and reconstruct their stores and start business going again in the meantime this market has been closed by the authorities until when its fully restored in the market tension is high in the way you would ultimately proves why traders so run down. The warning is that if they dont in the next 48 hours or so there will be a tough one now people afraid that will get worse before they even get ready. Were going to speak. Who is the spokesman for the United Nations peacekeeping forces known as hes in baghdad for us and we thank you for your time sir i mentioned that the United Nations is sending a Rapid Response team but can you also tell us 1st of all what how much of the u. N. Presence was already there in Central African republic i want to get an idea of how much was there and to that end ho