Transcripts For ALJAZ NEWSHOUR 20240714

During the sino japanese war the japanese government engaged in a massive biological Weapons Program between 19401943 japan dropped hundreds of bombs infected with deadly germs on 11 chinese cities. As many as 200000 chinese citizens perish. They did initially the attacks on northern cities with plan to take and people did die and then later in the early part of the 1940 s. There were more aggressive attacks where they used anthrax planters cholera and other diseases. Martin for months is a United States pathologist with an interest in medical history in 1998. A colleague sent him a package containing autopsies performed on chinese victims years before i opened it up and they were page after page of these people murdered by biological weapons. It was the 1st time and one of the few times when i looking at it. I could feel palpable evil and there were. Docked with them and discovered that some of the victims of japanese bombing had survived in 2000 to travel today if it is the called make villages for the simple reason that people who were there in the summer of 1942 got rotten eggs when you interview these people you get a very similar story a lot of people started getting boils on their bodies throbbing thing it burst minute it loses pass and blood and continues to be horribly painful and essentially never heal eventually docked at the moment ski concluded that the villagers was suffering from glendas a disease that attacks horses and which for decades had been all but eliminated. The japanese had dropped bombs laden with this pathogen they spread colorado they spread typhoid fever is produced in theory they spread glanders the spread anthrax and they spread plague. Especially doing a biological scorched earth. Perhaps even more horrific than the dropping of germ bombs where the experiments carried out by unit 731. In manchuria. Japanese sent out their secret police had rounded up troublemakers and they would end up at unit 731. 00 as human guinea pigs and they would inoculate them with diseases to see how long they would. They would tie them to stakes and drop bombs out of airplanes to see how well the bombs spread the disease. Theres always an aspect when youre dealing with biological weapons or chemical weapons some extent of extermination the way you would exterminate. After the end of the war japanese scientists who worked at unit 731 were granted amnesty by the United States in exchange for information on the biological Weapons Program the japanese who did bad science killed thousands of people doing it got off scot free and they ended up going back to the universities and became chairman of departments and became captains of industry and and. On happy lives. Successive japanese governments have been extremely reluctant to take responsibility for atrocities committed during world war 2. All the major powers have dabbled in the germ warfare but the british scientists did their grim work here in this Research Establishment they stored a 50 kilograms of bacteriological agents enough to kill every living thing on a the british experimented with typhoid dysentery and cholera testing these pathogens on animals. If youre using a live agent test and this was done out in the ocean in many cases what you would do is tie animals on cages on deck and disperse the agent and see how well it would affect the animals and this was also done for example by the United Kingdom with sheep being tested with anthrax on going out island. World war 2 did not bring an end to biological weapons the cold war heated up providing another excuse to produce this deadly arsenal. Britain france and canada for example embarked on a program experimenting with many kinds of diseases. That awful it would be enough to. Be illegal dose and it was to kill Something Like 50000. 00 people this bottle on the other hand contains a biological agent simulate if that were friends of senator ensign which causes the disease to remain there could be enough in that vault to infect every man woman and child in the world. But it was the u. S. Biological Weapons Program that was the most dangerous it was by far the largest and most ambitious 8 aggressor military leaders know a disadvantage chemical and biological agents cannot afford an early be detected by the human sensory or reactionary. The effect can be deadly to part of the state guard the experimenters dangerous organisms are confined to safety cow but. Using rubber gloves which are sealed to the cabinets scientists can handle deadly cultures and still be safe from infection. With the cold war the United States begins a biological Weapons Program which is twinned with the Nuclear Program i thought unicity of any potential agent is another important criteria. Of course youre familiar with the pathogenicity of the 2 linus talks of a suspension of which is were being tested by intraperitoneal injection of mike. Many kinds of animals were used in us experiments mice rats rabbits guinea pigs and most especially monkeys the restraining boxes used to hold the monkey in position to receive the measured air assault. Be on a horse and pass through a series of air locks and positioned in a sealed exposure chamber commensurate using monkeys who are the monkeys you want but you still dont know at the end of the day whether to make a human sick how much will make a human sick how long the person will stay sick and so you need to have human subjects in order to proof test whether. We went through all kinds of room. Lights we changed our clothes in the scrub then weve got on the elevator and went up to a catwalk in each port hole they had a black a colorful and thats when you went into them they closed the door and thats when we were hooked up to the tube. You can smell it taste it. If you 2nd so poor. Ken jones was inhaling q. Fever a bacterial infection which can result in hepatitis and pneumonia. He is a religious pacifist one of a 2000 Conscientious Objectors who volunteered for operation white coat. You want to enforce where some 600. 00 military and civilian scientists Work Together in research at the Army Biological Laboratories to protect this country against a biological attack that is a silent assault by an invisible cloud that carries disease organism. There was testing on humans often done in a facility at fort dietrich known as the 8 ball which was in l. A. Sion chamber where they could disperse aerosols and see you know how much it takes to infect a human but they were given immediate medical treatment in to the best of my knowledge there were no fatalities. By code volunteers claim that the Us Government assured them that all testing would be for defensive purposes only is making a vaccine to protect you. And make it a hazmat suit to protect you against mass protect you. Lot of hospital procedure come from this operation. What was happening at fort dietrich was not only a defensive program but also an offensive program so. It was research that could be used for either purpose. Here was here controversy about the White Coat Program there was a lot of heat about the biological Weapons Program there were ethical worries that is it that we really want to start a disease that might sweep the country. We just got rid of. Any. Biological weapons that. President nixon had decided that given the success of hiroshima and nagasaki in ending world war 2 Nuclear Weapons with a supreme deterrent the Us Biological alsono was deemed unnecessary in 969 the United States halted offensive biological research and eventually destroyed all stockpiles the idea was that the nation state the us as a nation state didnt need it it had the clear weapons with which we could destroy large numbers of people quite nicely thank you. And that you know that possessing these things would just encourage other people to go. Whitehall april 10th 972 a place from the time of real significance for the future of the world and the people in it in 1972103 nations including the United States and the soviet union approved a convention for hitting the production of biological weapons. The treaty to which these nations have committed. Bind them to stop making biological weapons and to destroy all existing stocks of those most of gusting means of math that the good thing about the biological Weapons Convention is a stablish the norm yet established and or against. Other people would do what other states would do and that this is not that all the. But critics felt the convention was all but useless it had no team it still has no inspection provisions in large part because even before any country put in on paper signing that treaty there was the prevailing concept that it was impossible it was unverifiable the Serviette Union actually used the convention to embark on the largest and most destructive biological Weapons Program in the history of the world and soviet signing. The biological Weapons Convention while at the same time embarking on a huge ramp up of their biological Weapons Program. There are no words to describe just how heinous that type of a government policy is. To syria q new always believed that there was not rules behind these conventions and they believed the divas to. Use the convention. And to develop biological weapons secretly in spite of the commish. If they believed exactly the same. So the 2 could track each of the convention for 22. 00 summers. In a senior soviet scientist and an army colonel worked at version and in the our old sea it was here year after year that the soviet union tested weapons loaded with the most deadly diseases imaginable the Political Year is full of the recipients of the stuff. We should be able to get in really. Real to the. Police resolution to the war to there is still a war. But there were serious be real to the case that year was go home with a 1000000000. Dollars restorable to google is over with this. Sport as the rest of us are but really this ball is it really is a war should you be. A Russian Chemical Weapons Center a chick county on the river its suspected that chemical and biological weapons are still being developed at sites like this so western satellites have been watching for years. The soviet biological Weapons Program was roughly the same size as the nuclear Weapons Program and it was ultra secret very deeper than. So were talking about roughly 50 facilities and upwards of 50000 scientists technicians thats a lot of technical talent put to ward the development of these types of weapons begins to plants against animals against people. And i think many of us were very surprised at the enormity of the soviet enterprise because i think until the end of the cold war we really didnt understand how big it was and they said this is all for saloon purposes were going to make vaccines organisms for Pesticide Use and so on and thats what theres what they call the legend system that their real purpose and they become by far the biggest biological Warfare Program that the world has ever seen and probably the most sophisticated. In a world where journalism as an industry is changing we have aljazeera are fortunate to be able to continue to expand to continue to have that passion and drive and present the stories in a way that is important to our viewers. Everyone has a story worth hearing to. Cover those that are often ignored we dont weigh our coverage towards one particular region or continent thats why i joined aljazeera. Peace between ethiopia and eritrea has meant a park area skew chance for the iraqi people here if somebody doesnt we have to create farmland for our souls for iraq its a matter of survival. Ill move a train shows us how the iraqi a coping with life on the edge of the border. My if youre out on aljazeera. Rewind returns with a new series and brand new updates on the best of al to see this documentary by the early onion the onion the sweets the hard. To rewind continues with losing louisiana once a Thriving Community now. With murdering above the right on the southern tip of it lies suburban st louis on aljazeera. And omar and taylor nanda are the top stories on our jazeera but heat of israels opposition blue and White Party Benny Gantz says he should be the nations next Prime Minister after narrative gaining monologist number of seats in tuesdays election it appears to have rejected current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is offer of a power sharing Unity Coalition making a 3rd action of the year more likely president reagan riven it now has to decide who has the best chance for me a coalition. Should. We listen to all but not surrender to any dictates the negotiations will be led by me responsibly and with reason in order to achieve the best results for all israelis within the shadow of this political situation we will keep to our principles who will be no short cuts irans foreign minister says they will be all out war if the u. S. Takes military action following strikes or 2 major Saudi Arabian Oil Facilities amid jeffords or if has denied to tehran had any involvement in saturdays drone strikes but the u. S. Secretary of state says the attack on the refineries was an act of war might prepare is in the u. A. E. For talks after visiting the Saudi Crown Prince on wednesday the u. N. Has also sent a team of experts to investigate the attack canadas Prime Minister has apologized again for dressing up in brown face and black face admitting it was racist Justin Trudeau says he didnt recognize it at the time because of what he called his layers of privilege to photos and a video have emerged of the Prime Minister painted in black face and brown face brown face photos were taken in 2001 when trudeau worked as a teacher in British Columbia a School Dinner that was arabian nights themed to this is former president zena banally has died at the age of 83 he was in saudi arabia where hes lived in exile since the 2011 revolution which kick started the socalled arab spring and ali was president of tunisia for 24 years dozens of people being killed in 2 separate attacks in afghanistan both of which hit the wrong targets at least 18 people were killed in a taliban suicide bombing outside a hospital in Zabul Province or 30 civilians were killed in a u. S. Drone strike in one go home province violence has escalated in the run up to next weeks election and made continues next and ill be back with a news hour after i finish. Sagna ben. Is a professor at George Mason University and an expert on biological weapons she was born in tunisia and studied in france they had several people from teaching. To the western countries by antibiotics that were available at the time and these were used sent back to the former soviet union and used to devil ark pathogens that would be resistance resistant to those antibiotics some of the diseases which the soviet scientists experimented with have long threatened mankind lithuanian born Raymond Zilinskas is a former microbiologist and a director at the Monterey Institute of International Studies nobody thought that anybody with so irresponsible as to be working with smallpox or. Worse and thats a contagious from it spreads from person to person and its very deadly in nature crossed by 30 percent. But with a weapon has probably been stronger and that maybe 50 percent or even higher for so there was horrible and then the circa one i was really awful was a place where the marburg virus the plants which there is no vaccine no treatment its about 80 percent. Of all. Ironically it was soviet citizens themselves residents of the Industrial City of faired lost who discovered how deadly their nations bio weapons were in 1979 anthrax was accidentally released into the air the wind blowing southward towards the city carried the pathogens 60 people died. For 16 years sergey papa of worked as a scientist in soviet lib oratory is creating some of the most destructive weapons ever conceived by mankind after the collapse of the soviet union he immigrated to the United States. I clearly understood that. There was no way around it because the system to gauge people led them wrong. That would be the record the k. G. B. Record. Or wherever you go. The idea was to set up an Automated Research facility to synthesize different viruses so it was a clear attempt. To take advantage of your approaches. And genetic Engineering Design new varieties of infections. When these agents are used by people who get infected develop the symptoms of one piece is and when the physicians try to treat the start treating that person for that disease the treatment triggers the other agent which eventually kills. The person as horrific as this program was unlike in the United States the soviet scientists did not test the disease on human beings but they did use animals extensively. The typical experiment in that when the guinea pigs lose control of their body so they did not control their real lives and that resulted him but alice is in this. Experiments and mark is creative demonstrate. The weapons. For some of this there will be no protection it will become please collapse of the social life. Of the Society Overall of the Economic Life a devil opt aerosols fat to spread the bacteria or virus of the air make it airborne and therefore. Increase the number of people that get infected the effects of a contagioUs Biological attack could spread around the world literally within a matter of days. With the collapse of the soviet union in 1901 the new russian state simply couldnt afford to support a program that cost the country billions of dollars bio Weapons Research and production were shut down ultimately into it turned out to be a very stuff of effort and money complete 1st for our sake a power bar was one of thousands of russian scientists who suddenly found themselves without a paycheck to obscure people who never established our careers you know in communication vis visit Academic Research just so it was very difficult to present ourselves you know as scientists and nobody would hire us. To know accomplishments in the biological weapon p. C. Which so it was a kind of thought trap so the crowd most of the thousands of scientists involved in the bio Weapons Program remained in russia and tried to adapt to the new society dr popof managed to immigrate currently a researcher in biotechnology at George Mason University. With the dismantling of the soviet program it was hoped that biological weapons would become obsolete this was not the case for years it had been secretly stockpiling a deadly arsenal weapons they had produced themselves they had developed to really serious systems one was based on bombs. That had 3 different kinds of words one worse than tracks the 2nd was was by trying toxin and a certain one was something called aflatoxin. So those were ready to go they were loaded they had about 200. 00 of those 25. 00 scud missiles with the same kind of words and they were pretty. Well base sooner than on some of the things that were considered the classic agents in the major western soviet program like anthrax like clostridium but on but then they also did some unusual things why would one turn a disease that causes liver cancer. Into a weapon the results would have. Been shocking. The gulf or was over so quickly the iraqis did not have a chance to use their deadly arsenal the United States was pretty clear and articulating that Response Options would be considered. Used chemical or other weapons. And i think that caused some hesitation on his part after the gulf war ended it x. Bio Weapons Program remained hidden until in 1995 United Nations inspectors finally uncovered it the inspectors didnt let him get away with it if they had just thrown in the towel. It its very troublesome to think about how that would have changed the course of history in the middle east because iraq would have retained a super secret and potentially very potent category of weapons. It asks program illustrated vividly that it is conceivable that nations of all sizes could get their hands on bio weapons. Secretive countries such as north korea are suspects and syria has actually admitted to stockpiling weapons of mass destruction including biological i think there are some states out there that are still in this nasty business so if you really want to knock out weapon why not go for the one thats comparatively a lot cheaper easier to develop technologically the one theyre not looking for. A more were. Russia and the United States both in says that they are not presently engaged in the research or production of offensive biological weapons questions remain however i believe that the United States modus for the same is the United Kingdom but we have very Little Information about version facilities still we have for this zarif facility is russian and. Indeed in the biological. Research nobody you know that different from those facilities there was a lot of these. Believe you may in black book says. At present the concern is not so much about nation states using bio weapons as individuals especially those with scientific knowledge seth caris is a professor at the National Defense university in washington he has written extensively on bioterrorism and bio crimes but one of the the things that surprised me when i started digging into this was the number of people who used biological agents of one kind or another for criminal purposes its not long common today d to see people trying to get hold of toxins to users instruments of murder in a. 983 on finesse it in oh we and nursing home manager was convicted of killing 22 patients by injecting them with curious it a muscle relaxing drug used by the holmes medical staff in prison he admitted to murdering many more people in the mid 960 s. Zuki a japanese physician then bacteriologist handed out sponge cakes filled with salmon and dysentery bacteria to his colleagues he was eventually linked to an outbreak of typhoid fever and dysentery that sickened 200 people and killed 4. Even more dangerous than vengeful individuals or groups bent on destruction. For georgia man have been charged with conspiring to possess a destructive device one of the accused said there is no way for us is published save this country to see him georgia doing something highly illegal this wasnt just hong kong taken real steps toward iran carrying out their plans for the alleged plot involved explosions and a deadly biological toxin noticed there was like a little obvious low small veiled have some other. Bioterrorism is a real concern there are certain groups that are motivated and some of those groups are motivated might have the capabilities at some point theres probably going to be some of it some point we are going to have bio terrorist could be potentially serious according to al jazeera and many other reliable news sources al qaeda had progressed much further towards developing biological weapons before 911. 00 then the world had realized while there has not been a biological attack by this group so far it remains a real concern u. S. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton in december 2011 warned that there is evidence that. Al qaeda in yemen is hard at work developing weapons of mass destruction in particular biological pathogens. Often called the brains behind a sama bin laden. Is now likely to assume the leadership of the diffuse organization that is al qaida film together by al jazeera in the mountains along the afghan pakistan border on less described as bin ladens closest mental this was in 20032 years after 911 the concern about all of. Us primarily from the fact that its one of the few terrorist groups a. Has been interested in causing mass casualties and he has explicitly expressed interest that in fact as and try to put together a biological Weapons Program the fact that so who is still there thats the has to be concerned. Paradoxically the danger of bioterrorism has increased with the revolution in the sciences that are prolonging and enhanced single human life as cures for cancer and other diseases a found the number of trained people who could use their knowledge for nefarious purposes has also grown well the big change has been that biotechnology has spread throughout the world and that means that all the equipment and supplies related to civilian peacefully directed by technologies out there are all over the place. And that means that theoretically every buddy whos doing civilian biotechnology can do military but technology the fermenter does not know that its from mounting bacillus thuringian says to become a fire pesticide or bacillus anthraces to become the biological weapon of the biological weapons system and thats compound good by the internet having become the worlds shopping center. The number of people who know how to use the tools of biology and could but simply do as has grown steadily so that millions of people are in that category now of thirst if i wanted to acquire a laboratory that would be potentially capable of producing. Some important quantities a biological agent i could buy that for not a whole lot of money on the and the reality is you could do that almost anywhere in the world that. The al qaeda was buying its equipment in pakistan and had no trouble equipping. Laboratory in afghanistan. You know the kinds of from under the War Laboratory equipment that you would need and you can buy pretty much anywhere that there are to do this yourself botulinum toxin then you can buy that already and lasts. Most of those are in asia and from particular Mainland China you know on the internet they say well we can provide any quantities you need in thats something completely new that you can buy the most toxic substance in the world over the internet is the 1st so and then the question is what about the what we call the known operators people now that are setting up molecular biology and editorials in their homes and their garages and resellers or whatever and theyre doing for the fun of it are they going to be able to create a pathogen and one of them be crazy enough to want to do that yeah i would worry about that and. Maybe one of the most troublesome aspects of the life science revolution is that the information emerging is available to everyone no matter what their motivation you know most of the science that you need to create a biological weapon is obtainable through open scientific literature that needs to exist in order to improve the worlds health. Since the 1990 s. No respect i just got behind the idea that all the biological literature should be online so your University Undergraduate anywhere in europe has access to stuff behind pay walls their digital libraries and has access on an equal basis as the 16 year old kid from bangalore. Nothing illustrates the dial a number of readily Available Research more than the bird flu controversy in september 2011 a team of dutch and u. S. Scientists announced that they had engineered a strain of h 5 n one that could spread among mammals and possibly humans it caused a worldwide approach its a real life tale that reads like Science Fiction a dutch scientist using u. S. Government funding creates a deadly synthetic virus this super lethal bird flu physical model of an influenza virus of which bird flu is one inside our genes that change and its within this heart that mutations happen previously thought into thought it would take many mutations to bed for it to become airborne now we know it only takes 5 in february 2012 the World Health Organization convened a meeting of experts who concluded that the h 5 n one research should not only continue but also be published a tsunami of controversy descended. In order to defend ourselves against the possibility. We need to do that kind of research but the question is still is it worth the risk and thats some people say you know the cost benefit on that the costs are too high because it could be released out of the laboratory and then it would really be how. And other ones the same its being done under under the highest security conditions and were learning a lot from it so we are better prepared so make a choice but given that Mother Nature is the ultimate bioterrorist i think we have to push forward on the research i dont think we have a lot of a lot of options a small group of scientists. Socalled community essentially created a weapon of mass destruction and they did so to make a political point that no Public Health resources and attention should be focused on this particular problem. The risk of publishing it wasnt just that some malefactor is going to make this and let it loose you know because he thinks it will bring armageddon but that it will now spread to dozens of laboratories who make it and study it you know the risk is in a small number of years you know this will get out to a larger scientific community. To put it mildly let the rest of humanity down. The bird flu controversy highlights a difficult question facing the worlds population what can we do to stop terrorists individuals or groups from creating and using biological weapons so far the Global Community has not come up with a planned response to this threat the u. S. Government has spent billions of dollars developing vaccines against pathogens such as anthrax but many critics believe that Io Technology is changing so rapidly that these will be rendered useless we dont have a medical corner measure for every possible disease especially with viruses so if a terrorist or one of those kinds of. We have a problem a certain possibility that we were. Existing after if a terrorist group were to. Go there theyre resistant to some of the more common and that we start it would create tremendous problems for us. Its not trivial to do but its also Rocket Science i think expecting that there could be. Control over all the components and all the materials and all the equipment that could be used to manufacture. Things i think. Is a promise i still think thats possible for some effort is being made to put in place global safeguards the manufacturers of synthetic d. N. A. For example in the United States europe and china have established guidelines regulating who would have detained this material but these are not industry wide and they are voluntary another strategy is the scientists to report any erratic behavior by. The f. B. I. Supported by president obama would like. Say more about what goes on in Life Science Laboratories but United States scientists resist this they believe they can police their labs themselves filmed be convinced that the bridge deletions in this field i important but the one to be sufficient. People take very seriously the possibility of biological weapon not dark but i see individual scientist has access to biological agents so brooke and this people see in people next. To you is is very important probably the only way to really. To prevent some dangerous taking place ironically the best way to control biological terrorism may have to do with the weapons themselves to somebody if i some cells with a horrible disease i mean that their death is going to be hideous its going to be prolonged and horrible at least. Its a lot more romantic to go out with it with a glorious bank than it is with with a slow painful whimper and all of our rules and International Conventions are designed by nations for nations but because of the internet that has been a quantum shift or because now were dealing with individuals the concert comment or National Routes you have a computer in a city in every home how can you control it all so i think thats really the biggest bunch of control issues in their lives and the chemical and biological field right now. In the end scientific ethics and basic human good will may be the only deterrent to the proliferation of biological terrorism whether by countries groups or individuals. To strengthen the group you have to shoulder court all the more with your comps to fight against corruption. Dish for a new chiro heroes like new who are about to be refused a 15000000. 00 brian the achievement of heroes like him to showcase by the International Ace award it shines a light on these heroes because the best way to fight a darker use to shine a light lets make the rules a bit to please nominate your Anti Corruption mirror. How i would call some Colder Weather pushing across southern parts of australia the moment in the shape of this band of plaid it is a cult front it wouldnt just much cooler air into the southeast and cold as we go through the next couple of days for friday just 17 sounds just that for adelaide quite an active system this there will be some shop bands of friends and very brisk winds as well but ahead of that theres that wall 24 celsius in melbourne in the sunshine saturday is a very different pitch 20 celsius for melbourne in the states bits and pieces of cloud on the right making their way across victoria really cold in adelitas 13 degrees they struck in the temps is 16 celsius the footpath with a fair bit of sunshine i can pass quite nicely with new zealand as we go through the next couple of days just looking lossie fine and dry a lot of sunshine coming through and thats pretty good as we dont want through the weekend to 1415 south just across it and for. Ologhlin similar temperatures as we go on into saturday with more of that dry weather pushing through now make the most money try weather they have you see across japan and the Korean Peninsula over the next 24 hours or side because its all change weve got thickening clapp pushing into southern parts of the rage insecure tatting increasingly wet and the rain already setting in saturday. A team of chinese scientists embark on a gathering. Searching for rare is also. What i want to produce chinas underwater on out of the earth. We will maintain finest fighting force in the world is that are not United States army over life. I would call it dependency we have this. Way. And the reality of the 21st century you know how to do you know. How many of the persons that are sitting out who should be child should not. Child soldiers reloaded on al jazeera. This is aljazeera. On our intake of this is the al jazeera news hour live from london coming up. An israeli election with no clear winner and the 2 men most not. Q. To form a unity government a very different ideas over who should lead it. Irans warning to the u. S. And saudi arabia any military response over attacks on saudi Oil Facilities will result in all out war. This is something that. I deeply deeply regret canadas Prime Minister apologizes again as he faces intense scrutiny over historic images which show him in brown face. And the red cross report that reveals the cost to humanity if action is not taken to prepare for the effects of climate change. In sports right the Campaign Says his team is ready to inspire the nation the country is hosting the world cup for the very 1st sarmad they play russia and the children are. The leader of israels opposition a blue and White Party Benny Gantz says he should be the nations next Prime Minister he appears to have rejected current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is offer of a power sharing Unity Coalition making a 3rd election of the year more and more likely with 99 percent of the votes counted against his centrist blue and white party with 33. 00 seats is just ahead of netanyahu is conservative likud with 31 both a well short of the 61 seats needed for a majority in israels 120 Seat Parliament president ruben rivlin now has to decide who has the best chance of forming a coalition he says hell do all he can to avoid an unprecedented 3rd vote but the current split of seats and loyalties means theres no obvious alliance that can get those crucial 61. 00 seats or a force that reports. A symbolic handshake between rival would be Prime Ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and benny gantz choreographed by israels president Reuben Rivlin at a memorial for shimon peres a man who held both positions really doesnt have direct political power but he does have influence and in the current deadlock a lot of freedom of action in who to give the 1st chance of forming a government and i hear loud and clear the voices calling for broad and Stable National unity government and i cannot gradually to you mr Prime Minister and joining that call this morning now you know who recalled the deal done between peres and his political rival yet section near to share the premiership on a rotating basis in the mid 1980 s. A clear hint that he was seeking something similar after conceding earlier on thursday that he didnt have a way to form a right wing government and appealing directly to gantz binny we must set up a broad unity government as soon as today the nation expects us to both of us to demonstrate responsibility and that we pursue cooperation this is why i call on you binny lets meet today at any time to start this move which is the need of the hour but benny gantz is in no hurry rejecting netanyahu the proposition that his likud join a government as part of a bloc including 3 other right wing and religious parties and making it clear that he expects to be Prime Minister. We will listen to all but not surrender to any dictates the negotiations will be led by me responsibly and with reason in order to achieve the best results for all israelis within the shadow of this political situation we will keep to our principles there will be no short cuts senior figures in his blue and White Alliance with more direct say netanyahu whose presence is what is preventing the unity government and its time for him to step aside its just the start of a bumpy bruising and unpredictable path towards coalition the opposition is already accusing Benjamin Netanyahu of obstructing its. Some see netanyahu is public approach to guns as a way of setting him up to take the blame if Coalition Talks fail all together and leaving behind it all the 2 things as you know is Corruption Cases his 1st pre indictment hearing is due in october the 2nd and if all else fails a possible 3rd election in less than a year are a force that al jazeera westerners. Irans foreign minister says they will be all out war if the u. S. Takes military action following the bombing of 2 major Saudi Arabian Oil Facilities has denied to tehran had any involvement in the drone strikes but the u. S. After state says the attack on the refineries was an act of war saying the reports from tehran. Drone and missile attacks on saudi Oil Facilities last week iranian leaders say the only reason the u. S. And saudi arabia are blaming them is because the alternative is too embarrassing that yemens hoopy fighters were capable of carrying out such a destructive military operation. But the saudis say the drones and missiles direction of travel recover debris the capacity of the Technology Used in these attacks all draw a Straight Line back to tehran Foreign Ministers of odds rufus said of the iran coincident is used as an excuse to attack his country iran wont think twice about defending itself he also warned u. S. President donald trump not to listen to his saudi allies who would march him to war with iran for their own sake they should pray that they wont get what they seek theyre still paying for a much smaller a human war that they were too arrogant in 4 years ago for those hoping for cooler heads to prevail the rhetoric coming from to iran of widespread and destructive retaliation is worrying and an indication of how far the u. S. And iran have come from the negotiating table. But the reality is irans position is nothing new the promise of a kind of mutually assured destruction of American Assets and allies in the region has been standing policy for years and iranian experts say is keeping irans enemies at bay what is new is how frequent and assertive the message from iranian leaders has become a signal perhaps that there is real concern into iran that some kind of u. S. Aggression may now be closer than ever on a visit to saudi arabia the u. S. Secretary of state described the oil facility attacks as an act of war and promised more economic sanctions on iran there will be more sanctions. We we have set about a course of action to deny iran the capacity and the wealth so that they can conduct their tears and to prove to prevent that from conducting their terror campaigns and you can see from the events of last week theres still more work to do were going to continue to drive towards that end if you if you cannot fail to see the failed policy of giving money to this regime but what happened inside the arabia those opposed to the saudi led war in yemen now in its 4th year see the incident very differently the who has dismissed the saudi version of events describing the attack as an example of how their own newly developed weapons can now reach targets far beyond yemens borders and they warned if the Saudi Led Coalition wont stop dropping bombs on yemen then Coalition Countries should be prepared for more of the same leaders here in iran have been quick to remind the world that it was yemens who the fighters that claimed responsibility for the attacks last week on Saudi Oil Infrastructure the who these no doubt consider these attacks not as an act of war by iran as the americans would see it but as retaliation for an ongoing saudi war that was sparked by a saudi led invasion and thats the line being pushed by irans leaders as well zain. Coming up on i was there at this news hour. Ben ali deposed president dies in exile aged 83. A multibillion dollar export industry thats being blamed for the months long haze blanketing Southeast Asia and in sport footballs world governing body finally says its time for iran to change the way to treat female supporters. Russia and china have vetoed a u. N. Security Council Resolution demanding a truce in northwest syria the resolution called for an end to hostilities in the province of idlib the last rebel held stronghold in the country its moscows 13th mito at the Security Council on action on the syrian conflict out of about a james bays report about the bones are you going to use your features you will see it was clear by the time the Russian Ambassador arrived at the Security Council that he was likely to yet again use his veto on a resolution about syria. 3 members of the Security Council kuwait germany and belgium have been working on a resolution calling for a cease fire need lived for over a month their draft allowed for what they called Counterterrorism Operations but only if they didnt breach International Law is there a chance for last minute negotiations to avoid a russian veto at this stage we do Everything Possible to reach our goal and that is to protect civilians and have International Humanitarian law be observed im afraid we will witness another very sad day for syria as your know the situation in syria is worse than ever in the real tragedy in the Council Chamber as predicted russia backed by china were the only ones to vote against the resolution this the 13th russian veto on the issue of syria it is deeply regrettable that the council was not able to agree to a cease fire resolution that would have saved lives in the internet especially as the assad regime and its allies prepare to launch another offensive on the people of. Russia then put forward its own rival resolution it failed to pass with only russia and china voting in favor throughout the syrian war which has now lost it 8 and a half years 2 of the main things that have kept sad in office are russian air power and russias unwavering support for its ally in the un Security Council it live province is the last target of the assad regime the bard meant is likely to continue and for the people of it more than 3000000. 00 of them there is nowhere to flee to james bays aljazeera at the United Nations. Dozens of people have died in 2 separate attacks in afghanistan both of which hit the wrong targets at least 18 people were killed in a taliban suicide bombing outside a hospital in Zabul Province all 30 farm workers were killed in a u. S. Drone strike in one province brian has the latest from kabul a blast that reduced buildings in the city of color to rubble the taliban says it was targeting the local headquarters of afghanistans Intelligence Agency but the provincial hospital next door took the force of the explosion it soon became clear from the schools of casualties that civilians among them hospital staff were the main victims with no hospital to treat them survivors had to be transported by road to neighboring country look you can yes there are many civilians who are martyred moon did and you cannot even see one military officer among them but taliban has stepped up its attacks head of the upcoming president ial elections and theres also reportedly been a rise in u. S. Military strikes. But an air attack wednesday night in one province is now the subject of claim and counterclaim oh in cook County District they have been burying their dead its close to the tora bora mountains a traditional stronghold for different groups of fighters. The locals Governors Office has said