Transcripts For ALJAZ NEWSHOUR 20240713 : vimarsana.com

Sports the Calgary Flames hockey team denying best stalling a racism investigation at coach bill pate is accused of virtually abusing a player and issuing a misleading apology. Top story informal talks have resumed between the Afghan Taliban and u. S. Officials the taliban has told al jazeera that some preliminary meetings have taken place here in doha and could pave the way for the resumption of formal peace talks President Trump canceled negotiations in september following the death of a u. S. Soldier but on the a short trip to afghanistan he told american troops that he believed the taliban was willing to strike a deal Stephanie Decker has more. It was a surprise visit and is often the case with president donald trump. Rising announcement taliban wants to make a deal and were meeting with them and were saying it has to be a cease fire they want to do a cease fire but now they do want to do is use fire i believe it probably work and there were times admission their meeting with the taliban comes after the president abruptly broke off talks in september following the killing of a u. S. Soldier in a bombing claimed by the taliban talks had been making progress up until then the taliban has confirmed to al jazeera that some meetings have been taking place to pave the way for the resumption of talks the group also recently released 2 western hostages and 10 Afghan Soldiers in exchange for 3 of its Senior Leaders but Officials Say theres still no sign the taliban is ready to give up its weapons in exchange for a role in afghan politics demilitarization is a key demand from afghan president ashraf ghani but hes been sidelined while u. S. And taliban negotiators meet still ghani joint tromp on stage by graham air base and tweeted out highlights of the moment apparently keen to show he is relevant in the Peace Process for donald trump the priority is cutting down the number of u. S. Troops in afghanistan from about 13000 to just over 8000 and to help the afghans handle their own security were bringing in denver substantially and well be down in a number thats very its a good number and were going to stay until such time as we have a deal or we have total victory and they want to make it be over its been 18 years since the u. S. Launched its war in afghanistan pushing the taliban out of power the irony not lost that almost 2 decades on both sides in our negotiating an end to the fighting and if a deal can be struck it will more than likely see the taliban return to play a part in ruling afghanistan Stephanie Decker aljazeera. Lets bring in Michael Semple hes a visiting Research Professor at the institute for global Peace Security and justice at Queens University in belfast Michael Semple welcome back to the news or how close are we to formal full on peace talks now. Where President Trump has put the ball in the talibans court are now its up to the here taliban to see if they are really ready to come back to those talks because the president has made it absolutely clear that a cease fire has to be on the agenda so what are the jigsaw bits that have to be put in place by the taliban for the u. S. To sign up to this. The taliban have to accept some form of Violence Reduction whether its partial or global you know the optimum one being a full full ceasefire but its possible they could agree to. More limited measures to reduce violence so they have to they have to agree to start turning off the violence and they have to agree to a pathway to direct talks with the with the Afghan Government there was a point in the middle of august Early September when there was talk of a taliban trip to camp david does that mean that its back on again as well potentially. How well you know the answer is not to be clear closely guarded secret but i think were a long way away from that at the at the moment because that theyve proved so embarrassing when it all fell apart what the taliban have been saying in the past couple of months since that process broke down is that they there they are happy to reenter negotiations but only if the americans give them everything that they felt had been promised in that deal whereas the. On the other side so then the americans have been telling them quietly that that deal became impossible because it had basically no 0 support inside afghanistan strongly opposed by the Afghan Government Public Opinion in kabul and something is going to have to budge to to make this process acceptable to the Afghan People so the talibans insistence on. Restarting where they left off is actually reviving the deal that was dumped on the 7th of september seems to me like a nonstarter. Lets just talk about the numbers for a bit if if we can please michael the drawdown figures roughly stack up going from 13000 to about 8 and a half 1000 will that still happen on the show joel say the pentagon is anticipating at the moment or will they move on that depending upon what the taliban do and what they say. Well this is a fascinating survivor window into the conflict in afghanistan that. The president here actually explained so that you know there are 2 options the american the americans can sort of manage their involvement in this conflict without a deal with the taliban in which case they the americans draw their troops down to what they consider a sustainable level and they carry on as long as is necessary for century to end the year and the in surgery to remove the threats to the Afghan Government or if there is an agreement with the taliban everything can be accelerated and you know you mentioned numbers and the bull park number since we were since we have been talking about this another one since our ambassador hunted zod started his mission over a year ago over 10000 afghans have been killed in this conflict over half of those afghans have been killed have been taliban or their supporters so were talking about 56000 taliban have been killed while the survey of the taliban and the americans in the Afghan Government maneuver over this what the americans are saying if you actually get to the table come up with an agreement or it is a deal its not just a taliban american deal its an intra afghan deal if you come up with a deal we pull our troops home which is what we want to do anyway but of course the taliban are maneuver in maneuvering out to try and project themselves as having won the war ok but when it comes to you talking there about that the death toll amongst the ranks of people who would say they are full on taliban does the u. S. And also the Afghan Government have another problem some estimates say there are between 40 and 60000 taliban quote fighters in certain regions in the country and the problem for the government in kabul is that those taliban people they represent the only form of governance that the local people in afghanistan have experienced for several years. Well i mean its i mean it is actually quite interesting because. When ive looked at comparisons between the way that have taliban governance operates in some of these districts and the way the Afghan Government Government Works like you say that in their practices and how they deal with the population there is off theres an awful lot of over are the main problem with the way of the taliban governance is that its providing support to forces which are fighting against the government in kabul i mean so which the flags arent stop fighting against each other and there actually isnt much of a problem so its strike mistry to me that we know what you know that its at its less intractable than sometimes out people worry if there is and if there is an agreement at either the local level so that they i mean if those you know those taliban administrations if they just start to cooperate more with the people in town with the Afghan Government or if theres an agreement you know reached in qatar or at the National Level then the country can be reintegrated Michael Semple well leave it there many thanks thank you sudans former president Omar Al Bashir has passed he has condemned a move by the new government to dismantle it on thursday sudans Transitional Government approved a law to dissolve the National Congress party which was a key demand of the protesters the Prime Minister says the decision was not an act of revenge if a morgan reports now from khartoum. It was once the dominant party in sudan ruling the country for more than 25 years now more than 6 months after its head leader was ousted sudans Transitional Government has announced that the former ruling party will be dismantled. Yet the the more dismantles the National Congress party and seizes its assets money and properties and gives it to the governments minister of finance a committee will be formed to ensure that any Organization Association Institution Union Company Partnership that has links to the former ruling party will be dismantled. The National Congress party came to power in 1992 a few years after it had ahmed bashir overthrew a democratically elected government in 1989 the coolest carried out under the name of the National Islamic front bashir went on to create the National Congress party that ruled until he was ousted from power in april this year following months of antigovernment protests the december protests gained momentum after the burning of the National Congress Party Headquarters and. Despite it being the only party many sudanese knew the demand for it to be dismantled had become one of the protest movements main ins. This rattling a party doesnt mean its and it has to be remembered that establishing a new country would have to include establishing coexistence with those from the disbanded party and in a way where politics is practiced wisely i mean also man regards herself as the victim of one of the Party Signature laws that came to define the controversial public order its severely curtailed womens rights and which was condemned by human rights in sudan new leaders say it will display. An attack that when i was arrested for refusing the offices called me names saying im not a real sudanese because i didnt follow the rules of the government they said they expected me to be from the south a christian. During its time in power the national. Party left cars packed many continue to feel from turning sudan 20 years of u. S. Trade in economic sanctions following accusations of supporting terrorism abroad to dividing the nation that was once africas largest country it now remains to be seen how straightforward eradicating it from sudanese political life will be people morgan on to their own part so. Lets talk. For geary shes a doctor and president of the womens oppression an initiative rossellini Human Rights Group she joins us live from khartoum giri how big a step is this towards real democracy. Thank you very much indeed and this of all let us congress to live ourselves as sudanese people as the knees we went. North to when. This initiative for those for just 2 hours given. To us by hamad though we made answer very in council the fairest of it is. To our polish public order law and the 2nd is this man National Congress. Party i think this is a very big a step or democracy this is a very big step we can see our Transitional Government going to the right that accent to restore our rights and we hope of restore also economy and peace. The rules surrounding how women in your country can dress and therefore i guess look at themselves and perceive themselves have now been relaxed what does that mean for women and whats the signal it sends out to other countries as well. I think this is a very good this step even for other companies around us and for our and for our. Future live ocracy will be ideal here you know and rightly but i think we need to wear hard to distort the democracy in our country. Is part of the process when it comes to restoring democracy seeing Omar Al Bashir in court hes still in prison when do you think we will see him in a courtroom. To restore a democracy in our country we need fairest of all to abolish all the laws or all the laws designed by the. Government by in guys governmental base you know government because those laws. To prevent people to where. To participate i answer shelley as a socially or politically is this any women we need is a very step next is there is this mantle than National Congress. Do you have any worries at the back of your mind about implementing whats been announced today because saying something and then doing it 2 totally Different Things so are you laying down perhaps a time scale here where theyve actually got to deliver on what theyve said they will do. Are i am not worried at all i have no what is that dollar the back of my mind because why because people are now aware of their rights people they know or they need state. Form in sudan people are guarding this. Revolution and then there are a very aware of everything so i am not at all already and those people is that dog and his cabin is qualified and capable for this story or stonings democracy by the laws and by any other or ok well leave it there isnt for gary thank you so much for joining us here on the news hour on aljazeera from khartoum. Lots more still to come on this program for you including your guy has a young new president will take a closer look to see if he can deliver on his election promises. Taking action against Climate Change a new round of global protests kicks off at a un Climate Conference. And in sports the fighting takes over from football to the Southeast Asian games well have more on that for you in about 30. With the rebels in yemen say theyve shot down a saudi helicopter and killed 2 pilots it happened near the yemeni saudi border the saudi u. A. E. Coalition now in its 5th year of fighting that lucys isnt commenting. Iraqs top shia cleric has condemned the use of lethal force against protesters after 48 people were killed on thursday iraqs government has ordered an inquiry into the protest of deaths in knesset leader the interim governor has resigned following the unrest thats left 33 people dead a curfew has been lifted to allow people to hold funerals the demonstrations demanding jobs and Better Services began 2 months ago now so whats led to the civil unrest well it began with the demotion of a popular counterterrorism chief in september anger on social media led to protests on the streets with mostly young iraqis demanding jobs basic services and an end to corruption the government responded with force it fueled more protests spreading from the capital baghdad to southern and central provinces iraqs Prime Minister promised a reshuffle of the cabinet and cut salaries of senior officials however the protesters returned to the streets and from domestic issues iraqis have turned their anger to irans influence in iraq close to 400 people have been killed in the violence since october our correspondent mohammed jump jhoom is live for us in baghdad so mohammed just get us right up to date we understand elsa stunning has been condemning the violence. Thats right peter in his address today the grand ayatollah ali sistani whos the top shia cleric here in iraq he said that while he urged protesters to stay peaceful and to reject violent acts he also says that the country must not descend into civil strife or tyranny any also demanded that Parliament Act with more resolution and in a quicker manner to try to solve the crisis here book time and again weve heard from religious leaders and parliamentarians and other government officials in iraq urging the government to do more to try to win the crisis here the fact of the matter is that really. Hasnt made an impact on what is going on in the streets in the major cities of iraq be it here in baghdad where we are the epicenter of the antigovernment demonstrations exactly or square or be it in the southern shiite majority cities where so much violence occurred past 2 days that dozens killed in russia which is the seat of the shah 40 here in iraq you had dozens killed in nasiriyah and because of that the governor of this province where also he is he has resigned as you mentioned also an investigation has been launched that was announced by the government earlier in the day clearly what is happening here right now is that government officials are really concerned that they are not going to be able to contain this mass protest movement and the fact you have so many demonstrators in majority she asked cities in the south of the country not just protesting in these antigovernment astray sions but also attacking iranian consulates demanding that iran no longer places you outsized role in the politics in iraq that is something that is very