President bill clinton now ken starr will represent donald trump at his trial. Thousands of migrants gather in guatemala all routes to the u. S. But mexicos president says he will not allow them to pass through his country. Russia has cautioned both sides and maybe this conflict ahead of a highly anticipated summit and balun on sunday acting foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as wallowed Khalifa Haftar and Prime Minister of the un back to government fi is. To come together in berlin without adding conditions on the terms of the meeting is currently in greece ahead of those talks which are aimed at ending the 9 month conflict globality the most important thing now is that after the berlin conference if everything goes as planned and the Security Council supports the conclusions from the conference the libyan sides do not repeat their own past mistakes and start adding any additional conditions and blaming each other so as of now the relationships between them are very strange they dont even want to be in the same room let alone speak or meet each other. Meanwhile holly for half so has written a letter to russian president Vladimir Putin thanking him for trying to resolve the libyan conflict service and has more from moscow the press service of the kremlin has just made public that i have to have send a letter to president putin to reaffirm his willingness to go to moscow again to continue the dialogue the peace talks and he also said mr president my dear friend i wish to express my personal gratitude and appreciation to russia for afeard stores establishing peace and stability in libya and this is all of course very interesting because this latter comes a little over 4 days after have to pretty much embarrass president putin after he left moscow there were peace negotiations going on for more than 7 hours so russia the Prime Minister of the u. S. Backed government in libya had signed this cease fire agreement and have to ask some time until the morning to think about it and then suddenly in the middle of the night left moscow without any signature so this was seen as a failure of course for moscow and for president putin and this letter now seems to be safe face saving operation to make sure that russia is back in the game. And supporters of huffed have been rallying in the libyan city of benghazi hundreds of people have chosen to the anti turkish slogans and demanded a halt to libyan oil exports they say oil revenues are only benefiting the tripoli based administration Libyas National Oil Corporation says production is the countrys Single Source of income in any destruction would have far reaching consequences. When libya has been torn apart by conflict since long time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011 its divided between warring militia groups which mostly back to rival governments the un recognized administration led by Prime Minister fires also is based in tripoli its supported by turkey and many european nations including italy which is one of the fighting near tripoli will force more people to flee across the mediterranean. In the east the broker based government the center of power for war Khalifa Haftar now hes backed by egypt saudi arabia russia and the United Arab Emirates france is also accused of providing military support to his forces marco and other one is in tripoli and says the u. N. Recognize government based there once qatar and 2 micio to attend the berlin peace conference on sunday the Foreign Ministry in tripoli has sent an official letter to the German Embassy in tripoli requesting that both qatar and tunisia be invited for the bit of talks we know that the government of National Accord is keen to include both countries to achieve some kind of balance facing the other daily geisha in supporting the warlords really for have that as you know at least 4 countries supporting the warlords highly for have are invited to take part in the 1000000000 talks on sunday including the United Arab Emirates egypt russia and france so by this move the government here in tripoli is trying to achieve balance it says that tunisia is very important to take part in these talks as not only as a neighboring country and being impacted and and affected by the ongoing crisis in libya but it has been also costing thousands of libyan if you g. D. And as for qatar the government says that qatar has been always supporting the freedom revolutions in libya since 2011 and the government believes that qatar is a key. Player in the peace talks in berlin jason packers founder of the consultancy Libya Analysis he explains why the conflict now involves so many countries including greece. Ever since huffed attack tripoli in april 29000 the nature of the civil war in libya changed for the last 4 years before then you had a proxy war the different libyan coalitions were fighting with outside actors supporting one side or the other but now whats happened is its really the outside actors who are running the show and the different libyan coalitions are fighting and have to has many supporters in egypt russia the u. A. E. Saudi Arabia Jordan and to some extent even france where as the g. And a has not been able to get military support from its traditional allies the u. S. U. K. And italy so its been between a rock and a hard place and desperately only the turks have stepped up to the plate with the drones air support and mercenaries that the g. N. A. T. Needs and in exchange for that they demanded you need to sign this maritime m. O. You and the maritime m. O. You violates the International Law of the sea known as un closs in giving a turkish libyan shared zone of economic influence between south western anatolia and the libyan coast and of course that has enraged greece and cyprus because theyve been prospecting for natural gas in those waters. Thousands of people have been injured in clashes in the iraqi capital Baghdad Security forces have fired tear gas to break up a crowd of demonstrators trying to bring to baghdad to bridge the bridges close to talk to your square where thousands of camped out for months demanding political change in iraq hundreds of people have been killed since mass protests began in october. Irans Supreme Leader says European Countries cant be trusted in negotiations over the 2015 nuclear deal Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made the comments during friday prayers its the 1st time hes led the salmon in teheran an 80 years i said big has more from the iranian capital the days events began with the customary. And the chants of death to america a 1000 the faithful to friday prayers to hear that Supreme Leader. The last time he did this was in 2012 the myth of the arab spring the spiritual and political leader of iran focus to the United States and europe with the europeans having cricket the dispute mechanism in the 2050 nuclear deal and with the rod to the United Nations well youve got again germany france and even government of the u. K. Responded to their threat after the u. S. Withdrawal from the nuclear deal i said i dont trust them and that theyre american servants and clients these countries want to bring the iranian nation to its knees and the u. S. Which is your master couldnt do anything let alone you who were smaller we can be a deceitful in the negotiations with those a steel hand in a building glove they cannot be trusted we have no problem with talks but not with the us. But domestically the country has seen protests against price rises and in the last week condemnation of the downing of the ukrainian passenger jet after it left with the loss of 136 lives the message one of regret and condolence call to all. The plane crash was a bitter accident he burned through a hot next month iran has parliamentary election polls show that the turnout could be very low an obvious concern for the legitimacy of the political system here in iran. My dear brothers and sisters my d. N. A. Should have iran the presence of the iranian people is the most important factor of power and this presence is power in many places one of the most important goals is the election. The nation of military commander general dostum so the money by the United States had resulted in a wave of support throughout iran but that changed when its military shut down the ukrainian airline. How many decided to speak at a time when the country is experiencing tense pressure extending domestic. Support the situation and getting face up to the challenges that the coming months this country may face. On Donald Trumps responded to those comments made by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on twitter trump said the socalled Supreme Leader of iran who has not been so supreme lately some nasty things to say about the United States and europe their economy is crashing and their people are suffering it should be very careful with his words though as a Public Policy professor at George Mason University hes joining us now from washington d. C. Good to have you on the program just make a comparison for us if you can between the way that Donald Trumps worded this tweet compared to previous tweets hes made in the spawns to statements from iran. It was far as i can tell he makes threats thats his normal mode of discourse and thats who is making towards company that he insulted the United States and donald trump said be careful what you say there could be consequences donald trump operates by threatening thats why he is not. What is the danger what is the risk that the white house may become overconfident given the fact that iran now appears to be very much on the back and is going through a very difficult situation. He already has your he believes he brought the europeans in line by making a threat to them he threatened the major European Countries germany france and britain with a 25 percent tariff on automobile imports to the United States unless they initiated the dispute resolution process with the u. N. And it worked or at least they have initiated that process the europeans claimed it wasnt because of trumps threat the charms normal mode of discourse is to threaten people and he believes it works and in many cases it has worked so far coming me insulted trump right back in his remarks at the Prayer Service in which he said that trump was really a High School Bully and everyone had experience dealing with those kinds of persons given the situation as i say that iran is facing at the moment and also of course the fact theres an impeachment trial going on in the u. S. At the moment are we back to a state of tit for tat rhetoric between iran and the United States or is there Something Else going on behind this. Well i think thats exactly whats happening we are in a tit for tat situation with iran and the United States threatening each other but thats the way trump prefers to operate he believes that strength is the key threats are the way to communicate that strength and so far hes had some success in doing that. He pulled out of the Nuclear Accord and that accord appears to be breaking down which is exactly what he wants and hes threatening iran that if they resume their income their increased enrichment of uranium there could be serious serious consequences and hes backed up his threats when he killed the page the attack on the iranian general showing that he was extraordinarily serious about these threats its got americans very worried about the possibility of a war with iran and one of the effects may be that its increasing support in the Democratic Party for one of the contenders Bernie Sanders who is an antiwar democrat democrats are very worried about war and as it happens trump believes the easiest democrat for him to defeat would be Bernie Sanders who could be working in that respect as well i want to get your opinion about something that one of our previous guests referred to we were talking to him about this is the impeachment trial that was going on and he was said he was fairly convinced that they the defense policy in a sense defense in terms of the impeachment trial was to distract the American Public from the actual trial itself and he would not be surprised if there was some sort of external action that was going to go on during this trial to try to distract attention away from it what do you think the chances are that iran may become that destruction. Well thats what people thought happened a lot of people believe it happened when the United States killed eliminated general so many that the trump was using that as a way from for of distracting from the fact that he had just been impeached and was facing the trial trump wants to show that hes still the leader of the United States he can carry on. Hes mounting the vigorous defense but hes rely mostly on other people to mount that defense so i believe. It is a tactic that hes inclined to use to try to distract attention thats what people thought bill clinton did when he staged attacks on terrorists to end candidates in iran and iran in afghanistan and in sudan after attacks on american embassies in east africa a lot of people thought thats what president clinton did while the same assumptions are now being made about President Trump as always its good to get your thoughts on this Bill Schneider thank you very much indeed for giving us your time and when i say its a sanctioning a Brigadier General from irans Islamic Revolutionary guard for his involvement in a crackdown on protesters in november at least 300 people were killed when Security Forces suppressed a nationwide protests that started off to fuel prices what increased the United States is listing i. R. G. C. Brigadier general haasan shover pour under section 7031 see. Sanctions general shot up or committed gross violations of human rights against protesters in musher shar he oversaw the massacre of 148 helpless iranians in the mush our region last november general shot a poor was in command of units responsible for the violent crackdown and lethal repression around musher shark. But of more ahead on the news hour including indias new citizenship law creates panic among hindu isms lowest social group. By china is being blamed for mekong river shallow waters by those who depend on it the most. And i dont want to for african footballers im liverpools coach says the top clubs may lose interest in signing players from the continent is going to be here to tell us why. Us president Donald Trumps defense team for his upcoming impeachment trial has been announced theyre going to include former independent counsel ken starr and lawyer Alan Dershowitz the childs going to be led by white house counsel. And trumps possible attorney jay sekulow for more we cross live together in washington d. C. Gave it seems like trump has put together a really high powered the defense team what are we reading into this. Well i think you can read into it that hes taking this quite seriously probably as he should be trump and his folks taking no chances bringing in the best people that they think they can possibly get im just looking at Alan Dershowitz hes a long time Harvard Law School professor. And considered a preeminent constitutional lawyer in america very well known in washington and elsewhere kind of a celebrity lawyer if you will interestingly enough dershowitz is a democrat and you actually voted for Hillary Clinton however hes come out very strongly over the past several months in support of trump and saying that this impeachment process is unconstitutional and that is what i think scott trumps attention and thats why hes brought him on his team then you also look at. Ken starr who in the late ninetys was the independent counsel that prosecuted then president bill clinton for impeachment so hes very well known in washington as well essentially trump bringing him out of retirement to be part of his defense team so theres 2 things that are both of these lawyers have in common theyre both both very media savvy and theyre used to being in the media spotlight and i think thats probably what trump likes about them as well because he knows that once this trial kicks off next week it is going to consume washington and really the United States and he wants people that he feels give him the best chance to defend him. As you say one of the things that seems to pull this this particular Team Together is an element of showmanship what do you think that is going to do in terms of trumps strategy in the de