the danger of covert 19 demanding the economy reopen fully as soon as possible he still has support though this was how it looked a little earlier in the capitol where protesters many of them in their cars came out to cheer for their president. they had fireworks displays lit up the skies over moscow as part of celebrations to mark 75 years since the end of world war 2 in europe the traditional commemorations including a military parade were called off because of the pandemic and britain's government is set to announce almost all incoming travelers will have to go into isolation after arriving for 2 weeks restriction is expected to take effect at the end of the month breaking the rules could face fines or deportation prime minister johnson will on sunday outline steps for easing some of britain's lock down rules you're up to date with the headlines on al-jazeera the latest inside story is next.

a punishment or a redeployment a u.s. decision to remove patriot missile batteries from saudi arabia is making the kingdom's leadership nervous they were supposed to protect riyadh from iran so what's changed and this boiled politics at play this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm peter dobby the united states is removing its patriot and t.m. missiles and other weapons systems from saudi arabia the us president on the trump

says it's part of an effort to scale back on a military presence that he says doesn't benefit the u.s. american weapons and fighter jets were sent to the kingdom last year after saudi aramco oil facilities were attacked they were also intended as a deterrent as tensions rose between tehran and washington but the reduction in the u.s. military presence is believed by some to be based on assessments iran no longer poses an immediate threat to u.s. strategic interests when asked about the decision president trump stayed away from giving specific details well i don't want to talk about it but we're doing some things we're making a lot of moves in the middle east and elsewhere we're doing a lot of things all over the world militarily we've been taken advantage of all over the world our military and. in the sense that we're and this is nothing to do with saudi arabia this has to do with other countries frankly much more we have. the most powerful military in the world the military relationship between the u.s. and saudi arabia goes back almost

a century since the search for oil in the gulf state began in 1933 now since then the u.s. military has advised the kingdom and kept troops there and certainly arabia has become the largest buyer of american weapons the 1st airport on saudi soil was built in 1905 and operated by the u.s. air force for most 20 years before being switched over to civilian use the u.s. has kept at least 5000 soldiers in the kingdom since the very 1st gulf war the number rose 210000 during the 2003 war on iraq. ok let's get going let's introduce our panel in washington d.c. we have joel reuben president of the washington strategy group here in doha we have . the director of gulf studies center at cattle university and tehran we have mohammad marandi head of the american studies department at tehran university welcome to you all joel rubin in maryland is this just

a rotation or something more significant than that. oh it's certainly not a rotation in in terms of a normal routine operation this is a demonstration that right now the threat from iran from an american assessment is diminishing threat towards saudi arabia and towards the saudi oil facilities and in addition to that there can clearly supposed to be recognition in the truck ministration that saudi arabia may have taken american support who are granted the bits you much certainly from donald trump because the the oil price. deflation that was caused by mohamed bin salma really impacted the united states on oil economy and many of donald trump's core constituents so a president truck maker will be sending messages well that don't take guns or planting for granted mohammad marandi in tehran how will this be viewed in the iranian capital i don't think they see it as being married

from portent and i don't think that iranian policy in the region has changed in any way or form so for the americans to make this move either or is because the united states wants to put more pressure on the saudis to get gain more benefits financially or because has your gas in washington pointed out because of the oil policies pursued by mohamed bin salman which has been very destructive to the us oil industry but. for the moment it's not even clear if the americans are really going to decrease their presence and so here a bit we have to see what happens. mushrooms witty here in doha is it a fact of the relationship here that saudi arabia has taken the friendship of whoever's in the oval office for granted and this is

a warning shot to all saudi leaders from all the american leaders i guess from now and in the future you cannot do that you cannot take that relationship as a given i would argue and then there was a move from the united states side started there obama when it comes to the troops the relocation and. basically withdrawing the troops from woods on like the finest that there are and that's started as we know it and that about obama. trump did promise that he will continue this maybe this is one of the. points he agreed with. but obama however when it came to the so that the saudis he was very cautious because he was about to build strong ties with mom of the segment so he was a little bit. hesitant and re so at the beginning of his presidency that how

he basically try to avoid any kind of confrontation with so that it don't it comes to type of troop location actually he he sent troops to so these. 2 times in the last 2 or 3 years because of the saudi perception of this iranian the threat. so basically what we see is i would say it's. a step within a context with the withdrawal of the many controls however this step came in the context of oil prices and the sody action which should be to proceed by the americans i would argue against that it's being pursued by a trumpet decision that's hurting the economy hurt to the base of the champ and the units that election killed ruben in maryland that's the simple equation here is it not we're defending your industry while you're destroying ours because you at one point will flooding the market with oil yes that is clearly the immediate

touchstone that just happened but taking even a step back in terms of american saudi relations there is a loop point on capitol hill we've seen in the past year 2 major bipartisan votes that sent legislation to president trump that essentially were saying don't follow the saudi lead on policy in the gulf and the president from veto then but i'm referring to the work hours resolution that just this past week the president had to be so which was about preventing him from striking iran which in many ways but just by the idea of protecting saudi arabia against iran and then the other was a bit earlier about a half year ago which was the work hours resolution blocking american military equipment from being sent to saudi arabia for the war in yemen that's he was he the vice president but there is real bipartisan pressure coming from capitol hill against president trump and saudi arabia has not our colleague in the has said

president trump has been trying to work with study ranking despite that but maybe this just is a bridge too far to try to essentially destroy the american oil industry in the midst of a pandemic which goes right at the heart of donald trump's core voting constituency that really showed a lack of judgment by saudi. and up president trump got pressure from capitol hill saying why are we protecting this country so most if we want to undermine our our industry here mohammad marandi into iran what do you say to those critics of the iranian leadership who say we'll off the back of the assassination of custom still a money and now given the deteriorating relationship between washington and riyadh iran might know belies itself across the broader region and away i think them what the important thing that has to be taken into account is that. the mess that we have in this region when we look at it from teheran is due to the us saudi alliance

and of course there's always israel israel in the background the whole mannus about qaeda and wahhabi extremism came as a result of the u.s. of the alliance in afghanistan and then the united states and its allies use the same tool in syria as we know from the u.s. defense intelligence agency document of 2012 and general michael flynn interview on al-jazeera where he made this very explicit and he pointed it out but despite the fact that after 911 many of the united states were raising this issues but after a few years again the united states went back to its addiction to using so the capabilities with regards to such extremist groups and use them across the region so the iranians believe that the united states ended its. unique let's

say the usage of such extremism. and any and if the united states ended its threats for a sovereign and independent countries in the region many of the problems with it exist . where it here in doha what is it's about the saudi arabian leadership and clearly we're talking about the crown prince here my have been some man that they refuse up until now maybe even they're not doing it they seem to refuse to accept that the oil price has been crushed by the coronavirus you know demand has fallen off a cliff no one is driving no one is flying and yet they still wanted to flood the market they were warned by donald trump there was a phone call early march and still they went ahead and did it. you know as you know peter the game started added actually when it comes to the oil price but i would say that the issue is about politics and about you know the need. to book you know each side to the other side i mean if you look at what's happened in the saudi

iranian relations and the so the american traditions it's obvious that the consequence one to many decision to support him become become the king and trump one kind of makes a port of so deep so he can be. elected in november 2020 so this kind of give and take between both sides was was working very well i would say and at the beginning of the 2020 i think the premier and the corona crisis it was was invading the world i think the saudis maybe did not read it well or maybe the they wanted to pressure the trump to do something when it comes to the some regional issues including iran and i think they misread. the american politics and there are a trump they think he's expansionary can do everything he would not be you know calculating it stepped it up you know appears to be actually you know and this year

he was actually reading in the steps and he was thinking about some of the steps when it comes to the region he said i would not apply to the state of anyone saudis they have to solve the problem and we remember what happened and. he said i'm not defending saudis and that was a very clear message to the saudis i think i would say the saudis got a very clear message that the american they would not fight on behalf of them and they were not actually and said a confrontation with iran on behalf of them i think that was these and i would say pushed so you know i'm a descent man to do you know to to play with the oil price and to do this to pressure them make and the station more and more maybe. assuming that they would be changing and you know i know many come politics i think they're missing adult situations joel in maryland is it maybe counter-intuitive because it seems to me that what's happened is that donald trump because of the oil price situation has

been put on to the same page as a sizable low b. of serving senators and congressmen and women in the united states and you know there was this report out of middle east i don't know if it was true or not m.b.'s the crown prince was so shocked when he got the phone call that he sent his aides to the room and he had to absorb the news himself so where does this leave the relationship that triangular relationship between donald trump mohammed bin some on and jarrett couche not because those 2 men in their early thirty's there's an axis of getting on with each other we think yeah and that's lurking behind the scenes in terms of assessment sharon washington about what's really driving the trumpet ministrations policy toward saudi arabia because they don't have the support of the body politic of the congress and they really don't have a rationale for many of the decisions regarding saudi arabia and the murder for example of democracy where it's still unresolved from an american perspective and

a president trying to seem to want to kind of bury that and so he taking continual political risks president trump has for 100 been so money and it's just not gaining many fans here in washington but you want to also know that it's very important for what the current ministration is doing to not be misread by saying run either this is not any move you somehow banned then american concerns about iran in the regions well and just last week we saw nearly 400 members of the house of representatives from both parties sign on to a letter calling for an arms embargo continuing age continuation of an arms embargo against iran so there are real concerns across the spectrum but when it comes to america. saudi relations i do think that the pandemic is now creating of what's your point for america in the middle east we are not going to be looking the same at the region going forward as we were in the past years and decades priorities are

going to have made hard choices are going to have to be made resource allocation is going to be very difficult with all that we've now gone from the economic collapse your home so the saudis may have pushed in a bridge too far and burned your best friend in washington mohammed in tehran coming back to you if i may is there one aspect of this that might actually play to saudi arabia's advantage and buy some time until it rebuilds the relationship because clearly washington and riyadh will probably try to rebuild that relationship and it's this critics slash analysts of the iranian regime say the revolutionary guard likes to act with autonomy it likes to act fast but there's a slightly abrasive relationship with the foreign ministry in tehran because the line from the foreign ministry when it comes to the relationship with saudi arabia is no slowed down think about what we're going to do next and wait and see where we

go naturally now 1st of all i don't consider iran to be a regime a regime implies some sort of illegitimacy and instability the iranians have a constitution and the revolutionary guards the armed forces and the foreign minister and foreign minister of iraq within the framework of the constitution the supremes national security council makes the final decisions on all of these issues so there is no independent actor here involved i think though the key problem is that saudi arabia is being run by a person who has been destroying the country mohammed and someone from the beginning when he kidnapped and beat that then prime minister of lebanon siege on cats. the murder of jemaah chee inside their own consulate and of course the list goes on and of course what they have now done with the oil market this has damaged saudi arabia both politically but now economically and ironically the only country

in this region let hasn't been hurt by the koran a virus except for because of except for the direct impact of the virus itself is iran iran hasn't been hurt because iran has been prevented by truck ironically from exploiting the oil and because of the sanctions iran has not had a very powerful tourist industry or airline industry it hasn't been able to trade easily so it's been increasingly producing at home being independent of the international market and the international finances and financial centers and financial sector of society of the international order so iran has been largely business as usual except for the problem with the virus itself which everyone is dealing with on the other hand iran's adversaries countries like saudi review have been badly damaged the united states its economic capacity and

therefore relatively speaking iran's position in the region is and its allies by extension is much greater than before ok mohammed thank you for that jill you want to come in that yeah i think that's completely inaccurate and dangerous to say that iran has not been impacted by the coronavirus iran has over 100000 cases according to the world. helped organise thousands died many iranian americans met met many many iranian americans here are very deeply concerned about their family members in iran and iran has also been seen as the source of the virus in parts of europe so we need to have that debate i'm not i'm not going i'm not going to debate whether or not iran. regional perspective right now as a result of the saudi move has gained a bit of an advantage but coronavirus not something we should be playing politics with let's go to mexico it was windy here in doha will the relationship come back

not given whatever washington does not given whatever the crown prince in riyadh does but given what the oil price might do i.e. when that stabilizes the relationship might improve if only because since he's been in office donald trump has only issued 6 vetoes in his political history in the white house for all of them what to safeguard the relationship with riyadh it's that strong of a relationship i think. we're in. a major shift in many come politics you know bring democrats again at the white house and that that may be actually the influence future political decision from now toward november and that's so may have an impact on the relations but the damage the damage in the nation took place in the last 24 months absolutely

strong and i think the saudis has to do a lot to rectify that damage and it's fortunate that you know economically they are collapsing i mean did you put the press conference of the mist of finance was absolutely. painful to the saudis and the what would they need to do. i think this will affect the foreign policy of so these and their you know any or all they will play in the future that egypt but the major thing when it comes to washington riyadh we may in some change we may witness some changes but this will be very very very slow and it will need a lot of efforts from both sides ok to rely basically on pushing their. dissent man sort of nations in particular ok mohammed very briefly because we're heading towards the end of the show do you get the sense where you are into iran that as far as the governments are concerned there is an appetite or not for what would be

perceived in washington as more threatening behavior towards their friends in saudi arabia well 1st of all i'd like to point out to that the united states has been using the virus as a weapon against the iranians through the sanctions so and despite that the situation in the united states has catastrophic and the situation in iran is much better and with regards to the spreading of the virus iran has far fewer flights whether to china or to europe and the chinese the europeans or the americans i think it's quite clear that that accusation is not true and i think that when you run a saying is that the united states has to recognize that is policy in this region is destructive it has helped the saudis destroy yemen it has allowed this at the saudis to do this it has allowed the spread of extremism across the region whether in syria or iraq afghanistan and elsewhere and the united states has to rethink its

policy the region has changed and many of these peoples are resisting the saudis and the americans and the americans can blame iran all they want but the fact that they cannot suppress the people of yemen and the basket fact that they cannot impose their will and iraq and iran and elsewhere shows that the united states is a declining force relatively speaking and it should start. so respect ok the players didn't dominate ok let's put the last word to joel rubin in maryland joe i mean the war in yemen little or nothing over the past 5 years of an endless conflict that no one side is winning no comment really or no desire for an apparent movement or change of direction out of the trump white house the death of jamal khashoggi that was incredibly awkward for the trumpet ministration he went to such lengths to basically say it wasn't mohammed bin solomon who either orchestrated all greenlit or indulge in some strategic ignorance when it came to the death of the

washington post columnist could the oil price or the oil price going through the floor be the last straw in the relationship between this is ministration in the oval office in the white house and what who runs riyadh i certainly hope so in terms of making the this white house wake up i agree with the assessment here that our policy right now in the middle east regarding yemen regarding these kinds of. the fall of the conspiracy a fair policy towards iran which is not advancing our goals these need to be right size and we've been following saudi's lead and certain way to go thanks it's well over the years we've been following so obviously without question the white house but not through congress and i think that's required only seeing an endpoint here with different votes bipartisan pressure the recognition now in the actual voting constituency of donald trump that there is a problem here my hope is that this will be

a wake up call that the ministration will straighten out our policy and get us back into a position where we can really sirte our goals rather than the problem in saudi's we incent disastrous outcomes that is the hope of course but in an election year in the midst of a pandemic it's going to be hard to see the whole ships' year but certainly this this narrow recent episode of the patriots is an indicator. should be an indicator the mob events on monday there's not much time left for him to change the way saudi arabia in us in terms of how we activate our our interests in the region gentlemen we must leave it there thank you so much thank you to i guess they were joel rubin mushrooms where he and mohammad marandi and thank you too for your company you can see the program again any time on the website l 20 dot com and for further discussion to check out our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at age 8

inside story or you can tweet me i'm peter will be in one for me and the team here in doha thanks for watching all season. what was described as the world's longest long down cause the largest exodus since the creation of the end appended india and $947.00. experts believe india is still at an early stage of infection but the long down has already created a humanitarian crisis and driven the unemployment rate for 6 to 23 percent and it's also highlighted an equality religious tensions and

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generation has higher promise. hours each day all. i went 100 hours g.m.t. on al-jazeera i'm kemal santa maria and these are the headlines shelling by forces loyal to the libyan warlord khalifa haftar has hit the sole operational airport in tripoli libya noways jet was hits though no one was on board but 3 civilians did die from shelling near the airport in tripoli without the what had reports. of barrage of rockets a strike jet fuel tanks and aircraft at tripoli's international airport the latest attack on civilian infrastructure in the battle for the.