Al Jazeera World

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, also known as MINUSMA, faces unprecedented challenges. Now in its sixth year, it is caught in the middle of an unfolding spiral of violence that is moving closer to the capital and that has already been spreading to neighbouring countries. The initial violence took off shortly after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya in 2011. Armed groups and weapons entered Mali from the north, intersecting with already existing tensions between groups of different ethnic and religious belonging. The conflict has since changed and spread - now overtaking parts of central Mali. "The international community needs to be more interested in what is happening in Mali," Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the special representative of the UN secretary-general and head of MINUSMA, tells Al Jazeera. "We say we have wiped out the Islamic State in Iraq, in Syria. Do people ask the question where these people are going?" asks Annadif. "There is a breeze going towards the Sahel." As the president of Mali used to say: Mali for the moment is a dam, if it gives in, it risks invading the rest of Africa as well as Europe. Mahamat Saleh Annadif, Head of MINUSMA, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali Armed groups such as ISIL and al-Qaeda are gaining strength in Mali. New armed groups have entered the fray, some taking advantage of longstanding pastoral and inter-communal tensions, causing deadly violence to escalate between the Fulani and Dogon communities. "Inter-communal conflict has always existed. It is part of the society. But in the past, there were the traditional mechanisms ... to manage this conflict," says Annadif. "The terrorists came, they chased out all these people ... Today the majority of the religious leaders of these customary chiefs are in the big cities in the capitals and they [armed groups] have taken hostages of these communities." Annadif says the international community must "pool our resources" and do more to stem the rising tide of violence in the Sahel. He warns that a failure to do so would have wide-reaching effects. "As the president of Mali used to say: Mali for the moment is a dam, if it gives in, it risks invading the rest of Africa as well as Europe," he says. "The Sahel is becoming an open military arsenal. There are more than 60 million weapons circulating in the Sahel. If the Europeans and the other powers are not stopping it, it is there in the Sahel, that's what will obviously contaminate Europe and contaminate the rest of the world." According to Annadif, the crisis is complex and while the Malian army is in the process of reconstituting itself, it has suffered a shock and needs to be supported. "The day we help the Malian security forces to redeploy to the territories, these terrorists will have no place, it will be like when they fled Iraq, like they fled Syria, like fleeing Libya. They will flee to some other place," he says. "That's why it is extremely important for the international community to stand together and take seriously what is happening in Mali, which is contaminating the entire Sahel." He believes the 2015 peace accord signed between the Malian government and some armed groups is the best way for the country to achieve peace, even though he admits there have been some delays in its implementation. "The agreement for peace and reconciliation has no alternative," he says. "Today it is the only tool that exists to help Malians make peace. But we need to push Malians to accelerate the pace of its implementation." The UN secretary-general has called on MINUSMA to change its priority, focusing on the 2015 peace agreement and helping the state to re-establish its control over the centre of the country. But MINUSMA also faces challenges unlike other peacekeeping missions: it costs $1bn and is currently the deadliest mission in peacekeeping history - with nearly 200 soldiers killed since 2013. Some UN peacekeepers are now also leaving, including those from the Netherlands who are set to withdraw. "I dare to hope that this presence of the MINUSMA is only temporary, that it will be as short as possible and that the Malians can find this national consensus, that they can restructure their army and they can take control of their destiny," Annadif says. "We still need the United Nations. Peace missions are still needed, but peace missions alone can not do." - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

When is an air crash a planned suicide mission and when is it the result of a disastrous technical fault? On the morning of October 31, 1999, the EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767, left John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport for Cairo. Soon after take-off, it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 217 passengers. Nearly two decades on, the question that still has not been convincingly answered is 'why'?. The initial US investigation blamed the co-pilot and concluded the crash was "as a result of the relief first officer's flight control inputs", adding that the reason for his actions "was not determined". But today the evidence behind this conclusion looks far from convincing, as this Al Jazeera World investigation exposes. In 1999, the Egyptian government handed over the task of investigating the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States, a Washington-based organisation charged with investigating transportation accidents, including air crashes. Philip Riddell, an aerospace engineer and pilot with more than 50 years of experience, told Al Jazeera that the NTSB investigation was problematic. "I thought the NTSB report was flawed in a number of areas. They kind of jumped on the conclusion that the handling pilot was mishandling the aircraft with a finger pointed at suicide," Riddell said, adding that the agency may have "neglected to look at other relevant evidence that was found". The crash happened at a time of growing apprehension in the US about so-called "terrorism" and the appointed US investigation firmly concluded the co-pilot was responsible for bringing the plane down. That conclusion was based on audio on the Cockpit Voice Recorder, where the relief First Officer, Gameel al-Batouti, is heard calling on God as he tries to correct the 767 from its sudden sharp descent. The NTSB investigation interpreted this as the final prayer of a man intent on suicide and mass murder, rather than a man begging for divine intervention to save the aircraft. While the NTSB refused to speak to Al Jazeera, its chairman at the time of the accident, Jim Hall, agreed to be interviewed for this documentary. "We were asked to take this investigation to begin with. We did it … and a good job was done by the investigators. The NTSB has a worldwide reputation for factual investigations and where we have problems with staff in terms of workload, we just extend the time for the investigation," Hall said. Egypt issued a furious rebuttal of the US report and the FBI and other US agencies also later cast doubt on its conclusions. Over the years these doubts persisted - but it was only some 14 years later, in 2014, when the US aviation authorities demanded a technical change to all Boeing 767s, that these suspicions ramped up. Al Jazeera's Neil Cairns conducted an in-depth examination of inconsistencies within the NTSB report - starting with evidence of technical problems reported with the same Boeing 767 plane that had emerged the day before the crash. In 2000, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued airworthiness directives for urgent relevant checks to be made on all 767s. It took another 14 years for the FAA to issue fresh directives which pointed to a technical problem with this model of aircraft. After the 2014 directives, Boeing made changes to its own systems. "Consequently Boeing actually bought out a completely new system to replace the bellcrank system," Riddell explained. American accident investigator Pat Diggins makes a key point about the influence of manufacturers on federal agencies. "The manufacturer, the larger it is, the larger the arms and the reaches are to it. I mean … if you look at Boeing, look at how far-reaching their capabilities are to … They have more government solicitors in Washington DC that help them get their products approved. The majority of their company sells to the United States government," said Diggins. The Boeing 737 Max 8 jet crashes in Jakarta in 2018 and Addis Ababa in 2019 have resulted in investigations into this model of aircraft. Boeing has already conceded mistakes were made in launching this model. But there have been no such concessions from anyone regarding Flight 990, and after nearly 20 years, there is no resolution for the bereaved families, not least that of First Officer Gameel al-Batouti. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

It's been two years since Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS) ascended to power. Many consider him to be the kingdom's de facto ruler. A lot of people in the West had pinned their hopes on the young reformist prince and what they described as his bold vision for Saudi Arabia. But with the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the persecution of activists and feminists, and the jailing of human rights defenders, including Saudi Muslim leader Salman al-Awdah, many find his leadership decisions concerning. "The promise was to reform the social fabric in Saudi Arabia, was to diversify the Saudi economy and to promote moderate Islam," says Abdullah Alaoudh, a scholar, rights advocate and the son of al-Awdah. "What has been done is actually the opposite of all these three different aspects," he tells Al Jazeera. Alaoudh, a senior fellow at Georgetown University in the US, is sceptical of what he calls MBS's "superficial reforms" in Saudi Arabia, including lifting a driving ban on women, because this has happened in the midst of other basic rights and liberties being taken away. He says the reforms are akin to a "PR campaign" for MBS who "took advantage of a lot of people in the West not knowing the dynamics of the Saudi society". "[MBS has] attacked the moderate voices of the kingdom; the voices that have been spearheading the campaign against extremism, terrorism in the kingdom," Alaoudh says. "Look at the liberals, the feminists, the Shia, the Sunni, the Islamists, the different women, men. The leaders of all these segments of Saudi society all have been either put in jail, silenced, intimidated or threatened in one way or another. Even the tribal leaders in Saudi Arabia. Even his own family." Alaoudh calls the murder of Khashoggi "horrible" but says it was also a "wake-up call" for the Saudi public, the international community and global media. "The case of Khashoggi is actually representative of the human rights cases in Saudi Arabia ... The same minds that treated Jamal Khashoggi with brutality, with a gruesome killing, are still torturing women human rights defenders, feminists, the moderate Muslims, and the economists in Saudi Arabia." Alaoudh says he remains concerned for his own safety and the safety of his father, who was arrested after sending out a tweet - an apparent call for reconciliation - at the start of the Saudi blockade on Qatar in 2017. Calling his father a "religious democrat" and "an icon of enlightenment, of moderate Islam", Alaoudh says these are the types of discourse MBS seeks to clamp down on because he fears it the most. Asked whether he believes that his father's death penalty would be executed, Alaoudh says: "Did we ever think that those who were sent to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul will execute that horrible, gruesome killing of my friend Jamal Khashoggi? If those who killed Jamal Khashoggi were just rogue operatives, the head of that rogue operation, is it still in force? Is it still administering and managing the situation in Saudi Arabia? So I really can't expect anything." Alaoudh says his larger fear is for the future of his country, where extreme voices have been empowered while those seeking to uphold basic rights and liberties are targeted or tortured or killed. "My father is the most popular figure in the kingdom and he was treated like that. So just imagine those who are less known or even not known to the public or to the international media, what would they do? How would they treat such people?" But he says there is more to the country than those who control it today. "MBS is not Saudi Arabia. MBS is not the history of Saudi Arabia. MBS is not his own royal family and MBS is not the Saudi public," he says. "So if you [the West] want to really establish a real alliance with Saudi Arabia, if you want to make sure that you have a stable relationship, if you want to have a long term alliance, you have to establish that with the Saudi public who will be there forever." -- More from Talk To Al Jazeera on: YouTube - http://aje.io/ttajYT Facebook - http://facebook.com/talktoaj Twitter - http://twitter.com/talktoaljazeera Website - http://www.aljazeera.com/talktojazeera/ - - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

"Protecting a library is not an easy task," says Mustafa Jahic, "especially during wartime." It was 1992, the siege of Sarajevo had begun, and Jahic - then the director of the Gazi Husrev-Beg public library - had in his care a priceless, ancient collection of hand-written books and illuminated manuscripts. "The Gazi Husrev-Beg library contains the memories of all the generations of the last 1,000 years. More than 100,000 items. Everything from manuscripts to printed books," says Osman Lavic, the library's keeper of manuscripts. "Some were written by Arabs, perhaps in Fez or Baghdad, and then rewritten by a Turk living in the Caucasian Republic and then purchased by Bosnians. So if you followed the trail of the books you’d see the beauty in their diversity, their multi-ethnic and multicultural nature," he says. But when the city was attacked by the Serbian army, the preservation of books and manuscripts became the least of peoples' problems. Bosnia's National Library was shelled and burned to the ground, its entire contents destroyed. "The culture of our people, the identity, the history of Bosnia, for centuries in one place. And suddenly it was being swallowed by the fire and the flames," says firefighter Ismet Tucak, who responded to the blaze at the National Library. Fearing the Gazi Husrev-Beg library would be attacked next, Jahic's staff took the momentous decision to move their most precious works to safety. Dodging Serbian snipers and street violence, the small band of book-lovers - including the cleaner and the Congolese nightwatchman - moved the manuscripts, one box at a time, to preserve a valuable part of their written history. "As we were carrying the boxes, Sarajevo was under shell fire," cleaner Dzehva Dudo recalls. "We were running from one building to another." Jahic remembers the team working "discretely, without much talking". "The conditions of war are very special. You have to take decisions at every moment. You improvise," he says. In a brave act of collective personal defiance and self-sacrifice, the library staff risked their lives to rescue over 10,000 precious books and manuscripts while the Bosnian War raged around them. "It would have been better to die together with the books than to live without them," says Abbas Lutumba Husein, who was the night-watchman at the time. The others agree. "The books are as important as people," Dudo says. "They are the most important things in the city of Sarajevo." - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

US President Donald Trump's "deal of the century" - his administration's proposal for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - kicked into gear in Manama, Bahrain this week as officials from the region gathered for the so-called 'Peace to Prosperity' workshop. Already, sceptics are voicing concern, saying the American side is using money to bribe the Palestinians. The initial economic stage of the deal hopes to drum up $50bn in investment, money that primarily is expected to come from other Arab nations, principally in the Gulf. Participants of the Manama meeting will discuss projects and conditions for investments in more detail. Then, based on the outcome of this meeting, the next step would be to fashion a political settlement that would translate financial commitments into reality on the ground in Palestine. However, Palestinians have derided the plan as an "economy first" approach that is doomed to fail. The Palestinian Authority is arguing for a reverse order: a political settlement first, money later - an approach that would tackle the difficult questions of establishing a Palestinians state, end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, and allow refugees to return. Palestinian leaders boycotted the June 25 and 26 meeting, saying the gathering circumvents a political settlement based on a two-state solution, and is an ill-fated attempt by the US administration to "liquidate" the Palestinian cause. However, the senior adviser to the US president and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner - who has been tasked with leading the process - told Al Jazeera the reaction was "fairly predictable". He said believed the event would be a success despite the boycott, citing the presence of delegates from regional countries and a large number of international investors. "What [the Palestinian leadership] have been saying is a lot of hot rhetoric about rejecting everything before they even see it, which is, in my opinion, not a very responsible position." When questioned why the proposal did not want to settle some of the political questions that could stave off conflict before it pours money into infrastructure, Kushner said: "that's been the traditional thinking, and that has not worked". "The president is not a traditional politician. He wants to do things in a different way. If we can get people through this process to look at this problem differently, to see what the future could be, then I think that could be a very very successful thing." Outlining the Trump administration's "different" approach, he said: "What we have tried to do is help people identify what a future could look like. And hopefully we get people to all agree ... and then we get people to look at, maybe, let's commit to the future in the event that there is a peace agreement. Perhaps that will create a different condition through which people can then approach some of these political issues that have been unresolvable for a very long time." Kushner called the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative "a great effort" but said it is not possible to solve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a deal along those lines. "I think we all have to recognise that if there ever is a deal, it's not going to be along the lines of the Arab peace initiative. It will be somewhere between the Arab peace initiative and somewhere between the Israeli position," he said. He also defended Trump's 2017 decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying: "Israel is a sovereign nation; a sovereign nation has the right to determine where their capital is and America has the right to recognise the decision". He said the relocation of the embassy should not affect final-status negotiations with the Palestinians. Kushner said that on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides, there are voices who accuse the other of having no interest in peace. But he added that peace needs to come from compromise and negotiation. "If we want to find a pathway forward, it means that both sides need to find a place where they both feel that they can gain more than they give, and move forward and have the opportunities to live better lives," he said. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Albania was hoping to be asked to start European Union membership talks this month but that now seems unlikely to happen. EU leaders want to see a country with stable democratic institutions, but in the past week, President Ilir Meta has cancelled local elections that were scheduled for the end of the month because the opposition Democratic Party refuses to take part in them. Making matters worse, the ruling Socialist Party has questioned Meta's constitutional authority to change the date. There is no constitutional court to rule on the matter, because its judges' finances are being investigated and they are suspended. So Albania presents a picture of anything but a stable democratic state, which is a precondition of EU membership. Meta says it will harm the chances of joining the EU if left unchanged. "If the crisis is going to last, the chances will be undermined for years, not for months. This is clear," he told Al Jazeera, saying that the country's ability to demonstrate that it can hold free and fair elections will be the determining factor. "If we do not show normality and progress now related to the future of general local elections, it will be a disaster." He defends his decision to cancel elections scheduled for June 30, and says it can help bring all parties to the table. "I am sure I have done the best to avoid this fuller escalation of the conflict between the government and the opposition and to give to both sides the possibility to calm down, to reflect, and to enter soon in the local [elections] for the best interests of all Albanians."

Albania's overarching national goal is to join the European Union. But Prime Minister Edi Rama does not think the country is ready for membership, partly because its political institutions are seen as underdeveloped. That has been on display in the past week as political parties have disagreed on when to hold nationwide local elections. They were scheduled for June 30, but the opposition Democratic Party now wants that date pushed back and has not fielded mayoral candidates. The ruling Socialists of Edi Rama want to proceed regardless with the candidates they have registered. The deadlock is part of a growing political crisis; in February, the opposition Democratic Party withdrew from parliament and supporters took to organising in the streets. Weeks of anti-government protests have called for Rama to step down, accusing him of corruption and election fraud, and early elections. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Rama said that changing the election date would, in fact, undermine Albania's democracy. President Ilir Meta had cancelled the elections, stating that current conditions do not allow for a fair and inclusive process and would undermine accession talks with the EU. "It's not what Albania deserves and it's not what the future is about. Because if we set a precedent that a party, two parties, three parties, one side, decide to impose the disruption and election terms can be decided upon disruption then we will have it for many years to come," Rama said. "In the end, elections are not made for the politicians to decide, it's made for the people to decide about the politicians ... Escaping this judgement or transforming this very basic element of our democratic life, it means going in a direction which is not our future, it's a past." Still, the deadlock has added to scepticism in the EU about whether Albania is ready to join it. A 2019 European Commission report states that Albania has made important reforms but still must work to address issues such as corruption and organised crime. It says corruption is still "prevalent in many areas and remains an issue of concern". Rama acknowledges the problem. "I think Albania has a problem with organised crime and corruption as every country that is not yet a modern, functioning state. That's why we are in this process, that's why we are not members of EU, or that's why I am not pretending that it's an injustice that we are not members today. We need to prepare, we need to modernise, and fighting corruption and fighting organised crime is about very strong will, but it's about very strong institutions and very strong mechanisms and functioning in every direction," he said. He says there is a lot of work to be done. "If I turn my head five years and a half ago and I see from where we come, we have done impressively. But if I see forward, where we want to go and where I am to bring the country, there is much more to do." He maintains that if accession talks are successful, both Albania and the EU will benefit. "Albania and the western Balkans are surrounded by EU borders so we are somehow an organ of a body that is dragging out of the body, but is not simply fading away but it is there. So the choice is very simple; let this organ bleed and create troubles to the whole body ... or help this organ to integrate and help the body to get the organ in," he said. "So it's not about enlargement, it's about completion, it's about a very important piece of the puzzle .... [It is] an area ... within the European Union that should not be left as an open space for other actors that may not be very keen to see the European Union progress and prosper."

Libya has been mired in conflict and violence since the country's 2011 civil war that toppled and later killed longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The oil-rich nation is now divided, with a UN-recognised but weak administration in the capital Tripoli overseeing the country's west and a rival government in the east aligned with the self-declared Libyan National Army led by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar. Libyan MP and former foreign minister Aly Abuzaakouk and Haftar lived in exile in the US "for many years together as acquaintances, as friends ... in Fairfax", and also knew Gaddafi during his school days. They'd both "suffered from the ruthless regime" of Gaddafi. But after Hafter went back to Libya and "started to build his own entourage", Abuzaakouk "realised this is not a person I would continue to have a relationship with ... He is a man who believes he is worthy of controlling Libya and he always would speak about the need for a strong force to control Libya." In April, Haftar launched a military offensive against the government in Tripoli and vowed to fight until Tripoli 'militias' were defeated. But according to Abuzaakouk, Haftar's "base of support in the east is not as it used to be". In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said that opposition to Haftar has grown after the assault on Tripoli, with tribes now openly opposing him and "calling for reconciliation with the rest of the country". "Many forces have come together ... to support Tripoli, and the militia in Tripoli also defended their city ... They stopped the forces of Haftar and now they are hitting them back," he added. But while support for Haftar might be waning inside Libya, he still has strong backers outside the country, says Abuzaakouk. "The former president of Tunisia spoke about the axis of evil. Abu Dhabi, the Saudis and the Egyptians ... This axis of evil has a mandate to work against the success of the Arab Spring," he said. "I think the international community have to realise they have supported Haftar with weapons against the United Nations Security Council resolutions. Everybody knows ... that there are arms coming from … at least Abu Dhabi and Egypt to Mr Haftar." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently appealed to all countries to enforce the arms embargo against Libya saying the issue is "of immediate importance in de-escalating the current situation" and "of critical importance to the protection of civilians and the restoration of security and stability in Libya and the region". As Libya's ongoing crisis is still being deliberated in the international community, Abuzaakouk believes that the world at large failed the once wealthy African nation. "Getting rid of Gaddafi was step number one. Building Libya to really restructure itself was step number two and the world community at large left Libya alone and that, I think, was a great mistake." "Life in Benghazi and in Derna is unbearable, it's worse than the days of Gaddafi. There's no freedom of speech, there's no freedom of law, there are a lot of killings, extrajudicial killings ... I'm very clear that the war crimes committed by Haftar or others should be investigated," said Abuzaakouk. "There are now forces in Washington, in The Hague to really follow up on the war crimes that have been committed in Libya … the Libyans deserve to have some of the criminals be brought to justice.” - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, among others, are platforms enabling free expression of information and ideas, but they are also increasingly used to spread fake news and hate speech - making serious public policy discussions more difficult and thereby undermining democracies. What is the state of freedom of speech around the world? Is democracy under threat from all the misinformation and manipulation? And how do you police the internet without censorship and restricting freedom of expression? David Kaye, the UN special rapporteur for freedom of expression, is an independent expert who is tasked by the UN Human Rights Council to report and monitor on the freedom of expression globally - including on the internet and social media. "The problem that we see all around the world today is that governments are increasingly interfering with all sorts of human rights, but in terms of my mandate, they are interfering increasingly with everyone's right to freedom of expression and this is unfortunately a global phenomenon," he told Al Jazeera. Since 2014, when Kaye started his role, he has seen the state of freedom of expression going backwards. "We have seen increasing efforts by political leaders, by governments to restrict the kind of robust debate that we expect in democratic societies. We see an increasing concentration of media controlled by the state, it's been deeply problematic over the last couple of years." While the US has traditionally played a role in advocating for freedom of expression, US President Donald Trump may be sending a different message. "When you have a president who attacks the media on a regular basis, where he calls the media 'the enemy of the people' which I think he does for strategic purposes to sow doubt in the people's opinion about media and in the truthfulness of traditional reporting, I think that's deeply problematic," Kaye said, adding, "the rhetoric gives some comfort to authoritarians." While Kaye says some societies - like North Korea - are "closed", others may have journalists targeted for their words. The brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on October 2, 2018, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, has led to a demand for accountability and transparency. US intelligence agencies have concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also referred to as MBS, ordered the murder of Khashoggi - a conclusion the Saudi kingdom denies. Kaye says there is a broader issue of inaction in the face of Khashoggi's murder. "There's been no effort in the UN system by states to seek to censure Saudi Arabia, except in one instance led by Iceland actually in the Human Rights Council. Except for that, in an informal way, there's been very little censure of Saudi Arabia for its role in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and I think that is frankly a travesty," he said. "All of the threads lead back to the crown prince. He is responsible, I think that seems pretty clear. Whether it amounts to criminal culpability, I think is a question I would really like to see handled by the structures of the UN system." The UN determined that the ability to use Facebook was one of the motivators for people to incite violence against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017. "Facebook really did not do anything in the face of that incitement of violence even though that was inconsistent with its own rules for participating in the service," Kaye said. Facebook acknowledged it wasn't doing enough to prevent the incitement of violence against the Rohingya community and created additional rules to address the issue, but Kaye noted in many instances it is a real question whether companies are consistently enforcing these rules. "The major problem here is that we don't know because they are not transparent about their implementations of their rules." Kaye said government regulation to ensure transparency may be a solution but the other issue is policing the internet without censorship. According to Kaye, the internet itself has changed and it is no longer a place where you can discover a whole world of information without any restrictions. "It was very difficult for governments to impose restrictions. But that internet is gone," he said. "The internet in the last 15 years has made censorship easier, rather than allow us to reach what we had expected at some level, which might have been a naive expectation of a nirvana of free speech online." - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

Natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean is a highly-prized commodity. In 1999, geological surveys revealed that there were natural gas fields off the coast of Gaza. But through a series of poor decisions, questionable leadership and regional geopolitics, the so-called Gaza Marine gas field has lain dormant for 20 years. So why has Gaza's gas not been exploited for decades? And why has such a major story received relatively little media attention? While making this film, Al Jazeera obtained exclusive documents revealing correspondence between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and other bodies involved in the negotiations. When mineral engineers first told Yasser Arafat about the potential gas resources off Gaza, he proclaimed it "a gift from God to the Palestinian people". The geological surveys suggested that this gas was good quality, of real value, and within easy reach of Gaza's coastline. It was seen by many as a way for Palestinians to achieve energy independence and perhaps a little sovereignty. "If our gas and oil are produced properly, Palestine in general and Gaza, in particular, won't need international aid anymore," says Yousef al-Mansi, a former Palestinian minister. But the PA seemed strangely hesitant right from the start. Added to that, a non-competitive contract with British Gas in 1999 gave Palestinians a minor share of potential gas revenues. Later, Israel - an obvious market - blocked a deal with British Gas in 2003, while Egypt began selling gas to Israel, commandeering what would have been Gaza Marine's share of the market. What's more, a veil of secrecy surrounds the deal-making. "For 20 years, the PA continued to hide facts and refused to answer questions asked by several parties around the world," says economic analyst Rami Abdo. No one at the PA would talk to Al Jazeera about the deal, while political divisions within the governing authority have weakened its ability to exploit a potentially life-changing resource. "Look at the rest of the region," says Dania Akkad, a senior editor at Middle East Eye. "They’ve all discovered gas and they’re all now thinking they’re going to be the next wealthy rich-in-gas countries. Meanwhile, people in Gaza just sit with the gas out in the ocean." "It's exactly as if you were somebody who didn’t have any food to eat and you had a feast put in front of you and you were told you were not able to eat this feast," she says. As the blockade of Gaza continues, its people spend half their lives in darkness in a perpetual energy crisis, while the answer to many of their economic problems lies below the seabed a few kilometres away. "The Palestinians in Gaza right now are energy dependent," Akkad says. "Meanwhile, off their coast, they have gas that could make them energy rich." There are now at least eight gas fields which experts say international maritime law gives the Palestinians the right to exploit - if only they were allowed. All this time, Israel's first gas field right next to Gaza Marine, called Leviathan, is due to come on stream later in 2019. The PA once contemplated buying Israeli gas from Leviathan. Although the deal was stopped, the irony of it sums up the PA’s two decades of failure to tap into Gaza Marine - while Israel's continued efforts ensure they may never succeed. - More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

For a group of alienated young Afghan refugees in Iran, football proves a powerful force that gives them a much-needed boost in pride, identity and self-worth. They call their team 'Wahdat' meaning 'unity' and assemble a talented and determined squad. They overcome all the odds to form a team, obtain sponsorship and enter one of the Iranian futsal, five-a-side competitions played in evenings after iftar during Ramadan. They not only make it through the early rounds but go on to win the final and lift the Ramadan Cup. But this is about more than football. It's about young men trying to rise above their circumstances and their daily struggle to survive - and succeeding. Afghans have been seeking refuge in Iran since the 1970s but they and their families are largely unregistered. Although they can go to school, they cannot attend university, or work as civil servants or in most white-collar jobs. So they're limited to manual work, often in construction. "I want a better job but I'm still grateful for this one. There are many people without jobs," says Reza Ghaljayi, a Wahdat player working as a building labourer. "Companies don't hire us ... We work for one day, then nothing for four days," says street trader and Wahdat team supervisor Dastagir Barik Zehi. Many young Afghans do not feel welcome in shopping malls or places of entertainment and claim widespread discrimination. "You get attached to the place where you're born. I was born, studied, married and grew up here. But, unfortunately, I don't have a residence permit or an ID," says another footballer, Mojtaba Haji Hosseini. For many, football is their only social outlet and can be their salvation. "Only football motivates us to live. If there was no football, I don't know what we'd do or where we'd go," says Reza. The Wahdat team is strong. One of them once played for Afghanistan Under-20s. But the last time they took part in a Ramadan tournament two years ago, there was violence on and off the pitch, blacklisting them in their hometown. It takes all captain Nasir Zouri's organisational powers to get them into a competition in another town - and find a sponsor prepared to back them. That would normally just involve funding, but here it also means having enough influence to ensure the players' welfare and safety during the tournament. Afghan United is a touching and rarely-told story about a disadvantaged community, but with a positive, life-affirming outcome - in the footballing sense, at least. - More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe - - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/

In Lebanon, there are thousands of stateless people like the Abu Eid tribe. They cannot access free public services like education and healthcare, have no freedom of movement, cannot own property, marry or work legally because of their lack of legal status. They can’t vote or run for public office. One of Lebanon’s many political challenges is overdue reform of its citizenship laws, to address the problems faced by its many vulnerable communities. Not doing so might cause more problems than it solves.

Just a few months after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, another Arab dissident says his life is also in danger. Iyad el-Baghdadi is a pro-democracy activist and strong critic of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The UK's Guardian newspaper reported that Norwegian officials took him from his home in Oslo to a secure location. There, he was told the CIA had warned Norway's government the Saudis had him "in their crosshairs". El-Baghdadi gained popularity during the Arab Spring when he posted pro-human rights messages on social media. The Palestinian activist was granted asylum in Norway four years ago after being expelled from the United Arab Emirates for criticising Middle Eastern regimes. In an exclusive interview, Iyad el-Baghdadi discusses an unlikely friendship with the murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and how continuing Khashoggi's work has made him a target of the Saudi government.

In 2014, a group of Yemeni men sold their kidneys in Egypt for $5,000 each. But that was a tiny cut of the profit. The big bucks went to two unlikely members of the international organ trafficking network. Take 15 mins to watch and find out more: #AlJazeeraEnglish #Yemen #AJInvestigations

Iran's foreign minister discusses US sanctions, foreign intervention in the region, and his past resignation attempt. In July 2015, after more than a decade of on-and-off negotiations, world powers reached a nuclear deal with Iran. Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of enriched uranium and reduce centrifuges. In return, all UN Security Council and multilateral sanctions were lifted. But not everyone was happy with the deal, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the deal was a "stunning historic mistake", as well as US Republican presidential candidates at the time. The campaign against the Iran nuclear deal succeeded when Donald Trump moved into the White House. The US withdrew from the deal in 2018, and announced that it would reimpose sanctions on Iran. Certainly, Iran does not want confrontation and escalation but we have not lived 7,000 years by escaping from those who want to bully us. Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's minister of foreign affairs Iran insisted it would remain in the nuclear deal and so did other signatories such as France, Germany, and the UK. But tensions between the US and Iran have escalated; the US recent classified Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as "terrorists", and Iran responded in turn, labelling US troops in the Middle East as "terrorists". Unilateral sanctions have also affected Iran's economy, and the US recently tightened them by ending sanction waivers for countries buying oil from Iran, threatening Iran's already struggling economy, whose oil production has decreased from 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2017 to as little as 1.3 million bpd. In response, Iranian leaders have threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a major thoroughfare for oil shipments, but their economy remains vulnerable. The country's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, says the US sanctions are "economic terrorism". "They want to put pressure on the Iranian people in order to change their policy. That is the way the United States has acted for 40 years and, particularly since President Trump came to office, it violated a commitment by another US president, President Obama," he told Al Jazeera. He said that the sanctions won't have any "political effect" and that Iran has developed various schemes with partnering countries to help protect themselves. "One of them will be in the long run to the detriment of the United States and I think that is becoming increasingly popular and that is not to use dollars for your transactions. Second is an instrument that we are developing with the Europeans, we have already developed with our neighbours and we have developed them with the Chinese and that is not to engage in transfer of money across the borders which is where the United States would step in and will try to twist the arms of people who are engaged in it, illegally and unlawfully." According to Zarif, the US has been swayed by foreign interests. "I believe the United States is not serving US interests. More than the United States, it is serving Israeli interests. And unfortunately, there are a couple of people in our region who have aligned themselves with Israeli interests," he said, listing the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed. "So this is a cabal ... who are pushing the United States and President Trump into conflict and into disastrous situations and they will be the first to suffer the consequences, unfortunately." Iran has also been accused of destabilising the region, and criticised for its involvement in countries like Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. The US recently accused Iran-backed militias of killing more than 600 of its soldiers during the Iraq war, which Zarif says is a "baseless lie", stating that Iran's priority is stability in the region. - Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/