mass demonstrations take place in cairo, with participants demanding the immediate opening of a land crossing between egypt and the gas strip, indicating that there are no safe places left in the gas strip, neither in the center nor in the south of the enclave, and the humanitarian situation is increasingly complicated due to attacks on trucks carrying humanitarian aid. donald trump won the republican elections in iowa.

tell the truth this evening, it is very simple, but we are trying, this truth does not concern our opponents, the democrats, but i am determined the opportunity to tell the truth, this is not always difficult for me, it is very difficult, i admit that in this company i did not achieve all the goals that i set, so i am leaving this game, the program of our channel will continue to be broadcast by the fifth studio and my colleague yuri bogdanov, yuri, welcome to the spotlight today, yes, yes, hello, thank you. today we are discussing two topics in the program. the first is, of course, the news of the last few hours. iranian strikes on targets near the us consulate in iraq. and the second topic will be the results of the elections taiwan, whether they will lead to a large-scale escalation. but let's start with the main news of the last few hours, of course. let me remind you that eight facilities near the us consulate in erbil were attacked by the iranian armed forces. in fact, the islamic revolutionary guard corps reported that the attacks were on...

but no american military personnel or facilities were harmed. we have connections vladimir ovodkov, vladimir alekseevich, hello. good morning, well, is it possible to say that iran has already directly become involved in the escalation? well, americans from the very beginning they tried to involve iran in what was happening in the middle east, where there really is such a serious breakdown in the entire system of international relations, they tried by hook or by crook to involve iran, blaming it for everything that...

happened in iraq, as we remember, as it happened in afghanistan and absolutely no one invited the united states to the middle east, except perhaps israel, the americans themselves.

did not separate russia from europe through illegal sanctions, they believe that they have created this artificial wall, they need this extend the wall further - to the middle east, they did not like the positive trends that russia was implementing, including the creation of an inclusive security system, they did not like these trends at all in the region, they brought this very discord, and in fact the entire region once again i say it’s inflamed, accordingly...

an artificial border, the americans need it like air, because it’s a respite, it’s an opportunity to take a break, and if we look at the map from the american, so to speak, gaze, then after all, america is in center, why

not connect european asia, no matter how paradoxical and expensive it now sounds, through america, then this is a definite chance to preserve it, and for this it is necessary to break all existing chains, i repeat, the chain between... the eu and russia, america, as she believes, has successfully collapsed, although everything is relative, which means the middle east, as now those tankers that went through suet went, they went the southern route, they went through south africa, yes, south africa, going around there, well, this one of the options, there is another option, this is the option through turkey, therefore. the public also needs to be undermined, and if not undermined, then negotiate with it on certain restrictions and rules of the game. well, let's talk about turkey, yes, if there is time, it is indeed an interesting topic and an interesting country in the context of what is happening now in the middle east, let us return to the direct confrontation between iran and

the united states, which we have observed in the last hours. iran, do you think, is ready to join a full-scale conflict and use its armed forces directly in order to... take part in regional in regional confrontation? well, firstly , the americans say that hamas is iran, we understand that hamas is , first of all, supported by qatar and turkey, yet american education does not allow us to understand what the difference is between hezbollah and hamas. well, we understand, we understand.

witnesses of the beginning of the third world war, don’t you agree? we, well, we can say that we are in this third world war, depending on how you look at it, because the system international relations always change as a result of war, respectively, it could be a set of regional conflicts, or it could be a thirty-year war, as was the case in history, either the first world war or the second world war, at this stage it is obvious that we are present at the transformation of the entire system of international relations, another question is that it has never passed peacefully in history.

but now american ships are sinking, now there is an escalation regarding the korean peninsula there, now regarding, so to say, the escalation that began with hamas has spread to the entire region as a whole, patience, strategic patience in most countries of the world is now running out and this is a very dangerous trend from the point of view of the general conflict situation that exists in the world. the conflicts are growing , the main thing is that for some reason the americans think that they can manage these conflicts, although in fact

they couldn’t really manage them before; in the current international political environment, so to speak, it’s practically unrealistic for them. but as do you think the united states may at some point decide to launch a ground operation in yemen or join israel in the gas sector, or is this ruled out, at least until the presidential elections for sure? perhaps, against the backdrop of the presidential elections in the united states, some kind of aspiration may occur, yes, in general, most likely, what we often observed regarding yemen, it was also a very clumsy attempt, so to speak, against the backdrop of the upcoming elections , knock out some points for yourself, because it’s obvious that the ukrainian situation is a failure, the afghan situation is a failure, in general, middle east policy is a failure and we need to score some points against the background of the present.

and most likely, in general, general conflict , an increase in conflict, it is beneficial for the americans , i emphasize this once again, this is a key danger, because the increase in conflict is beneficial for the americans to reboot their system and to reboot the entire system of international relations, while those responsible yes players, responsible powers, russia and countries global south, eastern countries are key protrusions.

as part of the north atlantic alliance, on the other hand, the turkish republic obviously cannot support the policy of the united states in the region, we have seen for days, turkey has been striking at the territory of syria and iraq, this seems to be becoming the norm, although in fact this is a completely inadequate territory of other states, so turkey struck at those groups that it considers terrorist, but these groups are affiliated with. these are kurdish groups, and let's say, moreover, attacks were carried out

on a french plant where objects were located, according to turkey of this group, in fact, turkey is not afraid to challenge either france or the united states in the region, but at the same time it remains a member of nato with all the ensuing obligations and , so to speak, those guidelines that the north atlantic alliance has, but as for. action and the fact that erdogan specifically emphasized that the americans apparently want to turn this red sea into a bloody sea, and that is, this shows the degree of negativity that exists in turkish society regarding the actions of the united states, it’s just another question that turkey

expresses this with restraint and more carefully than it does in relation. but the turkish role is undoubtedly special in the region, firstly, because 100 years ago it was the ottoman empire, which extended including the territory of israel, yes, let me remind you that israel is quite, well, let’s just say jerusalem was ottoman for quite a long time city, and of course, turkey feels some kind of on the one hand, its special responsibility , on the other hand... it feels the special opportunities that arise from this, which it tries to take advantage of, and if you like, this gives rise to certain imperial ambitions, which undoubtedly collide here with the interests and ambitions of both iran and saudi arabia. the americans again want to take advantage of this, they again want to bring discord to the region, while russia

, on the contrary, contributed to the formation of this very inclusive security system, in specifically a triangle. russia, turkey, iran, on solving the syrian problem. americans don't need it. yes, this is actually a very big topic, and here you can recall historical aspects for a long time and, so to speak, discuss possible development scenarios. i think that during our broadcasts, in our programs, we will definitely do this and invite you to this debate. thank you, thank you for answering the question live . let me remind you that vladimir avatkov was in direct communication, now we have time left, let’s move on to the second. topic no less important, in fact, it may not be so acute, but it is also potentially, let’s say, explosive. i’m talking about the elections that took place in taiwan , alexey aleksandrovich maslov joins us, alexey aleksandrovich, hello, tell us how you would comment on the election results, it turns out, yes, that the supporter

of independence, as they call him, won the presidential campaign, and the parliament his competitors, could this speak of some kind of... split in society? and first of all, let me clarify that all presidential candidates or the leaders of taiwan, they all spoke out for independence, the only question was in what degree, to what extent they understand this independence, that’s just the winner, he believes that about no negotiations, about not only unification, even there is no talk of cooperation with mainland china yet; indeed, many of its decisions will most likely be blocked by the legislature, with the parliament, where 113 deputies sit and where the democratic progressive party of taiwan, from which, in fact, light came won, she does not have a majority. the only question is what solutions will he promote? and the majority of taiwanese, and representatives of other parties, are not interested in intensifying this confrontation and, and we are just talking about the fact that taiwan is not

going to completely come under the jurisdiction of the prc, while, for example, economic ties, trade, but not political, uh, here, if any decisions related to the aggravation of the situation are promoted through parliament, it seems to me that parliament will block it, in the most the most optimal situation will be that if it is frozen for some time, because confrontation, real confrontation, including military confrontation, is not needed by either beijing or taipei, so some believe that attempts at peaceful reunification, let’s say, the policy of peaceful reunification with taiwan, which was pursued by beijing, suffered some failure, yes, this is evidenced by the result of such elections. do you agree with this opinion? not completely, because china, the prc, was in no hurry with this peaceful reunification, it never he filmed this thesis in 1949 , he was promoting it, but china never set any exact time frame, so it was only

about moving forward step by step and using the chinese policy, one country, two systems, something like that. as used for hong kong or macau, but indeed, recently the situation has worsened, it has worsened, many connections across the taiwan strait have been interrupted, and it’s just that this unification, it has been postponed, i ’m afraid for decades, but to say that this is a complete collapse, but in general, in fact , no one promised china an easy life in this regard, but what do you think, how will the new leader of taiwan act, will he take any radical steps, declare independence, officially join... some kind of clinch with beijing or will the policy be quite cautious? it all depends on how his main allies - the americans - will set him up. on the one hand, literally today the american president... that the usa is against the independence of taiwan, that is does not support, this is actually a strategic ambiguity. on the other hand, until 27, the united states , by its own decision, can allocate up to

$2 billion annually in the form of grant assistance for the military development of taiwan, that is, constantly warm up this situation, and much will now depend on how serious the united states wants to inflict a blow to the development model of the prc, namely through taiwan. it seems to me that after all. sanity will prevail on both sides, at least i want to believe so, because in any armed conflict in this region, it will not even hit china, not taiwan, it will hit practically the economy and political stability of the whole world, so the best option is to freeze the situation for some time, that is , you think there is no forceful scenario wait - don’t wait in the near future, then you need to look at a number of factors both inside china and outside, and what kind of planning horizon do you have? states political instability, which one way or another

arises in this case, plus the middle east, which we just discussed, it seems, as experts comment, now we could try to resolve the issue with thawing. alas , it’s not so simple, it seems to me, it’s just not taken into account the real situation inside china, and outside china too, because if china is not... provoked, then it would be beneficial for china, on the contrary, to freeze the situation, because support for taiwan may decrease on the part of the united states, the situation inside taiwan may change, because not everyone, to be honest, 60% of taiwanese are against carry out an escalation of interaction with china, in this sense, a beautiful victory for the prc is not a military victory, it is a gradual, so to speak, bringing taiwan within the framework of its jurisdiction. china and something

not extraordinary must happen to solve this, therefore, as they say, there is no need to impose non-chinese views on the chinese leadership. alexandrovich, you mentioned the role of the united states , a delegation of former, yes, former, i think this is important, officials was sent to taib. how willing are they to fight because first i let me remind you that there were those who had not already been there, the famous episode of snancy pelosi, who visited china and taiwan in august 22, but now i think that very long consultations will begin among. former officials of the us state secret service, other departments in order to show that we are ready to support taiwan, but you must do something to prove your

loyalty and friendship. in my opinion, taiwan is simply now being exposed to attack by the united states; this is the tragedy of the island, where almost 24 million people live. in case, after all force scenario, if we assume, fantasize, do you think taiwan has a chance to provide some significant resistance? an island is always difficult, most military experts on both sides of the strait say that this will be a very difficult operation, to say that to resist is certainly yes, to win in this clash is certainly not possible, but one must understand that for the prc this will mean an attack on its own territory, because taiwan is officially a province of the prc, in itself a blow to its territory, to to their own citizens, which is exactly what the residents of taiwan are, will be very... negatively perceived, so i must say again , something extraordinary will happen, well, you need to understand well that the united states is supplying taiwan with various types of weapons, including new weapons, anti

-ship missiles and so on, but we must understand that the united states itself is unlikely to physically interfere in this situation, and taiwan may be left alone, because for the united states, as we just heard the statement, taiwan is still not independent state, and trade blocs? is it possible or any at all? yes, it has already been partially carried out as such an experiment and it is possible both partially and completely and completely, and first of all it is the delivery to taiwan of the necessary amount of cargo for the production of microchips, for example sand , which is supplied from the territory of the prc, but one must understand that the blockade means not only a blockade of taiwan, it also means a blockade of other countries from taiwan, that is, taiwanese microchips, other products, for example, machine tools, they will not be able to be supplied. not to europe, not to the usa, and i think that this will hit not only taiwan, but many other countries, yes, indeed, this is one of the options that, apparently, is being considered by the prc in

all seriousness. alexey alexandrevich , i thank you for your interesting comments , thank you for taking the time, answering the question live, let me remind you, we discussed the election results in taiwan, we are closely following this topic too, we will return to it on our broadcast, i thank everyone for your attention to the broadcast, let me remind you that this was a program from the fifth studio.

iran launched strikes on syria and iraq. in erbil , eight targets near the us consulate were attacked. what is known about the consequences and how did they react in washington? assault on ukrainian armed forces strongholds in the kupinsky and zaporozhye directions. ukrainian soldiers leave their positions and surrender. from the front line. report by igor pikhanov. with a margin of 30%. donald trump maintains a landslide victory in the first

republican caucuses in iowa. vive koroma with you leaves the fight and declares his support for donald trump. lost control and fell right on the highway. a plane fighting forest fires crashed in chile. the footage was captured by passing motorists. at the beginning, new data on the progress of the special operation. in the krasno-liman direction, fighters from the center group of forces destroyed artillery pieces. apu. they also destroyed the supply and unloading point for ammunition, which was found with a drone. our assault groups are actively working in this area. reconnaissance helps to identify hidden enemy strongholds. fire support is provided tankers. about actions on the line of combat contact.